358 



CEREALS. 



It will be seen that Southern corn abounds in food for 

 the muscle and brain, being much richer in the nitrates 

 than wheat, but not having so many elements productive of 

 heat. 



Considered as a food, corn is probably the cheapest in the 

 world, except such as grows spontaneously. It is possible 

 for an adult to subsist on a bushel of meal a month at a 

 cost of fifty cents or even less, or say twelve bushels a year, 

 costing six dollars. The amount of corn necessary to make 

 this amount of meal can be grown on a fourth of an acre 

 of land, or to put it in another way an average acre of tilla- 

 ble land will grow corn enough to subsist four persons for 

 twelve months, and they would feed as luxuriously as the 

 rice-eating people of India. The capacity of the corn- 

 growing belt of America to sustain a dense population, 

 viewed in this light, is almost unlimited. 



A comparison of yellow and white corn shows: 



It may be observed that these specimens are both "gourd 

 seed." the yellow color being from the epidermis, so there 

 is not the same difference as exists in the yellow corns, 

 whose color originates from the oil. 



The cobs of these two varieties were also analyzed, giving 

 remarkable results as to their nutritive properties. A cob 

 of the yellow corn weighing 560 grains when burned, left 

 7.6 grains of ashes or mineral substances, the rest being or- 

 ganic and principally convertible into living tissues; and a 



