History and origin of sweet corn

The cultivation of corn can be traced back 8,000 years to Central America. Ancient farmers took the first steps in growing corn when they chose which kernels to plant. Ancient peoples in southwestern Mexico encountered a wild grass called teosinte that offered ears smaller than a pinky finger with just a handful of stony kernels. Sweet corn cobs have been discovered in Mexican caves from thousands of years ago.

Sweet corn occurs as a spontaneous mutation in field corn and was grown by several Native American tribes. Native Americans brought corn up the Mississippi River. The earliest corn plant was very small. The Iroquois gave the first recorded sweet corn (called 'Papoon') to European settlers in 1779.

The original Indian sweet corn was a striking combination of white kernels on a red cob. Through cross-breeding, settlers were able to grow white sweet corn on a light-colored cob.

The first commercial variety of sweet corn was reportedly introduced in 1779. To capture maximum sweetness, sweet corn is harvested before it fully matures while sugar content is still high. Not until the late 19th century was a yellow strain developed by William Chambers of Massachusetts. Called Golden Bantam, it was marketed earlier in this century by W. Atlee Burpee.

Super sweet corn was developed in the early 1950s by a University of Illinois botany professor named John Laughnan. Laughnan discovered that a certain gene in corn stored less starch but held four to 10 times more sugar.
History and origin of sweet corn

History of Corn

History of Corn
Corn (Zea mays L.) is native to the Americas and is their most important cereal crop.

Corn originated in Mexico, evolving form the wild grass Teosinte (Zea mays sp. mexicana).

Archeology evidence indicates that corn was domesticated and grown as a crop by native American as early as 5,000 B.C in Mexico’s valley of Tehuacan.

Corn becomes symbol of religion and prosperity in The Mayan civilization.

From this center corn spread northward to Canada and southward to Argentina.

Among the discoveries made by the explorer Christopher Columbus during his visit to the New World in 1492 was this staple food of the native Americans, known to them as “mahyz.”

Corn is is still universally known as maize from the early Spanish translation.

Maize was not popular known as corn until the American colonists applied this British term for grain.

Following Columbus’s discovery, corn was transplanted to Spain from where it quickly spread across Europe and to Africa and Asia.

Corn played an important role in the colonization and settling of United States.

The native Americans taught the colonists how to convert the grain into food and livestock feed.

Bread made from corn quickly became staple foods in the American colonies and other foods, such as mush, porridge and breakfast grits, were important to pioneers migrating west.

Early improvement in corn as accomplished by farmers selecting seed from the hardiest and most productive plants in their open pollinated fields.

However, in the early 1800s two predominant races of corn – Virginia Gourdseed and Northeastern Flints – grown in the eastern seaboard states were cross, demonstrating the superiority of hybrid corn.

This cross was repeated many times as settlers migrated west, and from these lines the Corn Belt Dents emerged.

Corn Belt Dents have been steadily improved to become the most productive race of corn in the world – indeed, the most productive cereal crop in the world.
History of Corn