April,: 1922. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



271 



Corn and the Milling of Corn. 



C. W. Stanley, Chemist, Canada Corn Products Co., London, Ont. 



It is now generally conceded that Indian 

 corn or maize is native to America, since 

 the contention that maize was cultivated 

 in Europe before the discovery of America 

 has not been proven. The exact place of 

 origin is- a matter of conjecture but ac- 

 cording to Harshberger, the cultivation of 

 maize probably originated on the high 

 plateau of central or southern Mexico 

 sometime before the beginning of the 

 Christian Era. In Mexico and Peru spe- 

 cimens have been found in ancient ruins 

 that are two or three thousand years old. 

 It is said that the Incas of Peru built 

 large storerooms for corn to prevent 

 famine in case of crop failure. Ears of 

 corn have been found in old Indian 

 tombs. These had been deposited with 

 the deceased as provisions for the long 

 journey to the "happy hunting grounds" 

 and show that corn had an important part 

 in the religious rites of these people. 



Corn has never been found growing wild. 

 This means, either that wild corn was ex- 

 tinct before the days of botanists, or it 

 is so different from the cultivated form, 

 that it is unrecognizable. The latter 

 theory is generally favored by botanists 

 and they think the probable primitive 

 form is. the Mexican Teosinte. Teosinte 

 does not look much like corn but the re- 

 lationship must be close, for hybrids ob- 

 tained by crossing corn and teosinte pro- 

 duce seeds which germinate. In all other 

 known cases hybrids from distinct grass 

 species are sterile. 



From Mexico corn spread north as well 

 as sauth, reaching Maine sometime around 

 1000 A.D. Corn, especially flint varieties 

 and a soft corn known now as squaw corn, 

 was extensively cultivated by the Indians, 

 and was their chief cereal food when Col- 

 umbus discovered America, at which time 

 most of our common cereals were unkno\ATi 

 here. Corn was introduced into Europe 

 from America and it is now cultivated to 

 some extent in nearly every country. 



Com Statistics. 



A glance at the world's crop report for 

 1920 shows the relative importance of 

 corn. 



Corn — 3,720, 969,000 bushels. 



Oats — 2,924, 940.000 busliels. 



Wheat— 2,623, 318,000 l)ushels. 



These totals do not include Russia and 

 some of the other disorganized countries 

 of Central Europe. The United States 

 produced 3,199,099,000 bushels of corn or 

 over 75 p.c. of the enormous amount. A 

 few years ago, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Nebraska and Indiana, had 47 percent, 

 of the total corn acreage and 57 percent, 

 of the production. In these states at that 

 time were also 50 p.c. of the swine of tlie 

 U. S. and 33 p.c. of the beef cattle. Texas, 

 Ohio, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Tennessee 

 are also great corn producing states and 

 along with the first named are in the 

 famous section known as the Corn Belt. 



Although there are several distinct 

 kinds of corn, only two, dent and flint, 

 are grown extensively. Thes€ are popular 

 today because of their yielding and keep- 

 ing qualities and because of their adap- 

 tation to a great range of climate. There 

 are numerous varieties of both flint and 

 dent corn, the majority of which have 

 been originated in comparatively recent 

 times, either by crossing or selection or 

 both. Because of the way corn responds 

 to crossing and selection it has been a 

 favorite with plant breeders and nearly 

 every year new varieties with some special 

 quality are introduced. The results in 

 Bulletin 12S of the Illinois Experiment 

 Station show what can be done by selec- 

 tion from a chemical standpoint. A single 

 variety was taken and after ten years' 

 selection for high and low protein and 

 high and low fat content, the high protein 

 corn contained nearly twice as much pro- 

 tein (14.26—8.64 p.c.) and the high fat 

 corn nearly three times as much fat (7.37 

 — 2.66 p.c.) as the low. 



A popular problem has been pushing 

 the corn belt northAvard. Varieties have 

 been developed with a view to quick ma- 

 turity and the fact that some will mature 

 in about 80 days in Manitoba, while others 

 in the Gulf States take 200 days, shows 

 what has been done. Generally speaking 

 the longer the growing season up to 180 

 days, the greater the yield but available 

 moisture, fertility of the soil and farm- 



