204 Singing Valleys 



Ice cream is a product of American corn. Not only does the 

 milk which goes into its manufacture come from corn-fed 

 cows; also the sweetness of the cream is created by corn sugar, 

 or dextrose. Out of that starchy endosperm in the kernel of 

 corn which Nature provided for the feeding of the embryo 

 plant come syrups and sugars which rival the sweets of the 

 cane. 



Maize and sugar made political history on this hemisphere. 

 When Spain had exhausted the mines in the West Indies, she 

 let the islands go to France and Britain. The new owners in 

 the Caribbean Sea imported sugar cane from India, planted it 

 in all the islands and reaped fortunes in sugar far beyond the 

 wealth the Spaniards had taken from the earth. The sugar 

 plantations and rum distilleries poured enormous revenues 

 into European treasuries. During the Seven Years' War, 

 Britain captured not only Canada, but also France's posses- 

 sions in the Caribbean. These were estimated at a far greater 

 value than Canada and the northern fur trade. In fact, when 

 the preliminaries of the Treaty of Paris were under discussion, 

 there was a serious debate in Parliament as to whether Canada 

 or Guadeloupe should be kept as a war prize. England elected 

 to keep Canada, in order to safeguard her American corn- 

 growing colonies, at the expense of her own sweet tooth. 



A century later and the choice would have entailed no 

 sacrifice. In those hundred years science was to discover sugar 

 in the kernel of the American corn, and to develop a method 

 of refining it. The promised land, flowing with milk and 

 honey, was to be found at last in the American corn belt. 



There was nothing extraordinary or daring in looking for 

 starch in the kernel of the maize. Even the ancient peoples 

 knew that most cereal grains contained a sticky substance 

 which could be soaked out of them and used in solution to 

 stiffen textiles. Starched linens were worn by the ladies of 

 ancient Egypt, Crete and Greece. Homer's Nausicaa of the 

 white arms, when she wanted a wagon and mules to carry 



