454 [A8SEMBL>Y 



set apart for this day's meeting, I will now make a few remarks 

 on the culture, production, manufacture and preservation of this 

 most invaluable grain — in fact, the great native American staple. 

 I have paid some attention to its culture, but as my experience 

 in this respect does not equal that of the several farmers here 

 present, I shall not speak of its culture but in general terms. I 

 know a little of the chemical constituents ; for I have but little 

 faith in chemical analyses of grains to determine their nutrition, 

 because I find that no two analyses correspond. It is impossible 

 that they should ; the air that the plant breathes, and the food 

 that it feeds on, is never the same in different locations ; hence 

 chemical analyses can but generalize. We are informed by 

 chemists that wheat is the most nutritious cereal grain that is 

 produced, because it contains the most gluten and the most of 

 bone and muscle forming materials. We are also informed that 

 by far the greater proportion of the latter materials are to be 

 found in the bran of that grain ; yet the bran is repudiated hj 

 common consent, and flour, w^hich displays the least of it, brings 

 the most money. We know that Indian corn contains starch, 

 oil, gluten and albumen ; that with the exception of but a few 

 per cent of fibre, these are the constituents of the grain ; that the 

 outer covering or bran is mostly silicious ; that it is of but little 

 weight, and that it is easily separated from the grain. And then 

 we have the practical experience of a large majority of the people 

 residing in the Western hemisphere, by its universal use to the 

 exclusion of other breadstuffs, that man may subsist on it. 



Indian corn is also in general use, on the Western continent, 

 for feeding and fattening all the domestic animals except the dog 

 and the cat, and no substitute can be so cheaply produced, in 

 America, to take its place. In its culture, in what may be 

 termed the corn-growing districts of the United States, which 

 includes the States of New-York, New-Jersey, Penns}lvania, Vir- 

 ginia, Delaware, North Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Missouri, Indiana^ Illinois, and the soutliern portions of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin and Iowa, this plant has no enemies— the crop is sure, 

 and the yield varies according to soil, climate and the seasons, 

 from 40 to 125 bushels to the acre. The cost of production 

 varies from 8 to 30 cents per bushel ; the value of the land, its 



