Corn Belt Traditional area, midwestern U.S. Roughly covering western Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, Missouri, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas, it is a region in which com and soybeans are the dominant crops. Many farms are family- operated and average more than 300 acres (120 hectares). Despite the name, the region is agriculturally diverse, raising various feed-grains and livestock.
corn earworm or cotton bollworm or tomato fruitworm
Moth larva {Heliothis zea, family Noctuidae) that damages com, tomato, cotton, and other seasonal crops. The smooth, fleshy, green or brown CAT-
Cork oak (Quercus suber) with sections of cork removed.
ERIC G. CARLE-SHOSTAL/EB INC.
erpiliars feed on com kernels near the tip of the ear and burrow into toma¬ toes and cotton bolls. Four or five generations of the pale brown adult moths, with wingspans of 1.3 in. (3.5 cm), are produced annually.
Corn Islands Spanish Islas del Maiz \'es-la-thel-'mls\ Two small islands, Caribbean Sea. Known as Great Corn and Little Corn, they lie about 40 mi (64 km) off the coast of Nicaragua and were leased to the U.S. by Nicaragua for use as a naval base (1916-71). The islands produce copra, coconut oil, lobsters, and frozen shrimp. Tourism is important on Great Corn Island.
Corn Laws Any of the regulations governing the import and export of grain (called corn by the English) in Britain. Records mention the impo¬ sition of Com Laws as early as the 12th century. They became politically important in the late 18th and early 19th century, during the grain shortage caused by Britain’s growing population, bad harvests, and the blockades imposed in the Napoleonic Wars. When Sir Robert Peel became prime min¬ ister the laws were finally repealed (1846). See also Anti-Corn Law League.
corn sugar See glucose
corn syrup Sweet syrup produced by breaking down (hydrolyzing) cornstarch (a product of corn). Com syrup contains dextrins, maltose, and dextrose and is used in baked goods, jelly and jam, and candy. High- fructose corn syrup is widely used in the manufacture of soft drinks and other foods because it is considerably cheaper than sucrose.
Corneille \kor-'na\, Pierre (b. June 6, 1606, Rouen, France—d. Oct. 1,
1684, Paris) French poet and play¬ wright. He studied law and was a king’s counselor in Rouen (1628— 50). He wrote his first comedy, Melite (performed 1629), before he was 20; other comedies followed. He responded to the call for a new approach to classical tragedy by writ¬ ing Medee (1635) and then Le Cid (1637), an instant success that estab¬ lished him as the creator of French classical tragedy; the play has come to be regarded as the most significant in the history of French drama. His next tragedies, Horace (1641), Cinna (1643), and Polyeucte (1643), have joined Le Cid as Corneille’s “classi¬ cal tetralogy.” He returned to comedy with The Liar (1644), which occupies a central place in French classical comedy. From 1660 he wrote one play a year, ending with the tragedy Surena (1674).
cornelian See carnelian
Pierre Corneille, detail of an oil paint¬ ing attributed to Charles Le Brun,
1647; in the Musee National de Ver¬ sailles et des Trianons.
CLICHE MUSEES NATIONAUX, PARIS
Cornell, Joseph (b. Dec. 24, 1903, Nyack, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 29, 1972, New York, N.Y.) U.S. assemblage artist. He had no formal artistic training. In the 1930s and ’40s he was associated with the Surrealists in New York City (see Surrealism). He was an originator of the assemblage; his most distinctive works were “boxes,” usually with glass fronts, con¬ taining objects and pieces of collage arranged in elegant but enigmatic compositions. Recurrent motifs include astronomy, music, birds, sea- shells, glamour photographs, and souvenirs of travel. His appeal rested on the Surrealist technique of irrational juxtaposition and on nostalgia.
Cornell, Katharine (b. Feb. 16, 1893, Berlin, Ger.—d. June 9, 1974, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., U.S.) U.S. actress. Born to American parents in Germany, she toured with a stock company before winning acclaim in Little Women in London (1919). She made her Broadway debut in 1921 and became a star in A Bill of Divorcement that year. She managed her own productions after 1931 and toured widely; most of her plays were directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic (1893-1961). She starred in plays such as Candida (1924), The Letter (1925), The Barretts ofWim- pole Street (1931, 1945)—in which she played the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her best-remembered role—and Dear Liar (1960). She was often called the first lady of the American theatre.
Cornell University Comprehensive research university in Ithaca, New York, U.S., a traditional member of the Ivy League. It is both publicly and
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cornerstone ► corporal punishment I 467
privately supported. Founded as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act, it was privately endowed by Ezra Cornell (1807-74), a founder of Western Union. Nonsectarian from the beginning, it offered an exception¬ ally broad curriculum when it opened in 1868. It was the first U.S. univer¬ sity to admit women and the first to be divided into colleges offering different degrees. Agricultural science has long been important at Cornell; other strong programs include the life sciences, business management, engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities. Professional and graduate schools offer programs in law, medicine, and the arts and sciences.
cornerstone Ceremonial building block, dated or otherwise inscribed, usually placed in an outer wall of a building to commemorate its dedi¬ cation. Often the stone is hollowed out to contain newspapers, photo¬ graphs, or other documents reflecting current customs, with a view to their historical use when the building is remodeled or demolished. Originally placed at a comer, the stone may today be placed elsewhere on the facade.
cornet Valved brass instrument. It evolved in the 1820s from the posthorn. Like the trumpet, it has three valves, but its bore is somewhat more coni¬ cal. It is a transposing instrument (its music written a tone above the actual sound), usually built in the key of B-flat, though a higher-pitched E-flat instrument is used as well. Its range parallels that of the trumpet. Its agil¬ ity made it a very popular solo instrument; it often displaced the trumpet in 19th-century orchestras, and it preceded the trumpet in modern dance and jazz bands. Recent developments have made the two instruments very similar, and the comet’s popularity has waned considerably as a result.
cornflower See bachelor's button
Cornplanter or John O'Bail (b. c. 1732, New York?—d. Feb. 18, 1836, Warren county. Pa., U.S.) American Indian leader. Bom to a white trader and a Seneca mother, he fought alongside the British in the Ameri¬ can Revolution, leading attacks on white settlements in western New York and Pennsylvania. He later helped negotiate treaties that ceded large tracts of Indian land to the U.S. He earned the enmity of his tribe after advo¬ cating Indian nonresistance to white expansion and accepting a land grant from Pennsylvania.
Cornwall Administrative (pop., 2001: 501,267, including the Isles of Scilly) and historic county, southwestern England. Located on a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean and terminating in Land's End, it is the most remote of English counties; its county seat is Truro. Southern Cornwall is a popular tourist area; much of the coast is now protected by the National Trust. Tin, mined in Cornwall for at least 3,000 years, attracted prehistoric settlers, and there are stone relics in the area. Since 1337 the manors of Cornwall have belonged to the English sovereign’s eldest son, who acts as duke of Cornwall.
Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl (b. Dec. 31, 1738, London,