Posts Tagged ‘corn’
Plenty Tall
When we were on the road to the lake for the Independence Day weekend earlier this summer, we found the farm fields to be shockingly underdeveloped. Many didn’t show any sign that a crop had even been planted. Where corn was visible, it was barely six inches tall.
The classic rhyme of “knee-high by the 4th of July” was far from being met this year.
On the way home from work on Monday, as we approach the middle of August, I suddenly became aware of the dramatic growth finally achieved by local farmers of field corn.
It’s well over a head taller than me.
That picture shows the field immediately to the south of our property.
Having 8-foot walls of corn stalks arise along our rural roads really changes the ambiance of those portions of my commute.
I once read that genetic engineering of corn plants has changed them to be more tolerant of crowding. An acre of land can produce higher yields of corn if you can plant seeds closer together.
The stalks are now planted so tight with one another that I can’t even fit between them.
They’re also so tall that I can’t see over them.
A cornfield would make for a really fine maze, wouldn’t it?
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Volunteer Corn
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We have a corn crop! These two stalks made their surprise appearance behind our barn late this summer. By now, all the fields around us have turned mostly brown, but these two seem to be just reaching their prime.
I saw this in a documentary somewhere. How did it go again? Now lawyers from a seed company show up and threaten to sue unless we pay royalties for having their patented genetically modified corn growing on our property. Something like that. I may have that wrong. Just in case, it would probably be best if we kept this discovery secret.
Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone.
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Relative Something 