Exactly! Unless the land is dead flat, you would be able to see the smaller corn on back. I do know some farmers used to plant a few rows of sweet corn at the edge of the field. I guess you could feed what was left of it to the animals.
So the volunteer corn in soybean fields isn’t last year’s corn that germinated on its own, but seeds that waited a year to germinate?
It’s not two-year old seed, it’s corn left there by the corn picker from the previous season. One could argue it wouldn’t have sprouted if the picker/combine hadn’t shucked it and the fall tilling hadn’t planted it.
About corn sex. All corn has male and female parts. The tassels are the male parts. Given a chance, they spread their pollen far and wide. The silk is the female part conveying the pollen to the grains.
To hybridize corn, you plant 2 verities and cut the tassles off the one you want to be fertilized by the other.
each piece of silk makes a kernel. If you pluck one strand of silk off the corn, when it’s mature you’ll see one missing kernel on the cob.
Isn’t this one kind of a given? 
Unless there are lesser known ways such as diagonally or every other kernel…
yes, but the way one eats corn can impart something about their personality.
Well, there are weirdos like me, I guess. I generally will do a row across like a typewriter, then do the rest of the ear in a rotary fashion. The clear row gives me a smooth starting place for each pass, without so much “butter in the moustache” mess.
From an aficionado of field corn:
“Field corn has more starch and is drier and less sweet than the other types, often with very large, flat, broad kernels. They are used after drying for meal, flour, hominy and fodder. Harvested when the ears are fully mature and the husks are dry. Most of the maize varieties grown by the American Indians were of this type. I have come to like field corn for on-the-cob eating, preferring its robust, hearty qualities. It is especially good Central American style, roasted over an open fire, and rubbed with a lime dipped in chili powder and salt.”
I would stay away from the field corn grown en masse by American farmers, as far as filching a few ears. Aside from not knowing what pesticides were used and how recently, the varieties they grow are probably not those that would make decent eating on the cob, no matter how you prepared it.
I have nothing to add to the discussion, but I did get excited when I saw the thread title. “Roadside corn” is what Mrs. Homie and I call those ad hoc vegetable stands that pop up along the side of the road every year, selling (fucking delicious) sweet corn for human consumption.
"Ooh! The roadside corn stands are out! Let’s get some and grill it!!! 
"
Ah, memories of the 50’s. We would filch a few tender ears of field corn and sneak off to the woods and build a fire and roast them. I am not sure what we did for butter, pepper,and salt. Maybe the corn itself was enough.
I eat my corn on the cob with a fork and knife. 
You can eat an ear of corn nonstop, going in a spiral fashion from one end until you reach the other.
That’s kind of fun as a kid, but eventually you realize that you are missing out on savoring the good taste by doing that.
Where I grew up (Nawth Ca’lina) they would have a truck off on the side of the road with a sign that said: ‘Corn, Cukes, Melon’.
When I moved to Newfoundland I saw a truck like that off on the side of the road with a sign so I pulled over. I was so stoked that I was going to get some nice fresh vegetables. It was only after I’d come to a stop that I realized the sign said:‘Carcass, Flipper.’