As High as an Elephant's Eye?

Growing up, I remember being told that New Jersey's world-class sweet corn should be "knee-high by the Fourth of July." This folk wisdom may once have held true, but modern plant breeding has rendered it obsolete. Corn now grows faster. In fact, I ate my first dozen ears of farm-grown New Jersey sweet corn two days ago.

The Howell Farm corn crop -- it's field corn and some popcorn, but not sweet corn -- is currently waist to chest high.

I did some googling around and one writer suggested a new saying: "The corn is as high as an elephant's eye by the Fourth of July."