No. 144.] 137 



national accommodation, and may contain, and no doubt often do, 

 errors also. 



Mr. Greeley asked Professor Mapes as to the peculiar nutri- 

 ment contained in Indian corn. 



Professor Mapes replied, as he had before, as to the strong cha- 

 racter of it as a food. He said, as to nutriment we all eat too 

 much— we ought not to feed to fatten ourselves like oxen, and 

 make ourselves subject to apoplexy. 



Mr. Greeley — I do not think we have much benefit from this 

 corn starch. 



Professor Mapes— But people will eat the starch who will not 

 eat the corn. I prefer that mothers of the United States should 

 eat pure Indian corn, it is so much better for them and their chil- 

 dren. The corn starch for some delicate dishes, the pure corn for 

 the great markets, and of it we have more than we can swallow. 

 We can make gum of the starch — British gum — so called — so im- 

 portant for calico; roasted starch forms that gum, of incalculable 

 value. 



Mr. Greeley — I have examined the great corn starch manufac- 

 tories of Oswego and the West. I wish to show that the starch 

 is inferior to the pure corn for nutrition. 



Judge Van Wyck to Professor Mapes — Why are the differences 

 in the analysis of corn so great as they are 1 



Professor Mapes— Because Indian corn from different soils varies 

 much in its constituents in the same kinds of it. Best seed 

 should be selected always, the missip.g ingredients of the corn 

 crop should be given to the land. In that way we can always 

 make corn as Mr. Pell does; he never fails; and the quantity of 

 pure corn can be increased to one hundred bushels instead of 

 forty bushels of less perfect corn. Some say it, but I deny that 

 Indian corn contains any superphosphate of lime at all ! Some 

 of the ingredients, if added to the soil in a very dry, hot season, 

 will fail, for they demand the help of water. 



Mr. Greeley — Can you get Indian corn without the phosphate 1 



