popcorn—a bagful of profits

By ANDREW H.
MALCOLMMAY 12,1974 this is a digital version of an article from The Times Print Archive, before it began to be published online in 1996.
To keep these articles as they appear initially, the Times will not change, edit, or update them.
There are occasional copywriting errors or other problems during the digitization process.
Please send a report of such issues to archid_feedback @ nytimes. com.
Lost Country in Iowa
It is twice that of Christianity.
Early Americans were selling in groups. Others wore it.
This was once a sign of goodwill.
A tobacco company sells it.
Gordon Dahl just buried some. Cattle eat it. Hogs eat it.
So do some people.
This is, of course, mumchitl, perhaps better known as piscancalla.
Or, more simply, popcorn is one of the most profitable items sold today.
The brave elobi Quadequina brought popcorn as a gift to the first Thanksgiving Day.
The Pilgrims did not know how to deal with the corn kernels that looked interesting, so they threw them into their soup.
But soon, a small group of smart white American families understood what to do with popcorn: raise it and sell it.
Since then-
Thanks to butter, salt, movies and TV
The processing and sales of a piece of corn that I fried became a big business (
Not to mention the review of its performance in a wide range of university research projects, mainly to improve the \"epidemic\" of popcorn \").
The advertising popcorn industry is not GM, and certainly not GM when about 40 processors share the market and carefully protect sales data.
But in the most recent year, in 1972, farmland production in the United States reached 519.
7 million-pound popcorn, in the United States, every man, woman, child and pet dog alive has more than 2 pounds-pound popcorn.
\"It\'s not a bowl of roses, though,\" said 46-year-old farmer Gordon Dahl, who had just stuffed his big red tractor in.
There are 7 million popcorn on 72 acres of black land west of here.
\"Now is the busy time for popcorn and it\'s a really good spring for field work. ”Mr.
It took almost three days for Dahl, and some nights illuminated by floods moved back and forth in the soil.
His tool automatically opens the Slot 1 inch deep.
They threw a special-coated popcorn seed 40 inch away from the seed.
Three times before July 4
Darl will use tillers to cross the fields, destroy the soil to keep moisture, and spray dichloro-acetic acid to kill weeds that steal precious moisture.
By mid-summer, the popcorn root will run 4 feet (
Compared with 8 feet of conventional field corn)
The stem is too high to drive past, and a bowl of popcorn next winter will be alone. If Mr. Dahl is lucky —
If the rain sweeps through his rolling fields with the right moisture at the right time, if the hail does not kill the crops, if the spray works for the corn hole that weakens the stem, if the sun is strong enough, if the tornado doesn\'t come,
Then, shortly after Labor Day, he will walk into the ground and peel off a 13 feet square foot piece of corn.
This will be tested if the result shows that the corn is 15.
5 to 16 points of water, start harvesting.
Depending on all the variables, Mr. Dahl\'s land will have 1,600 to 6,000 bags of popcorn on his ears per acre.
He got $2 in his 90 s.
25 per 100 pounds;
He made $3 last year. 25.
But prices have risen again this year as popcorn processors have to bid for land use with other lucrative Midwest crops such as soybeans.
This year, under his contract with the American popcorn company, the manufacturer of jolitis popcorn
Dahl can get $8 per catty.
But he had to shell and pay for the truck.
Most popcorn is grown under similar contracts between processors and farmers, and for them the crop is a sideline for a diversified agricultural business.
Some Popcorn will dry in the open corn crib for a while.
Dahl\'s farm covers an area of 30 acres.
Some people go directly to Sucheng for processing.
This includes cleaning, further drying (
According to the snack Blue Book, the moisture of popcorn is best up to 14 cents)
, Graded packaging.
As one of the larger processors, the United States signed a contract this year to increase the number of popcorn to supplement the slight shortage last year, because ordinary Americans are in trouble at home due to a shortage of gasoline in winter, it seems to have eaten more popcorn this year.
This is a good thing for companies like happy hour, because the popcorn they produce is made at home, accounting for about 65 of total sales.
But it\'s not good for cinemas, movies, and cheap stores, which cost about 30 cents.
Another 5 cents for packaging, such as glassware.
Popcorn exports are small and flow mainly to Japan and Europe, where businessmen have to season popcorn with sugar, chocolate or licorice to sell in a culture where corn is traditionally just livestock food.
However, in the absence of substantial ad budget assistance, domestic popcorn sales climbed about 5 cents a year.
But there\'s popcorn, and then there\'s popcorn.
With dozens of hybrid varieties, popcorn vendors can grow almost any kind of corn.
Except White (
Almost no taste)and yellow (
Taste of nuts)
Here are big mushroom popcorn, which caramel corn manufacturers love because its round burst shape is the smallest surface covered with expensive caramel.
There\'s also the big kernel butterfly, which the movie prefers because of its distorted pop-up shape that fills the box faster and uses less popcorn.
Advertising this strategy further improves the high profitability of popcorn, which sometimes brings more revenue than other movie snacks.
Industry expert and president of Wyandot Popcorn in Marion, Ohio George Brown estimates that the cost of raw materials for a typical 30-cent unbuttered popcorn is only 7 cents.
The box is 2 cents, the oil is 3 cents, and the popcorn itself is only 2 cents.
Among other things, these numbers have attracted a lot of interest from some big companies in popcorn.
Original & Myers, Inc.
Now we have 3 minutes of brand popcorn.
Deal with Betty Zane and Popeye brands.
The development of popcorn has also driven Chicago C. Cretors & Co.
The company, which started production of the marmalade floats in 1885, now produces popcorn machines for an automatic caramel corn manufacturer at a cost ranging from $400 to $37,000.
However, in any case, all popcorn depends on a drop of water sealed by nature in the kernel.
When heated to 420 degrees, this water blows the kernel 35 times its original size, creating a cheap snack that million likes in the process.
For theater owners, it is no accident that most movie viewers have to walk through lucrative popcorn machines on their way to their seats.
It\'s not a coincidence that usually dull short films are attracted to feature films.
The Popcorn Institute suggests that if everything goes well, the delicious popcorn aroma and the dull short film will work properly, members, when a feature film starts, the average movie viewer will feel that he has to ask for a box of popcorn.
Chicago-based trading group also provides theater operators with these other popcorn sales tips, and the kernel earns cinema operators more than $ a year: pick up tickets at the door closest to the popcorn booth, let the usher suggest a treat.
Put the popcorn machine in the most visible and heard place, smell its fragrance and feel its warmth.
Order flashy [ads]popping]
The unit that attracts attention \".
Free popcorn samples are occasionally distributed
But no more than four per person.
Taste of \"not please.
Replace the burnt popcorn machine lights, reduce the business by 10 cents, and clean the greasy equipment.
The Institute notes: \"Most people confuse fresh popcorn with hot popcorn, so the theater can always sell yesterday\'s leftovers as long as it\'s hot. A. H. M.
A version of this file was printed on page 12 of the New York edition on May 12, 1974 with the title: Popcorn-
A bag of profits.