SPRING STALK: The Orange County Fair is...

SPRING STALK: The Orange County Fair is starting early on its corn exhibit. Corn from 24 states was planted the past week at the fair’s Centennial Farm. The state with the tallest stalk by the fair’s July 9 opener wins a “Golden Ear” award. Contenders include Cornell 281, New York’s entry developed at Cornell University, and Rhode Island’s white cap corn. . . . “Corn likes high humidity with warm nights,” says Jim Bailey, Centennial Farm supervisor. “In Missouri we used to say that corn shot up so fast at night you could hear it growing.”