SECRETARY'S REPORT. 95 



stimulating than any other kind of bread used by us. Its 

 fattening qualities are great. If less nutritive than wheat its 

 bulk is scarcely less important than its nutritive qualities. The 

 average price of wheat has sometimes ranged as high as two 

 and a half dollars, when that of Indian corn was at one dollar. 

 If prices were based on actual nutritive value, we should get 

 less than half the nutriment in the wheat, that we should get 

 in corn of the same money value. 



Oily corn makes a dry bread and is not so adhesive. Rye is 

 generally mixed with it. Tlie southern and Oregon corn con- 

 tain a large percentage of starch, and are therefore preferred 

 by some for bread making. 150 pounds of corn it has been 

 found in France, make from 215 to 223 pounds of bread. 

 Experiments there show that the yellow corn is dryer and harder 

 and resists moisture better than the white, giving less bran and 

 more meal by about one-twentieth. Here, fourteen pounds of 

 good corn meal make about ninety pounds of mush, so thick as 

 not to run. 



If ground too fine, Indian meal is liable to suffer injury from 

 exposure to the air. The difference in meal depends a good 

 deal on the miller and the mills. Some samples are soft, others 

 sharp and gritty, the effect not so much of fine or coarse grind- 

 ing as of other causes, as tlie manner in which the mill stones 

 are dressed, &c. So that the quality of bread made from Indian 

 corn will depend much on the manner in which it is ground. 



Common brown bread, or what is often called Boston brown 

 bread, contains ordinarily two parts of corn to one of rye meal 

 by measurement. To three quarts of this mixed meal a gill of 

 molasses is added, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of 

 saleratus and a teacupful of home-brewed or a half teacupfiil 

 of brewer's yeast. An article known as maizena, manufac- 

 tured at Glen Oove, Long Island, of white southern corn, and 

 put up in pound packages of snowy whiteness, is said by some 

 to be equal to the best Bermuda arrow root for blanc-mange, 

 minute puddings, &c., &o. 



Large quantities of early sweet corn are scalded when green, 

 separated from the cob, and kiln dried for winter use. It may 

 be preserved, as it often is, in its green state, by hermetically 

 sealing in cans. 



