"The Queen is in the barn!"

So read a sign posted near my mother's house in rural, Chesapeake Bay-country, Maryland. "The Queen" of course refers to Delmarva's own Silver Queen corn. It's something of a delicacy around here, the stuff of Mid-Atlantic agrarian legend, renowned for its oh-so-sweet flavor and calming effects on the nervous system.

As I rode past the sign every day of my high school life, it always struck me as tragically stupid, an easy target for my teenage ridicule. But until I read this article about recent developments in corn country I really had no good reason to hate that sign. Now I know why I trust my instincts: those farmers were lying! Silver Queen corn doesn't even exist anymore and hasn't for years! My derision was right to target those smarmy sodbusters!

As the author of the story -- R.W. Apple, who actually died recently -- describes, most of the corn grown nowadays has names "like Ardent and Silver King, or else mundane, forgettable numbers like 81W." Here's the most interesting bit from the piece:

Like all old-fashioned varieties, with what plant geneticists call the 'su' gene, [Silver Queen] loses its sweetness and freshness quickly; at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, half its sugar turns into starch in 24 hours, once it's picked, according to a handbook.

So scientists developed sugar-enhanced, or 'se,' hybrids, with high sugar content and creamy texture, which is what the Redmans and other local farmers grow, and supersweets, or 'sh2' hybrids, with even more sugar and rather crisp kernels. They are grown in Florida for shipping north.

''The new hybrids have a longer life in the field, a longer life after they're picked -- two weeks instead of two days -- and they're less fragile,'' Mr. Redman said. ''Some are more disease-resistant, others are more vigorous in cool spring soils.''

Anyway, it's a neat article. Especially if you're into articles about corn. And even more so if you're into articles about Maryland corn. Say, who the heck was R.W. Apple writing this story for anyway? 10 people?