Corn
by D.W. Cloud
The Bible says that man was made by God and placed in a world that was designed for his well-being, and the evidence for this is on every hand.
God uses corn to illustrate the blessing of Christ’s kingdom.
“... I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you” (Ezekiel 36:29).
One seed of corn typically produces a stalk bearing two cobs, each with 400 to 600 kernels or seeds. Thus, it multiplies itself 1,000 fold and more in one generation. If you replant the seeds from one corn stalk and each grows to maturity--each stalk bearing two cobs with an average of 500 kernels per cob (2,000 X 500)--you get one million kernels of corn. That’s just the second generation. And if you plant those one million kernels and each stalk grows to maturity, you get a billion corn seeds in just three generations! This is merely one example of the bountiful way that God has blessed this world for man’s benefit.
“Such is the tremendous reproductive power of DNA, especially in primary producer plants that must generate sufficient food-web biomass so all consumers--including we humans--can survive” (Kenneth Poppe, Exposing Darwinism’s Weakest Link, p. 33).
Corn is self-pollinating, in that each stalk has both male and female flowers. The females are the ears that send out strands of silk that grow out of the top of the ear. (The flower is actually composed of the kernel, which is the ovule, and the silk, which is the stigma.)
Each kernel of corn is individually pollinated by a strand of silk, which is covered with fine, sticky hairs that catch the pollen. The male flowers on the tassels release their pollen into the air. The pollen is held in anthers which contain large numbers of pollen grains, and when released the grains usually settle within 20 to 50 feet of the stalk. Thus it is advised to plant corn in blocks rather than in long rows.
Each tassel contains from 2 to 5 million pollen grains, which translates to 2,000 to 5,000 pollen grains for each silk of the ear shoot.
The emergence of the silk and the release of the pollen further demonstrates the amazing intelligence the Creator has programmed into the plant’s DNA. It must be precisely timed, for example. The pollen shed usually begins two or three days prior to silk emergence and continues for five to eight days, and it is shed in late morning after the dew has dried off the tassels (Ohio State University Agronomy Facts). The pollen shed responds to climatic conditions, stopping when the tassel is too wet or too dry and beginning again when temperature conditions are favorable. By this means the pollen is rarely washed off the silk by rain since it doesn’t release during wet conditions.
These amazing processes have enabled the corn plant to survive and thrive for man’s benefit.
Corn is used to feed humans and livestock. (Nearly 4,000 food items in a large grocery store contain corn ingredients.) But there are are hundreds of uses for this versatile plant beyond that, including bioplastics, biofuel, adhesives, ceramics, antibiotics, aspirin, surgical dressings, leather tanning, metal plating, shoe polish, rayon, disinfectants, cosmetics, soaps, paint, dyes, printing inks, plywood and wallboard, sandpaper, linoleum, rubber substitutes, rust preventatives, drilling fluids, dusting agents, insecticides, textiles, carpeting, paper products, antifreeze, solvents, and explosives.
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches” (Psalm 104:24).
God uses corn to illustrate the blessing of Christ’s kingdom.
“... I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you” (Ezekiel 36:29).
One seed of corn typically produces a stalk bearing two cobs, each with 400 to 600 kernels or seeds. Thus, it multiplies itself 1,000 fold and more in one generation. If you replant the seeds from one corn stalk and each grows to maturity--each stalk bearing two cobs with an average of 500 kernels per cob (2,000 X 500)--you get one million kernels of corn. That’s just the second generation. And if you plant those one million kernels and each stalk grows to maturity, you get a billion corn seeds in just three generations! This is merely one example of the bountiful way that God has blessed this world for man’s benefit.
Corn is self-pollinating, in that each stalk has both male and female flowers. The females are the ears that send out strands of silk that grow out of the top of the ear. (The flower is actually composed of the kernel, which is the ovule, and the silk, which is the stigma.)
Each kernel of corn is individually pollinated by a strand of silk, which is covered with fine, sticky hairs that catch the pollen. The male flowers on the tassels release their pollen into the air. The pollen is held in anthers which contain large numbers of pollen grains, and when released the grains usually settle within 20 to 50 feet of the stalk. Thus it is advised to plant corn in blocks rather than in long rows.
Each tassel contains from 2 to 5 million pollen grains, which translates to 2,000 to 5,000 pollen grains for each silk of the ear shoot.
The emergence of the silk and the release of the pollen further demonstrates the amazing intelligence the Creator has programmed into the plant’s DNA. It must be precisely timed, for example. The pollen shed usually begins two or three days prior to silk emergence and continues for five to eight days, and it is shed in late morning after the dew has dried off the tassels (Ohio State University Agronomy Facts). The pollen shed responds to climatic conditions, stopping when the tassel is too wet or too dry and beginning again when temperature conditions are favorable. By this means the pollen is rarely washed off the silk by rain since it doesn’t release during wet conditions.
These amazing processes have enabled the corn plant to survive and thrive for man’s benefit.
Corn is used to feed humans and livestock. (Nearly 4,000 food items in a large grocery store contain corn ingredients.) But there are are hundreds of uses for this versatile plant beyond that, including bioplastics, biofuel, adhesives, ceramics, antibiotics, aspirin, surgical dressings, leather tanning, metal plating, shoe polish, rayon, disinfectants, cosmetics, soaps, paint, dyes, printing inks, plywood and wallboard, sandpaper, linoleum, rubber substitutes, rust preventatives, drilling fluids, dusting agents, insecticides, textiles, carpeting, paper products, antifreeze, solvents, and explosives.
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches” (Psalm 104:24).
