No. 161.] 511 



more starch. Our Tuscarora corn has most starch of any corn. And 

 I have known persons find it quite difficult on examining 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 in- 

 sipid; 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 imme- 

 morial, cultivated by the Mandan nation of Indians, and I 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 unused 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 judiciously cooked, is universally esteemed. I 

 should like to hear something from my learned friend, Mr. D. J. 

 Browne, on the subject of corn 



Mr. Browne — My friend calls me up, and I will here exhibit a 

 diagram of original experiments made by Dr. Jackson, of Boston, 

 shewing cut sections of corn and other grains, on which in order to 

 show the starch and phosphates contained in them, in their respec- 

 tive proportions, Dr. Jackson had poured a solution of phosphate of 

 copper, and on others a tincture of iodine. The first shows by its 

 green tint, the presence and quantity of the phosphates, by the latter 

 the blue tint denotes the presence and proportions of, and by the 

 dark red tint, the portions of dextrine starch contained in the grains- 

 Mr. B. here performed the experiments in presence of the club. 



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 turning the grain inside 



