The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-05-05
WHERE POPCORN COMES FROM.
A Valuable Industry Established in
Only Fifteen Years.

! Fifteen years ago, at the little town
of North Loup, in Central Nebraska,
farmer planted forty acres of pop
corn. His neighbors thought ne had
taken leave of his senses. Today 80
per cent of the popcorn produced in
commercial quantities in the United
States is grown in this vicinity. Last
year, the four hundred cars, contain
ing nearly FIVE million pounds, were
| shipped from this village Of 1000 in
habitants. Practically the whole of
| this goes to wholesale dealers in Chi
cago, and is distributed from there.
North Loup corn possesses the high
ly desirable quality of being ready to
pop as soon as gathered. That pro-
duced in other districts must either
be held year or else kiln dried be-
fore 1t win pop freely. The bright,
dry falls Of central Nebraska, togeth-
er with the fact that the occasional
fall rains are followed at once by
warm sunshine, which thoroughly
dries both the stalk and the corn, rem.
der the North Loup product available
Immediately.
About twenty-five hundred acres
are annually planted to popcorn in
this locality. using four pounds of seed
an acre. The small size of the seed
requires special plate in the plan
ter. The seed is drilled in, allowing
in tha
inches apart one way by three feet
four inches the other. The stalks
stool out, but inasmuch as corn pro.
duced on the stooled stalks, called
sucker" ears is of poor color and
inferior quality, the grower covers
these superfuous stalks with his cul-
tivator, leaving only one stalk in caoh
hill.-Most stalks produce two good
ears, some four Where only one ear
grows on a stalk it is likely to be
coarse and of poor quality. Medium
sized ears produce the best corn.
The cultivation of growing popcorn
is similar to that employed with field |
corn. The mature corn, however, is
more difficult to gather because of the |
shortness of the stalks and the small
ness of the ears. This increases the
cost of picking. While farmers pay
only three or four cents bushel for
gathering field corn, the prevailing
price for picking popcorn is twelve
to fifteen cents bushel. Previous
to picking time the cost of production
an acre is identical with that of field
corn.
Popcorn Is bought and sold entirely
by the pound. The average yield an
acre is 1000 pounds, though double
that amount has been recorded In a
few instances. The average price for
the last ten years has been little
more than 81 to a hundred pounds,
giving a gross return of upward of
$40 an acre. During the same period
the average price Of field corn has
been 2 cents bushel, the average
yield thirty bushels, giving a gross
return of $3.50 an acre.
One Instantaneous feature of
popcorn growing is that when the
popping demand has been supplied
there is no other outlet for it, which
causes surprising fluctuations in the
price; 1915 has been paid--the hign
water mark-while this year it is
worth only sixty cents a hundred
an extremely low figure. Two thou
sand pounds of popcorn at GO cents
a hundred are not as profitable as
forty bushels OF field corn at thirty
cents a bushel, because of the in
creased cost of picking. However, it
S said that every man who has rails
I'D popcorn continuously for the last
zen years has done well. A number
II instances are mentioned where the
corn has paid the cost price of the
and in single crop.-Frank G. Ste
lhenS in Tribune Eornar