From children's amusement to profitable cash crop, the popping varieties of corn quickly covered the distance. Insofar as popped corn has been a valued food for thousands of years it is interesting to see the entrepreneurial newcomers to North America took awhile to see the possibilities. Once they did, however, popcorn started its climb to where the Chicago-based Popcorn Board, created by an act of Congress in 1996, expects to spend nearly a half-million dollars on international promotion.
"Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain... said that month on the Senate floor that subsidies to the popcorn industry could total $91 million over the next 10 years, and he argued that federal crop-insurance programs shouldn’t protect popcorn. Noting that the price of popcorn had risen 40 percent in recent years, thanks to Congress’ backing of ethanol and new free-trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea, he said: “There isn’t a kernel of evidence that they need this support from taxpayers.”"
Backing up from the current popitics to the "early" days of popping corn to amuse kids over long winter days, here are some articles and images I gathered.
By W. Webb
"In consequence of the call made on me by the Society at its last meeting,
I have thrown together the following statement of facts on the different
varieties of Indian Corn." (Too boring to post except for the last.)
varieties of Indian Corn." (Too boring to post except for the last.)
In 1822, W. Webb identified 14 types of corn, each listed with a brief mention of its usefulness. "The fourteenth is an unprofitable sort, called Pop Corn, used to feed chickens, and to amuse children."
1872- The Nursery, Vol. 11
In the later 1800s, popcorn balls and popcorn cakes were popular, as was home popped corn.I found many references to awful popcorn sold in little paper bags. Stale, I suppose. I don't think that applied to the popcorn wagons that popped it in front of you! And I read that sometimes the butter on the product was not butter...ick.
These popcorn wagons stayed popular for many decades!
1914 image from Howard County Historical Society
A popcorn cake is just a flat slab of popcorn ball confection, cut into pieces. I was sort of hoping it was a cake! I looked up the recipe and was disappointed. Oh well.
1900 - MONEY IN POP CORN -
The Irrigation Age, Volumes 14-15
The demand for pop corn increases every year, yet the crop is never equal to the market. Good corn sells on the retail market today for five to six cents a pound. Farmers do not consider the profits of this special crop or there would be more grown for supplying home demands. An acre will produce from fifty to one hundred bushels of salable corn and a ton or more fodder. The corn weighs 56 pounds to the bushel and never sells for less than $1.50 to $2.50 a bushel. The folder will pay for the cost of growing and the corn be left as a fair profit after paying rental and interest on the land. From those who make a business of raising pop corn I learn that a poor crop will bring $100 an acre, and many get double that sum from an acre every year.
Pop corn requires about the same soil as that demanded by the sweet and field varieties. A sod or vegetable mould, containing more sand than clay and having previous clean culture is best adapted to corn corn growing. If plowed in the fall or winter and left to freeze until the spring weeds begin to grow before planting the land will be in fine condition. As the plant ripens during the hot summer months the use of nitrogenous fertilizing elements is not very beneficial, but there is no field crop that yields better returns from liberal application of potash and phosphoric acid. Numerous experimental stations report that potash alone has increased the yield of field corn over 20 bushels per acre, and added one half ton of fodder. The increase in pop corn is more marked by using 500 pounds of a fertilizer containing 10 per cent potash and 8 percent phosphoric acid than by any other means.
There are different varieties of pop corn, all possessing merit as marketable crops. The white rice is probably the most in demand, but yellow or golden, gives perfect satisfaction to those who purchase by the carload for commercial purposes. The Mapledale Prolific is a very choice variety having from eight to twelve good ears on each stalk. There are several mixed colored kinds much esteemed for ornamental frames of dainty handwork. When popped, one quart of good corn will make a bushel of balls or bricks in which form it is usually sold at confectionary stands, pleasure resorts and thousands of other places. The pop corn business has become so important that large sums are paid for privileges of selling at fairs, picnics and public conventions.
The corn gets better with age, but it can be sundried and made marketable the first year. As a general rule the poppers want want it three years old. After getting thoroughly dry in the shoch it can be husked put in gunny sacks and left in the sun for several days, when it will bd thoroughly dried. If completely dried it will sell better after being shelled, which can be done with a commercial shellers. Many farmer boys might find a very profitable winter trade in popping corn, buttering the rolls and selling it in neighboring cities and towns. Two or three quarts, costing less than a dollar, will plant an acre. The cultivation is about the same as for field corn, and consists in keeping the plow going and cutting out the weeds. It must not be put in near field corn, as the pollen will cause the varieties to mix.
Pop corn may be planted closer than any other varieties. One man reports having grown 176 bushels the past year upon an acre. His plan of planting is to make the furrows three feet apart and have the corn stand one stalk in a hill, fourteen inches apart in the rows, If the corn is planted very early or late it will not suffer so much from the worms as the medium planted crops. Where irrigated care must be taken in keeping the water from the stalks and not give the plants more than two periods of irrigating during the growing season. The poor ears can be fed to poultry with profit and the fodder is relished by the cows, sheep and horses. A ready market always awaits the grower of good pop corn and the business is certainly profitable.
Joel Shomaker.
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