INDIAN CORN. 



297 



ana and Florida produce but 10,000 bushels annually, but nearly 

 9,750,000 bushels of corn. 



The annual average wheat crop of the world is about 760,000,000 

 bushels, of which nearly 290,000,000 may be credited to the United 

 States. In 1875-76 her Indian corn crop averaged 1,300,000,000 

 bushels, thus exceeding the wheat crop of the whole earth. 



It is a remarkable fact in connection with this subject that, al- 

 though the experience of the people of the entire American continent 

 bears uniform testimony in favour of the palatableness, the healthful- 

 ness, and the economy of Indian corn, it is but little known to the 

 people of those portions of Europe to whom cheap food is the great 

 desideratum. The famine of 184:7 brought it prominently into notice 

 here, and once having tasted it, even after imperfect cooking, it has 

 secured a thorough foothold. European chemists have discovered that 

 while Indian corn contains 77 per cent, of nutritive matter, wheat con- 

 tains 95. When a bushel of wheat is worth 95 cents, one of Indian 

 corn is worth 77 cents, nutriment alone considered ; yet when corn 

 has stood at ^1 per bushel, wheat has stood at ^2 50 c. ; thus, in buy- 

 ing wheat, we obtain, for any given amount of money, a little less 

 than half the nutriment we obtain when buying Indian corn. Why 

 this disparity in price ? It must be mainly sought for in supply and 

 demand. Wheat is relished by a greater portion of the human 

 family ; it may be kept sweet more readily in any of its stages of 

 manufacture, whether stationary, or during transportation by sea or 

 land ; hence its superior commercial value. Then, all the world is 

 familiar with it as an article of food, while not a tenth of its popu- 

 lation ever heard of Indian corn. Wheat needs no introduction 

 among any people, while maize has required thorough judicious and 

 persistent effort by European Governments to induce even famishing 

 communities to consume it. 



It is well known that residents in American cities are small con- 

 sumers of Indian corn, in comparison with those who live in rural 

 districts. This is because the former do not so well understand the 

 art of cooking it in the numerous forms of which it is susceptible. 

 No wonder that European nations, to whom the grain and meal are 

 novelties, should be more ignorant of their value, and should there- 

 fore refuse to consume them. But since 1855 the Prussian Govern- 

 ment has left no means untried to ascertain the best mode of preparing 

 corn bread. As corn meal, even when the dough is nicely risen, 

 always falls when placed in the oven, producing an unsatisfactory 

 bread, a multitude of experiments were tried with mixtures of potato 

 flour, wheat, rye, and other substances. Eye flour was found to be 

 the best. But most of these experiments were, unfortunately, made 

 with meal which had soured before reaching Berlin. Finding it to 

 be coarsely ground, the operators caused it to be ground very fine, 

 not knowing that no kind of grain is spoiled by fine grinding except 

 Indian corn. In spite of these discouragements, Germany is annually 

 consuming larger quantities, as her people are better acquainted 

 with the article. In England and Ireland it has become permanently 

 domesticated. Its introduction has been slow, but nothing seems 

 more certain than that a few years hence will witness an enormous 



