For the last two years I've tried to grow a variety of corn called Floriani Red. It got rave reviews a few years ago in Mother Earth News, in an article claiming that it had a protein value of 20 percent. I've tried for the last two years to grow this variety with a whole lot of bad luck. First off, the seed is very high, I assume due to the hype created by the article. I paid an average of between 15 and 30 dollars a pound with some sellers limiting the amount any one person could buy. The first year I planted a quarter acre. I got a good stand, but just as it was tassling, a flood washed the pollen away and no ears were pollinated. Still, my mules loved the fodder and ate it into the ground. This past year, I tried again. I had a great stand and I managed to get the crop to the milk stage before the deer and coons found it. I got one ear off an acre. I had bragged up the corn on the basis of the article and several of my Amish friends took an interest. One bought a packet of seed, planted a few rows in his yard for seed, and got a good stand, saving about a bushel of seed from his little patch. I was telling him my tales of woe one day and he said, "wouldn't be funny if you and I go through all this trouble and find out that this corn ain't what it's supposed to be!?" I laughed, a wee bit nervously; then I had an idea. I begged two ears from my friend and took them to the extension office. They mailed them to New York, to the Dairy One feed labs. Today I got the results; 10 percent crude protein with 9.6 available protein. It turns out the last laugh was on me, but I have to tell my Amish buddy, no, it wasn't funny to find out that this variety is not all it's cracked up to be. I'm gonna have a go at Reid's Yellow Dent, and see how they compare. The moral of the story, don't believe everything you read.