Semi-Centennial Volume. 187 



Some Nutritional Characteristics of Corn. 



J. T, WiLLARi), Kansas State Agricultural College. 



I'ii|)i>r rt'iid before the Kansas Aradeiny of Soieiice, .Tanuary 15, 191(). 



The origin of Indian corn or maize is buried in the silence of mil- 

 leniums of the unrecorded history of man and his environment. It has 

 been a cultivated captive so long, and has changed so much under re- 

 straint and domestication, that its original wild form is now extinct or 

 unrecognizable. The earliest explorers of the Western World found it 

 under extensive cultivation on both continents, from the valley of the 

 La Plata in the south to that of the St. Lawrence in the north. Accord- 

 ing to Indian legends it was the direct gift of the Great Spirit, and it is 

 certain that it was part of the Red Man's endowment of his conquerors. 



Maize seems to have been taken to Spain about 1500 A D. and to have 

 spread rapidly from that country to others bordering the Mediterranean 

 Sea in both Europe and Africa. It was introduced into West Africa by 

 the Portuguese, and the East Indies are indebted for it to the same ad- 

 venturous voyagers. It spread so rapidly from its several points of 

 introduction that some have even believed that it was indigenous to the 

 Old World. Careful investigation, however, has shown that it was un- 

 known there pi-evious to the discovery of America. Its wide cultivation 

 within a century thereafter is testimony to its excellence. It was wel- 

 comed and appropriated by prince, peasant and savage. Its beauty of 

 figure, foliage, silk and tassel would give it a place in an artist's garden 

 even though it carried no appeal to the economist. Its five hundred-fold 

 yield places it at the front as a food producer wherever it can be grown, 

 and in number and variety of food products for man and beast it excels 

 all other cereals. From the moment when it thrusts its ivory plumule 

 from the darkness of earth to the brightness and warmth of the spring 

 sun to that in which its buffeted and broken body yields itself reluctantly 

 to the mother soil, it is the emblem of sturdy determination and endur- 

 ance, and the embodiment of the beauty of Youth, the unstinted service 

 and generosity of Maturity and the resignation of Age. 



The nutritional characteristics of any food depend fundamentally upon 

 its composition and the chemical constitution of its components. As esti- 

 mation of all values depends upon comparison, and nothing can be meas- 

 ured except by its contrast with or resemblance to something else, data 

 will be presented for some other foods to a certain extent at the same 

 time that they are shown for corn. 



The composition of a food substance if completely known would show 

 the percentage of each chemical compound present, and complete infor- 

 mation concerning these compounds would include their inner constitu- 

 tion, or the arrangement among themselves of the chemical elements of 



NoTK. — For many years it lias been the practice of the Kansas Academy of Science, 

 at its annual meeting, to devote one session principally to » lecture designed to be of 

 general interest and to bring the work of the members of the Academy to the attention 

 of the general public. The lecture at the meeting held .January, 1916, was given b\ 

 Prof. J. T. Willard, of the Kansas State .\gricullural College, who, as professor of 

 chemistry and chemist of the .Vgricultural Experiment Station, has had opportunity to 

 give considerable study and experimentation to corn and its products. In order to give 

 the lecture a wider circulation in the state the Academy voted to have it printed as o 

 bulletin. The .-Vcademy plans to issue bulletins of a scientific character and of general 

 public interest from time to time as means and material permit. 



