It’s summer and crops are well under way—a nice time for the FRED Blog to look back at the history of corn in this country.

Our FRED graph above shows the millions of acres of corn planted (green dashed line, right axis) and the millions of bushels of corn harvested (solid blue line, left axis) in the United States. This dataset goes all the way back to 1866.

Not long after that year, we see one of the earliest publications of the rhyme knee high by the 4th of July:

“It has been considered that if corn was knee high by the Fourth of July that the crop was sure and safe.”  —Sumner Gazette (Sumner, Iowa), July 3, 1884

It’s a lovely rhyme, but it isn’t as true as it once was. Today, corn can be head high by July. How much corn an acre of land yields depends on factors such as soil nutrients, humidity, rainfall, and the type of seeds planted.

Both acreage and crops increased hand in hand between 1866 and the early 1900s. The vagaries of weather help explain the occasional large dips in the size of the harvests, as during the Dust Bowl era in the early 1930s. After 1910, corn acreage plateaued and so did the crops. But starting in the early 1930s, acreage steadily shrank yet crop yields became larger. Why?

The key to more bountiful harvests was the hybrid corn seeds used for planting. These seeds are drought-resistant and better suited to dense plantings, and they produce sturdier plants more responsive to artificial fertilizer. Their broad use resulted in remarkable increases in corn crop yields. Hybrid saved the day.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Corn Crop for United States.” Click on “Edit Graph” and use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select “Corn Crop Acreage for United States.” These series originate in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Macrohistory Database. Last, from the “Format” panel, scroll down to the “Line 2” section and select “Y-Axis position: Right.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

On June 27, 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released real GDP data for all US states for the first quarter of 2025. The FRED map above shows the percent change growth rates from the previous quarter: Dark red denotes contraction, light red denotes a small contraction, and green denotes growth.

Highlights

• 39 of 50 state economies contracted in the first quarter, with a national average of –0.5% contraction annualized.
• The median state contracted at –0.64%, and 28 other states had slower growth than the US average.
• South Carolina had the fastest growth, at 1.7% annualized.
• Nebraska and Iowa had the steepest contraction, at –6.1% annualized.

The St. Louis Fed’s Eighth District states all contracted except for Arkansas and Mississippi, which grew 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively. The rest of the District was below the national average: Illinois had the steepest contraction, at about –2.2%, followed by Missouri, which contracted -1.8%. Indiana was the closest to the national average, contracting –0.6%.

How this map was created: Search FRED for “Real Total Gross Domestic Product for Missouri” and click the first available series. Click the “View Map” button and then the blue “Edit Map” button. Modify the units to “Compounded Annual Rate of Change.” Use “Format” to switch the number of color groups to 3, with the data grouped by “User Defined Method”; then define the scales to be –1, 0, and 5. For values less than –1, choose dark red to show steeper contraction; for values less than 0, choose light red to show a slight contraction; for values less than 5, choose green to show an expansion.

Suggested by John Fuller and Violeta Gutkowski.

Workers leave employment largely for two reasons: forced layoffs and voluntary quits.

In the past, the FRED Blog has used JOLTS business survey data from the BLS to analyze these flows. In May, FRED added another set of related household survey data compiled by Kathrin Ellieroth and Amanda Michaud (E-M), which provides a complementary perspective.

Our FRED graph above shows employee layoffs (blue lines) and quits (orange lines) from both these sources. It displays data since January 2016 for readability, but the datasets go back farther than that.

• JOLTS data are the dashed lines.
• E-M data are the solid lines.

Here’s an important distinction: The JOLTS data include employer-to-employer transitions, when workers move from one job to another without being unemployed in between. The E-M data include quits and layoffs that result in non-employment. One key difference is that the E-M data allow for observing where people will go following a layoff or quit: unemployment or non-participation. This can help researchers explain labor supply decisions of individuals and their contribution to unemployment.

How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Monthly Transition Rate of All U.S. Workers From Employment to Non-Employment Due to a Layoff” (from the E-M dataset). In the “Edit Graph” panel, use the “Add Line” tab to search for and select the other three series: “Monthly Transition Rate of All U.S. Workers From Employment to Non-Employment Due to a Quit” (also from the E-M dataset) and “Layoffs and Discharges: Total Nonfarm” and “Quits: Total Nonfarm” (from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). Be sure to click “Add data series” each time. Finally, use the “Format” tab to change line colors and textures.

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo, Kathrin Ellieroth, and Amanda Michaud.