The Wonders of Corn

Excerpt from "The Wonders of Corn," Awake! magazine:

UNTIL recent years Harlin was a corn farmer in the Finger Lakes region of New York, in the United States. He always took delight in explaining to friends and visitors some of the wonders of corn, also called maize. Awake! invited Harlin to share some of his knowledge with our readers. We will also look at other aspects of this amazing plant.

The Plant “Talks” to You
“To me, corn is a work of both art and brilliant mathematics. From the leaves to the individual kernels on the cob, everything is arranged in an aesthetically pleasing and precise pattern. What is more, as the plant grows, it ‘talks’ to you. It tells you if it’s thirsty or malnourished. A human baby cries when it needs something. A growing corn plant, like many other plants, gives visual signals, such as leaf color and shape, to convey its needs. The secret is to understand those signs.

“Leaves with a reddish-purple color may indicate a lack of phosphate. Other symptoms may indicate a lack of magnesium, nitrogen, or potash. A farmer can also tell by sight if his corn has a disease or has been harmed by chemicals.

“Each corn plant has both male and female characteristics. The spindly growth protruding from the top of the plant is the male part, the tassel. Each tassel has about 6,000 flowering buds, or anthers. These release millions of grains of pollen per plant. Carried by the wind, the pollen fertilizes the ova, or eggs, inside the undeveloped ears of nearby plants. The eggs are safely hidden inside the husk.

“How does pollen get past the protective husk to the eggs? You might say it takes a silk road. The silks are the soft, whitish fibers that dangle from the tip of an unpeeled ear, or spike, of corn. Each ear has hundreds of them. If you trace an individual silk to its source, you will come to an ovule (ovary), which houses the egg. One silk, one egg. Each egg, in turn, produces one kernel of corn.

“Missing kernels are an indication that some silks were not pollinated, perhaps because they failed to grow in time. Dry soil can cause that. Once again, if a farmer knows the symptoms, he can usually do something to correct the problem and improve his yield—if not for the present crop, at least for the next one. Something I did to improve my crops was to plant corn one year and soybeans the next. Soybeans are a legume that adds nitrogen to the soil and that the corn borer—a destructive caterpillar—cannot eat.

“It always gives me great pleasure to see a bare field gradually turn green and then produce an abundance of food—and all this quietly, cleanly, and beautifully. I am truly convinced that corn—like all plants—is a wonder of creation. And what I have learned barely scratches the surface.”

Have Harlin’s comments piqued your curiosity about other aspects of this amazing plant?

Corn has countless uses. The grain or its derivatives can be found in anything from adhesives to mayonnaise and from beer to paper diapers. Corn has even found a niche in the fuel industry—albeit a controversial one—in the production of ethanol. To be sure, the story of this amazing and versatile plant is still being written.

Awake! magazine, August 2008