COMPOSITION OF CORN MEAL. 3 



cereal foods. Hon. E. J. Watson, commissioner of agriculture, com- 

 merce, and industries of the State of South Carolina, who has been 

 particularly active in repressing the sale of spoiled meal in his State, 

 is responsible for the statement that in South Carolina corn meaL is 

 not only the principal cereal product, but the most important of all 

 articles of diet. 1 The same statement applies to many other regions 

 in the South, particularly the rural districts, where wheat flour is of 

 secondary importance and in some cases even a rarity. In many 

 southern families, even in the cities, corn meal in some form or other 

 is eaten three times a day, and in most families at least once a day. 



Among the common corn-meal dishes eaten in the South are hoe- 

 cake, a mixture of corn meal and water with or without salt, cooked 

 in a frying pan or griddle; corn bread or pone, made with the addition 

 of baking powder or its equivalent and baked in the oven; griddle 

 cakes, prepared from a thin batter with the addition of a leavening 

 agent; egg or spoon bread, differing from ordinary corn bread in that 

 eggs are used; and corn dumplings, usually cooked with either meat 

 or vegetables. Corn meal is used in puddings, waffles, poultry dress- 

 ing, meat and fish dishes. There is also a large consumption of 

 mush made from hominy or grits and of rye hominy prepared from 

 the whole grain after removal of the hull with caustic soda. 



The corn and grits used in the South are prepared almost exclu- 

 sively from white dent corn in both northern and southern mills. 

 In the North, where corn products are consumed to a less degree, 

 the preference is usually given to meal made from yellow corn, 

 although the so-called hominy (grits) made from white corn is a 

 common breakfast cereal. Hasty pudding (corn mush) and Johnny 

 ca.ke (corresponding to the hoecake of the South) have been made 

 in New England households since colonial days. Indian pudding, 

 a popular dessert prepared from corn meal, milk, and eggs, has long 

 been regarded as one of the necessary adjuncts to the New England 

 Thanksgiving dinner. 



The dent varieties, both white and yellow, are generally used in 

 the manufacture of meal and grits. A white variety known as 

 "hominy corn," extensively grown in eastern Illinois and western 

 Indiana, is preferred by many millers. In Rhode Island white flint 

 corn has been milled for generations to produce a kind of meal much 

 esteemed by the residents of that State, and in some other regions 

 flint corn is milled to a limited extent. 



MANUFACTURE OF CORN MEAL. 



Although the consumption of meal is greatest in the South, the 

 production of corn is greatest in the States of the Middle West form- 

 ing the "corn belt." In the South the acreage is given up largely 

 to the production of cotton, and the corn crop is not sufficient to 



1 Personal communication. 



