A Botanical and Economic Study. 177 



CHAPTER VI. 



Utility. 



THE maize plant subserves many important uses. The 

 study of our plants from a utilitarian point of view is 

 recent. 



Professor Goodalc, in his presidential address at Wash- 

 ington, in 1 891, before the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, said 1 : " Improvement of the good 

 plants we now utilize, and the discovery of new ones, must 

 remain the care of a large number of diligent students and 

 assiduous workers." "One phase of it is being attentively 

 and systematically regarded in the great experiment stations ; 

 another phase is being studied in the laboratories of chem- 

 istry and pharmacy, while still another presents itself in the 

 museums of economic botany." 



As population increases, and the centres of mart and trade 

 become more closely aggregated together, economic us< 

 our food supplies must be inaugurated, and foods of small 

 cost and great nutritive power must be substituted for those 

 of great cost and very little food value. 



Human Food. — Does maize possess the quality of a 

 perfect food ? This question can be answered only by a 

 reference to analytical tables, and a comparison of the 

 nutritive ratios of maize with other foods which enter into 

 our dietaries. Evidently a proper food must minister to all 

 the requirements of the human frame. A good food must 

 supply the waste which takes place and maintain the system 

 in a condition of vigorous health. 



1 Goodale, Pop. Sci. Month.. November and December, 1891. 



