Knee High by the 4th of July! - Photo by Bob Kelly

There is an old farmer's expression that the corn should be, "Knee high by the fourth of July."  It used to be true before more modern and efficient ways of farming.  The corn in the photo below, was not knee high, but rather was about six feet high and the fourth of July is three days away.  Notice the tassels on the top of the corn are ready to make pollen, which with the wind's help, blow down to the silks you see half way down the stalk.  Each single silk strand will become pollinated from the wind, and on the corn cob, a single kernel of corn will form.  So for the next few months there is lots going on in the cornfields as the pollination occurs, and the corn kernels grow!  As if this isn't enough to know…..when the moisture levels are just right and it is very hot, the corn will grow very fast as the stalk shoots upward.  It IS possible to "hear" the corn grow if you sit out in the middle of a field, and are very quiet! (TRUE!).  It makes a squeaking noise as the stalk grows taller and taller.   It is somewhat like the sound you hear when one is out on a frozen lake and ice fishing in the winter, as the ice is constantly expanding and making "pinging" noises.  Ahhh such wonders Mother Nature provides!