INDIAN CORN. 



299 



In the process of kiln drying, to preserve maize for transport, it is 

 subjected to a degree of heat not greater than 212° Fahr. sufficiently 

 long to destroy its germinating power ; but not long enough to parch 

 or cook it so as to impair its substance or nutritive properties. 

 Kiln drying, however, injures the flavour of corn of all kinds. 



An American paper well remarks : " The great difference in the 

 consumption of this staple agricultural product in America and 

 Europe is to be ascribed to the ignorance of the people abroad of the 

 mode of preparing it for use in the form of bread. During the famine 

 in Ireland immense quantities of Indian meal were exported to that 

 island^ to be made up into bread ; but necessitous and starving as the 

 people were, they could not be induced to eat it except when mixed 

 with rye or wheat. Some one or more experts were sent over, com- 

 missioned to instruct the natives in the mystery of making corn- 

 bread, but they were as ignorant of the art as the Irish themselves. 

 The fact is, the people in the Northern States, and even in our large 

 cities in the South, are not skilled in making bread from corn ; they 

 can make an article which is called by that name, and prepared as it 

 is with milk, eggs and other condiments, it is very nice as a delicacy ; 

 but it is not the veritable article, and no more resembling it in form, 

 substance, and taste than it does pound-cake. In fact the corn bread, 

 so called, as we find it on the table of our city friends, more resembles 

 cake than the healthful, substantial and nourishing poue of the 

 country. We have never yet seen a professed cook who could make 

 good corn bread. We very much doubt if any but a plantation negro 

 can make the genuine article. We are very certain that a lady house- 

 keeper cannot make it — she would be sure to make it too nice for 

 every-day habitual food. We are very confident that if the simple 

 art of making corn bread were generally understood, its consumption 

 would be indefinitely increased." 



The uses of oil in Indian corn are manifold. It is obviously to 

 protect the grain from rapid decomposition in the soil, from long-con- 

 tinued wet, and to retain a portion of food until needed by the young 

 plant, as the oil is uniformly the last portion of the grain taken up. 

 It serves to keep meal from souring readily, as flint-corn meal will 

 keep sweet for years, even when put up in large quantities, while the 

 Tuscorara meal will sour in a short time. There is from six to 

 twelve per cent, of oil in corn, that of southern growth containing less 

 than northern. The colours of Indian corn depend on that of the 

 epidermis, or hull, of the oil — the latter, when yellow, showing its 

 colour through a transparent epidermis. In white varieties the oil is 

 translucent and colourless, and the epidermis being also free from 

 colour, the meal is white. The golden Sioux, a twelve rowed variety, 

 is coloured by the oil. Eed and blue owe their lively hues to the 

 colours of the epidermis, and not to the oil. On inspecting very thin 

 slices of corn under the microscope, the epidermis is found to be made 

 up of hexagonal cells, much larger than those of the glutinous and 

 oily parts of the grain. The starch globules are distinctly seen in 

 the starchy, part; a drop of diluted tincture of iodine brings out 

 their forms and character with beautiful distinctness. The phos- 

 phates are probably in the state of a fine powder, while the ammonia 



