A TRIBUTE TO SQUANTO 345 



value of this marvelous plant, the discovery of which 

 was almost as important as that of the American con- 

 tinent itself. 



Profligate nature stores in the stalks of the Indian 

 corn a greater quantity of food than she deposits in the 

 grain. Only lately have the experiment stations shown 

 the high food value of the dry stalks, millions of tons 

 of which are annually burned on the vast plains of our 

 siaize belt The value of the dry stalks alone for cat- 

 tle food is nearly as great as that .of the ear. But in the 

 fresh stalk are found large quantities of sugar, one of 

 the best fattening foods in the world. 



At the time the grains of the ear are fully formed and 

 firm, but before they are dry, the stalk contains its 

 maximum amount of sugar, fully 12 per cent of its 

 weight. For every average acre in maize, 3000 

 pounds of sugar are produced. In the natural drying 

 of the stalk, in autumn, this sugar ferments and is dis- 

 tilled into the air, Nature's proof spirits, both of the 

 sunshine and moonshine stills, although ungaged and 

 unstamped by any collector of inland revenue. No 

 wonder our friends in Iowa are such strict Prohibi- 

 tionists, since they may, on any warm day in October 

 after a heavy frost, drink into their lungs in Nature's 

 big saloon rich draughts of this prairie dew. 



Mixed with a small ration of cotton seed or flax seed 

 cake, or with beans or peas, this waste sugar of the 

 maize fields would fatten every steer, pig and lamb in 

 the country, and there would be enough left over to 

 feed all the cattle, horses and sheep of the whole world. 

 With all this wealth of material available, what need 

 have we to tremble before the bogy men of Malthus and 

 his disciples. 



