late corn comes of age

i discovered corn seedlings in this field ninety-five days ago...today you can barely make out the roofs of of the big box stores behind the field top photo ) and it looks nothing so much as like a painting by john steuart curry......the season is well advanced and almost every plant i looked at has produced two ears ( second and third photos ) no matter how close together the plants were planted...the secondary ears look like just that...some vestigial afterthought and you have to wonder how much they will add to the harvest...one supposes that in a field with as narrow a profit margin as industrial farming every bit helps...there are still thirty inch rows under all that green ( fourth photo ) and lots of bare earth for the wind and rain to erode ( particularly after the harvest is in )...more on that later...the field is still "available" and it is still one of the few farm fields i have run across ( although not unique ) with curbs and street lighting...the critters nailed every ear of corn in the community garden..i wonder why these seem to be so intact...off to the community garden this afternoon...more stuff to come.