N^IO. 



American Institute — Farmers'' Club — Indian Corn. 



321 



not to injure them in plowing or other culti- 

 vation. 



Mr. Houghton, of Railway, N. Jersey — 

 Oar Northern corn, if judged by its price in 

 market, is to be preferred to any other, for it 

 brings always two cents per bushel more than 

 any other corn ' 



Col. Clark-'-Our Northern corn weighs 

 six pounds per bushel more than the South- 

 ern corn. 



Mr. Wakeman — Our Northern hard corn 

 is oily, and what is termed Pop Corn, owes 

 its peculiar property to its oily nature. I 

 read the following remarks from an intelli- 

 gent writer, " Of the grain stuffs, rice and 

 corn differ in this, that the former contains 

 the least fatty matter, and corn the most, and 

 ranging between these extremes we have 

 wheat, oats, rye, barley, &c., all diflerent, 

 and yet are capable of being applied to the 

 conditions best suited to them. It is on ac- 

 count of the fatty nature of Indian corn, that 

 it is such a strong kind of food, and that per- 

 sons unaccustomed to it cannot at first endure 

 it. The nations which feed chiefly on rice, 

 are not near so robust as those which use In- 

 dian corn, as the blacks at the South mostly 

 do. Persons unaccostomed to this kind of 

 food, therefore, will do best to commence 

 with the white Indian meal, in preference 

 to the yellow, as it is not so rich. This pre- 

 ference has already occurred in England, 

 where the article is new. There is only one 

 more observation which I wish to make. As 

 Indian corn meal contains so much fat in it, 

 if kept too long it is liable to become ran- 

 cid, and it is then more or less unfit for use. 

 In the shipments made to the West Indies, 

 the meal is commonly kiln-dried, to obviate 

 as much as possible, this tendency to rancid- 

 ity. For reasons just detailed, the white 

 corn meal will keep rather better — and from 

 its being lighter and milder, it is as much 

 preferred for use in warm climates, as the 

 yellow for similar inducements, is in cold." 



Mr. Hyde — The discussion of this ques- 

 tion here, ought to be careflilly conducted ; 

 for it may have some influence on public 

 opinion abroad. There are two kinds of 

 Southern Gourd Seed Corn — one white and 

 the other yellow. Our Western corn is a 

 flat grain, and is both white and yellow. Our 

 Northen white and yellow corn have more 

 gluten and less starch than the Southern 

 corn — so has the corn of our Western coun- 

 try. The differences of quality are almost 

 as distinguished as the lattitudes in which 

 they are produced. I have raised the Cana- 

 da corn in Missouri, and its growth was 

 there so rapid that it was fit for eating by 

 the first day of July. The white corn of 

 Rhode Island, has more starch than most 



Northern corn. Jersey corn has more yet, 

 and makes better bread. Our Western corn 

 has yet more starch. Our Tuscarora corn 

 has most starch of any corn. And I have 

 known persons find it quite difficult on ex- 

 amining fine bolted meal from the Tuscarora 

 corn, to distinguish it from wheat flour ! Our 

 sweet corn has little, if any starch — it is 

 only good to eat when green, it is then very 

 sweet and delicious. The Canada corn is 

 insipid — Rhode Island corn is somewhat so. 

 The Sweet corn grows all over our country 

 without alteration in its peculiar properties. 



Mr. Meigs — I have planted almost all the 

 varieties of Indian corn. When Lewis and 

 Clark returned from their visit to Oregon, they 

 brought with them a small corn, which had 

 been from time immemorial, cultivated by 

 the Mandan Nation of Indians, and have for 

 years cultivated that corn in my garden, and 

 have distributed its seed for years. The 

 plant attained about three feet of height and 

 the ears of green corn were usually fit to eat 

 on the fourth of July. 



Mr. Hyde — We can raise Indian corn in 

 our country for twenty cents a bushel! we 

 can have from thirty to fifty bushels per acre 

 with a very moderate amount of labor when 

 compared with other grain. Our wheat may 

 average some twenty or twenty-two bushels 

 per acre — so that we can easily have twice 

 as much corn as of wheat on- an acre. In 

 our Western world, corn is raised by the 

 plow alone — the hoe is almost entirely un- 

 used by our people, and it is not necessary 

 to use it. Corn pounded in a mortar coarsely, 

 or ground coarsely in an iron mill, and judi- 

 ciously cooked, is universally esteemed. 



Mr. Browne — I exhibit here the pop corn 

 and the rice corn ; the grains of the latter 

 of the size, and nearly the figure, of grains 

 of rice. This rice corn has of all, the least 

 portion of starch. In these grains the oil is the 

 cause of the peculiar effect of heat in turn- 

 ing the grain inside out, called popping- it, 

 from the slight explosion which results from 

 the decomposition of the oil of the grain. In 

 order to produce this result in the best man- 

 ner, have a box of wire gauze of small 

 meshes, holding about two quarts ; put in the 

 pop corn and expose it to heat, often turning 

 it about, and very soon every grain will ex- 

 plode and be turned inside out. The gases 

 canr.ot burn, nor can the corn be hurt by the 

 fire, for it acts on the same principle with 

 Sir Humphrey Davy's Safety Lamp! A 

 Light House on Lake Erie has used oil made 

 from corn for burning. Some sixteen gal- 

 lons of the oil have been obtained from one 

 hundred bushels of corn, and it is believed 

 that the oil is of a superior quality. 



The various applications of Indian corn 



