BREEDING NEW GRAINS 



of the various products which are now made 

 from it should be rich in certain other 

 elements. So the corn kernel was studied in 

 order to find out precisely what it was made 

 of; then by breeding it should be changed. By 

 taking kernels from a series of ears known to 

 be rich in one particular element, and breeding 

 from these ears year in and year out, carefully 

 selecting for future seed only the richest and 

 best kernels and only those approaching the 

 ideal established, — so, little by little, with in- 

 finite pains and patience, new corns have been 

 built up, having an entirely new chemical com- 

 position, or, better put, having a different ratio 

 between elements. 



A manufacturer would like a corn made for 

 his uses. He would be making, we will say, 

 corn-oil, now one of the most valuable prod- 

 ucts of the corn plant. It is in large demand 

 among the olive-oil manufacturers of Europe; 

 and while it is not comforting to think that 

 the integrity of so common a food as imported 

 salad-oil should thus be brought into question, 

 it is yet satisfying to know that so large an 

 amount of the imported article may have been 

 in America before as corn-oil, pronounced by 



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