If you live near farmland, you’ve heard the saying that corn needs to be “knee high by the 4th of July”.  And, if you grew up with this saying, you know that around this time of year you start judging corn height to see how it is shaping up.  What I didn’t know, however, is why this saying even got started…

I Googled “knee high by the 4th of July” and found out that according to the Internet (and its ALWAYS TRUE, right?) that the saying was started in the midwest by farmers.  Farmers believed that if the corn was at least knee high by the 4th of July, they would have a good crop come harvest time.  However, these days its not good enough to just be knee high by the 4th of July.  Its supposed to be taller with all the modifications that have made to the corn seed.  Nowadays, the saying is “as high as an elephant’s eye by 4th of July.”  Not sure what elephant is that short, or exactly whose knees we are measuring by.

While, this is Wordless Wednesday and there are a lot of words here… I had to laugh to myself this morning when I was judging the corn like I was at the fair.

For the record, I am sticking with my knee high by the 4th of July measurement… its catchy.

knee high by the 4th of july corn

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Julia wants to live in a world where Hogwarts is real, dark chocolate is packaged with good books, and houses clean themselves. Until then, she is the divorced mom of twins, blogger, sometimes crafter, traveler, napper, cooker, snail mailer, geocacher, and corporate bean counter.

4 Comments on Knee High by the 4th of July – Wordless Wednesday

  1. oh man… that field scares me. I am waiting for a crazy sword yeilding lunatic to jump out of the corn and through my computer. Yes I have issues.

  2. Guess you’ve never heard of the “corn people” have you? A friend of mine from high school used to live across the street from a corn field and when the wind blows the leaves rustle and it sounds like people talking… so we call them the corn people. LOL.

  3. I can’t believe you’re posting about this today! I definitely live in farm country & I was JUST thinking (as I passed one of many farms!) that the corn is awfully tall for the 4th! So funny! We must be on the same wavelength:-)

  4. You know, I’m not sure it’s really clicked with me what that means until this post! haha!

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