Corn is grown in other countries, too.  China, Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, Romania and Africa grow it.  China is the second largest producer in the world.  Japan is the largest importer of corn in the world.  This means that they buy more corn than any other country.
    There are many kinds of corn.  Some kinds are popcorn, sweet, flour, flint, dent, and pod corn.  Corn is a member of the grass family.  Some grasses can grow wild but corn can't.  It needs to be planted in rows so that the stalks can cross-pollinate each other.  If they don't pollinate each other, there won't be any ears of corn.
    Corn stems have long, skinny leaves.  At the end of the stem is a tassel that looks like silk threads.  The cob, or center of the corn that is inside the leaves, has thousands of seeds that are called kernels.  
   Corn plants start as a seed.  Each kernel on an ear of corn is a seed.  In the spring, farmers use row planters, or machines to plant the seeds.  These will plant between two and 24 rows of corn at a time.  Row planters spread weed killer and plant the seeds..   About two or three days after it is planted, it begins to swell with water from the ground.  The roots break open the shell and attach to the dirt.  Three to five days after that, you can see the plant coming up through the dirt.  The stalk [or stem] gets taller as more leaves grow on the plant.  The tassel forms at the top of the plant.  The pollen from the tassels falls all over the silk at the end of the husk.  This pollinates the silk so that it makes corn kernels inside the husk.  Buds start to grow where the lower leaves and the stalk meet.  Buds that are higher on the stalk will form into one or more ears of corn.
    For 5-6 weeks, the corn plant starts to grow fast.  The plant roots grow stronger so that they can hold up the extra weight of the corn as it grows.  By the middle of summer, the corn can be taller than the farmer.  Slowly the silk turns from a pretty light yellow to a dark brown.  When it becomes brown, it's time to pick the corn. 
    The farmer uses a machine harvester, or combine, to take the husks [the ear of corn with the leaves around it] off of the corn.  A combine can take the ears off of the stalks, take the husks off of the ears, shell and clean the corn.  What is done depends on what is going to happen to the corn when it is sold.  Some of the kernels are kept so that the farmer has seeds to plant for the next year.  Some corn is sold for food and some is sold to feed cattle.  Some is sent to mills to be ground into flour.
    Some breakfast cereals, salad dressings, margarines, syrups, cornstarch and snacks have corn in them.  Cornmeal is ground up corn that is used for corn bread, tamales, and tortillas.  We also use it for things like baby powder, glue, soap, alcohol, and medicine.
    Corn is used to feed livestock, too.  Hogs, cattle, sheep, and poultry eat about half of the corn grain that is grown each year.  Some corn is used for silage.  Corn silage is livestock food that is made from the parts of the corn plant that are left after the roots and ears of corn have been taken off. 

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