236 INDIAN CORN. 



and the great foreign demand for wheat, it was espe- 

 cially important to use more corn for food, and save 

 our wheat to sell. In order to call out information 

 upon the best methods of cooking Indian corn meal, 

 we proposed, in the December Agriculturist, to have 

 an exhibition of corn bread and corn cake, at our office, 

 on December 14th. Premiums of ten dollars, five 

 dollars, and two dollars were offered for the best, 

 second best, and third best loaves of bread, consist- 

 ing mainly of corn meal ; also an extra premium of 

 four dollars for the best loaf of cake of any kind in 

 which corn meal should be the chief ingredient. 



"A Special Cake Premium. As the extra premium 

 of four dollars for corn cake was limited somewhat 

 by the cost, we afterwards decided to add to our pub- 

 lished premiums a special premium of two dollars, to 

 be awarded to the lest corn cake of any kind, without 

 regard to cost. The main requisites for the bread 

 were to be : cheapness, fair quality, and adaptability 

 to general family use, eaten cold as well as hot, and 

 when from one to three days old. Full directions for 



t/ 



making were to accompany each loaf. The entries 

 reached over two hundred (two hundred and nineteen). 

 Several entries being for duplicated loaves, the entire 

 number of specimens reached some two hundred and 

 fifty ! As will be seen below, these came from the 

 distant West, from the Middle States, as far South as 

 Maryland, and from the North and East. A space of 

 seventy-four feet of wide table-room was closely filled 

 with a most imposing display of loaves of all sizes, 

 from nearly half a bushel down to patty-pan corn- 



