Semi-Centennkd Volume. 201 



In connection with the subject of vitamines, or food accessories essen- 

 tial to growth which are not included among the ordinary food principles, 

 it is interesting to note that corn carries both an oil-soluble and a water- 

 soluble accessory. Professor Hughes at the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College has shown that pigeons which "had been brought to the last stages 

 of polyneuritis by feeding polished rice or kafir corn may be entirely re- 

 lieved from the symptoms by administering twenty grains of corn. 



The nutritional characteristics of corn have been but imperfectly 

 treated in the foregoing, but it is hoped that enough has been given to 

 show the great variety manifested by these characteristics and the prac- 

 tical importance of scientific interest in them. 



American Highways. 



J. A. G. Shirk, M. A. 



Nothing is a better indication of the degi'ee of civilization attained by 

 any nation than its roads. Many places in Europe and Asia we find yet 

 to-day remains of the great chain of roads built by the Romans. Every 

 block and stone in them is typical of the vigor and strength of the Roman 

 civilization. All these roads led to Rome, so that she might send her 

 armies out quickly to quell any uprising and also that the world's com- 

 merce might center in their capital city. In China we find the main roads 

 as mere paths, and thus they have been for centuries, typical of a civili- 

 zation that is without ambitions or ideals. 



Roads are made because there is some imperative need for a means of 

 getting from one place to another. The lower animals resemble man in 

 this particular. Those animals lower down in the scale of life either live 

 upon the food about them, or are carried about by the forces of nature or 

 by larger animals. But as the needs increase, the paths they follow be- 

 come longer and better defined and we find that there is established what 

 might be termed a highway. In this continent, the best example of per- 

 manent animal trails were those made by the American buifalo which led 

 to their feeding grounds, their watering places, and salt licks. The first 

 real thoroughfares of America were probably those made by the big game 

 animals, such as the buffalo. These plunging animals, keen of instinct, 

 moving in vast hordes, broke great roads across the continent along the 

 summits of the watersheds, beside which the Indian trails were mere 

 traces. These roads were swept clear of debris in summer and of snow 

 in winter, so that the early settlers found them of the greatest use in the 

 settlement of the wooded country just west of the Alleghenies. These 

 paths led to the passes through the mountains, and beside the small 

 streams or springs which were good watering places. Along these buffalo 

 trails followed the slow plodding oxen drawing the ponderous wagons 

 of the settlers, and thus the trails were changed into roads, which by 

 fortification and small improvements became the great arteries of travel 

 and traffic between the coast colonies and the settlements and trading 

 posts further west. 



The Indians made many trails for purposes of war and peace. Each 

 tribe generally had a hunting ground at some distance from its usual 



