U.S. Department of Agriculture · Farmers' Bulletin 553

Pop Corn for the Home

The United States Department of Agriculture, in 1913, on how to grow, store and pop your own corn — and why every farm home should.

This site is the complete 1913 book Pop Corn for the Home, page by page as originally printed — period spelling, remedies and opinions included. About this edition →

What the Bulletin Covers

Fourteen pages, written in earnest, about popcorn.

  1. Introduction1 section
  2. The Home Plat1 section
  3. Choice of a Variety1 section
  4. Planting Pop Corn1 section
  5. Care of the Growing Crop1 section
  6. Harvesting and Storing Pop Corn1 section
  7. Hand Poppers1 section
  8. How to Pop Corn1 section
  9. Home Uses1 section

Highlights

Hand Poppers

In figure 8 are shown types of hand poppers. A popper like No. 1 can be used for popping corn in butter and lard. A common…

Care of the Growing Crop

Grass and weeds should be kept down as much as possible while the corn is making its early growth, and the soil should be kept…

Planting Pop Corn

In order to succeed best with pop corn for home use it should not be left until the field and truck crops have been planted, but…

Introduction

Among the things that add pleasure to country life, pop corn should be given a prominent place. For affording a pleasant and…

Harvesting and Storing Pop Corn

The ears should be husked from the standing stalk and should be spread out in a well-ventilated place to dry and cure. The ears…

Home Uses

Pop corn is usually popped to be eaten at once, or it may be made into pop-corn balls, crackajack, or other forms of pop-corn…

Curious Facts

10 genuinely curious things this book actually says, each linked to its page.

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Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Pop Corn for the Home (1913) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.