64 
Journal of the Mitchell Society. 
\_June 
but to change the character of the corn itself. Corn for 
human food should be rich in one element. Corn for manu- 
facturing into any of the various products which are now 
made from it should be rich in certain other elements. 
So the corn kernel was studied in order to find out precisely 
what it was made of, that by selective breeding this might 
be changed. By taking kernels from a series of ears known 
to be rich in one particular element, and breeding from these 
ears year in and year out, carefully selecting for future seed 
only the richest and best kernels and only those approaching 
the ideal established, little by little, with infinite pains and 
patience, new corns have been built up having the desired 
character and composition. 
A manufacturer desires corn for the production of oil, now 
one of the most valuable products of the corn plant. It is in 
large demand among the olive-oil manufacturers of Europe. 
The oil comes from the fat in the tiny germ of the corn, and 
the larger the germ the greater the supply of oil. Corn-oil 
is in demand for many other purposes, and it appears to be 
but at the beginning of its commercial life. Hopkins in Illi- 
nois has succeeded in producing a corn relatively much richer 
in oil than any that has preceded it, one having 6.96 per 
cent, oil while the corn with which he started only six years 
before contained only 4.7 per cent, of oil. To some manu- 
facturers the fat of the germ is not essential, so, to accom- 
modate these, he reversed the process and bred a corn low in 
fat or oil, reaching 2.99 per cent. 
The element of the corn which is most valuable for strength- 
ening food, which is the muscle-building material of all food, 
has also been increased at will, and where it could make way 
for some other element suitable for some other purpose, it 
has been decreased. All this has been accomplished by 
selective breeding. Corn has been produced having 16.11 pro- 
tein, a remarkably large amount, while the protein has been 
reduced to 6.66 per cent., a difference in protein of nearly ten 
