Corn with deep yellow kernels, including the yellow corn available in our grocery stores, has nearly 60 times more beta-carotene than white corn, valuable because it turns to Vitamin A in the body, which helps vision and the immune system. The disadvantage of being yellow, we now know, had been an advantage to human health. He succeeded, noting with pride that he had rid sweet corn of вЂњthe disadvantage of being yellow.вЂќ His goal was to create a sweet, all-white variety that was вЂњfit for boilingвЂќ by mid-July. In 1836, Noyes Darling, a onetime mayor of New Haven, and a gentleman farmer, was the first to use scientific methods to breed a new variety of corn. Farmers began to play a more active role in the 19th century. Up until this time, nature had been the primary change agent in remaking corn. Our old-fashioned sweet corn is a direct descendant of these spoils of war. According to one account, a lieutenant named Richard Bagnal took home some seeds to share with others. While the militia was destroying the food caches of the Iroquois and burning their crops, soldiers came across a field of extra-sweet yellow corn. This unusual variety came to light that year after George Washington ordered a scorched-earth campaign against Iroquois tribes. There is also a New York Times article Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food:Д®UROPEAN settlers were content with this colorful corn until the summer of 1779 when they found something more delectable - a yellow variety with sweeter and more tender kernels. Maize breeding and genetics has a section:Д«reeding Sweet Corn with Higher Sugar Content Previous to the time of Louis Vilmorin, about 1850, there had been some few selections of mother beets for higher sugar content by placing the roots in solutions of different density and selecting those having the highest specific gravity. The Relation of Certain Biological Principles to Plant Breeding, page 46: To breed more uniform shaped table varieties having a higher sugar and carotene content, keeping in mind the ideal type for table as well as for canning.ДЇrom Report on the Work and Expenditures of the Agricultural Experiment Stations:ДЄ promising seedling prune has been developed at the Oregon station, bearing a fruit with a higher sugar content than any variety testedДЇrom the 41st Annual Report of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station:Д«reeding of the blackberry will be for the purpose of selecting a fruit of high sugar content The purposes of the breeding program in Louisiana are as follows: 1. Improvement in color, flavor, sugar content, and yield of apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, sweet cherries, pears, and apples.ДЇrom Proceedings of the 41st Convention of Southern Agricultural Workers:

See Survey of Food and Nutrition Research in the United States, which lists a publication titled:ДЇruit breeding. Temperate Fruit Crops in Warm Climates at page 178:ДЄ general objective in most breeding programs is higher sugar content

A hybrid cropit produces sweeter fruit