The origin of bicolor sweet corn as told by Oscar Pearson on 11 November 1994
--W.F. Tracy

Dr. Oscar Pearson was breeding sweet corn for Eastern States Farmers Exchange in Westfield, Massachusetts. He was working closely with D.F. Jones of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven.
Jones had a field corn breeder friend at Purdue who liked sweet corn. Jones crossed P39 (yellow endosperm) by Luther Hill (white endosperm) and gave it to his friend at Purdue. This was about 1946 or 1947.

Pearson thought this hybrid was "bland, not very tasty."

Meanwhile at Eastern States, Pearson had taken a white Crosby from northern New Hampshire and converted it to yellow endosperm. The new line had "good solid texture it didn't shrivel too much. It just dimpled."

He then made a line cross, P39 x Yellow Crosby (yellow endosperm) and crossed this to Luther Hill (white endosperm). It was considerably sweeter than P39 x Luther Hill. Pearson believes that he got some modifiers for high sugar levels from the yellow Crosby. This cross, (P39 x Yellow Crosby) x Luther Hill, was named `Butter and Sugar' and it was released about 1950. 

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