708 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Of course one of the principal uses of the grain is that made of it by 

 distillers in the manufacture of alcoholic liquors. Large quantities of 

 corn oil are used in the manufacture of soft soap in foreign countries. 

 It also is used as an adulterant of olive oil. Pure corn oil is generally 

 regarded as superior to the ordinary olive oil. 



Fiber is manufactured from the shell or outer portion of the stalk, 

 while the inner portion, or pith, is ground and made into a product called 

 cellulose, which is used in packing the coffer dams of warships. Pyroxline 

 varnish is also made from the shell of the stalk. The other portions of 

 the stalk and the leaves are ground and prepared for stock and poultry 

 feed. The husks are utilized in the manufacture of mattresses. The cobs 

 are turned into cob pipes, and by the process of fermentation vinegar also 

 Is made from the cobs. 



It is unfortunate that farmers as a rule do not make more thorough 

 use of the corn plant on the farms. More than one-third of its value is 

 allowed to go to waste on many farms where the stalks are burned. 



CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



Mrs. F. C. Furbush, Walker. Io^ya, before Linn County Farmers' Institute. 



"Corn is King, and he who would be a Prince of the Realm must 

 cultivate it most scientifically. 



The remorseless scythe of Father Time has at last winnowed another 

 century and trailed its eventful record across the plains of eternity. He 

 has garnered from it a marvelous harvest of noble deeds, illustrious 

 names and wonderful scientific inventions for our benefit. He recorded 

 greater progress in every avenue of human activity during the nine- 

 teenth century than in all others combined. Yet with all this wealth, 

 of achievement at command and with all the improvements that have 

 been accomplished, we are still dependent upon the farmer for the 

 necessities of life. He still feeds and clothes the multitudes as in the 

 day of the Pharaohs, and his rank amoung men yet remains as Washing- 

 ton recognized it — "The most healthful, the most useful, and the most 

 honorable employment of man." 



Secretary of Agriculture Wilson says: "We have reached am era in 

 which the farmer of the Mississippi Valley is decidedly to the front. 

 Never before was he so prosperous, and I am convinced his prosperity 

 is not ephemeral." He contributes a crop of wheat every year that 

 exceeds the annual output of all the gold and silver mines of this country 

 — his yield of oats quite equals the value of our coal and copper mines; 

 and his annual contribution of corn is worth more in the markets of the 

 world than the combined annual output of all the mines of the United 

 States. But this is only a tithe of which he contributes toward the wel- 

 fare of humanity; for the same force that brought Putnam from the plow. 



