354 CEREALS, 



of oil. Pop corn has the least starch of any of the varie- 

 ties and the most oil. 



It will be remarked there is a great difference in the dis- 

 tribution of the oily and glutinous parts of corn. Many of 

 our Southern kinds have- it deposited on the sides, while the 

 starch is in the centre and extends to the top of the grain 

 bulging it up in a rounded form, and when the grain be- 

 comes dry the starch cells retract, causing the top of the 

 grain to be rough, having little dints or pits in it. 



The horny outer covering of the grain is composed largely 

 of oil and gluten, with some starch interspersed. In the 

 process of the fermentation of malt in distilling corn, this 

 oil rises to the surface and f is sometimes saved and used for 

 illuminating purposes. As much as 11 per cent of oil is 

 found in some varieties. On this oil depend its keeping 

 qualities, as it retards decomposition. Thus corn, planted, 

 is enabled to preserve, through its oily portions, a sufficient 

 amount of pabulum to support the young plant, until it 

 has time to throw out roots and get its support from the 

 soil. Also meal made of the flinty corns will keep well, 

 its oil preserving it ; while the soft corn meal, unless kiln- 

 dried, will soon sour. The abundance of oil makes corn 

 pop. The oil when heated to a certain point becomes 

 suddenly decomposed, and in such a violent manner the 

 cells are ruptured by the sudden expansion of the carburetted 

 hydrogen gas formed by the decomposed oil, and the whole 

 grain is retrofexed on itself. 



The proportions of oil in corn varies with the variety, 

 being as much as 11 per cent in some, and becoming less in 

 others, down to none. One hundred bushels of ordinary 

 flint corn will yield fifteen gallons of oil. If corn be 

 placed in lye the oil next the hull forms with lye a soap, 

 which causes the skin to slip off easily, and this is the 

 manner in which lye hominy is made. The lye not only 

 loosens the skin, but acting on the mucilage around the 

 germ liberates that too. Flinty corn meal will not rise 



