1580 
‘Jbe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 25, 1919 
Ship your furs here. Our prices 
are record breaking high. We 
pay all your shipping charges on 
shipments of $20 and over. On 
shipments of $100 and over you get 5% 
additional and a liberal assortment. 
Put your own valuation on. We will 
hold them separate on request.Price list 
and Trapper Guide sent free on request 
HARRY LEVY ’this'll! 
ItHli llMlllli 
fissiS | 
EVERYWOMAN’S 
CANNING BOOK 
The A B C of Safe Home Canning and Preserving 
MARY B. HUGHES 
This hook has been examined before publication and is 
found, to conform to the principles of the United States 
Food Administration in regard to the conservation of foods. 
E VERY housekeeper is planning for renewed 
efforts in canning this year, and there is a 
wider interest in modern practice than 
ever before. Methods have changed greatly 
within a comparatively short period, and many 
women feel the need of up-to-date recipes, brought 
together in convenient form. “Evorywoman's 
Canning Book” is calculated to meet this need j 
it is practical, modern and complete, 
fljf Fruits, vegetables and meats'are discussed from 
the housekeeper’s standpoint, and the condensed 
form and moderate price meet popular demands. 
The inexperienced cauner will find it a safe guide, 
and the experienced worker will find something 
new and helpful between its covers. Bound 
attractively in cloth, 91 pages, five pages of index. 
Will be mailed to any address upon receipt of 75c 
Address Department "L” 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York City 
Highest 
Market 
Prices 
If you want 
the most cash for 
your furs—in the quick-' 
estpossibletime—write us atonce. 1 , 
We need all the Skunk, Muskrat, 
Opossum, Raccoon, Fox, Bear, 
Beaver, Lynx, Marten and Mink 
furs you can Bhip, and will pay spot 
cash same day shipment is received. 
Our high prices, fair and 
honest gradings, prompt 
returns and fair dealing 
is proven by our thou¬ 
sands of satisfied ship¬ 
pers everywhere. 
One of the biggest trapping seasons 
known is here. Furs are in amazing 
demand all over, so don't be satis¬ 
fied with ordinary prices. Ship direct 
to Geo. I. Fox. Practically all furs even¬ 
tually reach the New York market and 
we can therefore pay you higher prices 
by buying direct from you. 
You Get All Your Money 
No deduction for’handling—no commission 
charge. On all shipments over $75 we 
pay you 5% extra above quoted prices. 
Don’t ship a dollar’s worth of furs to anyone 
until you compare our latest special price 
list and advance information, free on request, 
with free shipping tags and Trappers Guide. 
GEO. I. FOX 
The House That Guarantees Satisfaction 
215-164 W. 25th St., New York, N. Y. 
Spend 
a cent 
before 
You 
Ship 
Before you ship your furs elsewhere, 
send us a postal card for our price list. 
It will pay you. Costs only a cent to find 
out. You will be astonished at the prices 
we pay. Send quick. We need shipments 
now and will pay you well for your pelts. 
Those desiring to ship at once can do. so in con^ 
fidence. We guarantee highest prices and liberal 
assortments. Our 33 years experi ence is your 
protection.' 
Prices are soaring high right- 
now. This means we can pay 
you more than ever. before, i 
Ship immediately or send fer/ 
price .list. Act quick I 
XSobelJncO 
22 West 27 £ St. 
Dept 24 -tNewY?rk 
Sabo Sure Catch Trap 
for fox, coon, skunk, possum, ground 
hoar, rabbit, etc., place in animal’? 
burrow. SOLD DIRECT at factor? 
price. Write for booklet. Aarenu 
wanted. Sabo Trnp .M fir. Co. 
3118 W. 25th Street CLEVELAND, OHIO 
0&tC£>t*teHO C (2cUU ^hU/UT 
'yvc&oiy audok. 
'fU qfuAP 'ftticeA 
%-njzA- urt/its' urtAr Iu'L’Outh/ Asti/ 
_ - 'Rrouuy ^ huAr i/yu *Fku wondinZu/s 
c^ McOAoyyvtz^' ~hja& (dwcuf tr dboxL 
doX Mil, Avurti ' /ntoruu. fhts cpudcMt* ayiouju^ 
_ fond Afte r awuJC /ynoHJU^. AeaAoiu. 
fztUr&PtAAt -isyM, AWtfyvLtes tycrLO. 'tyOUr 
MvLp-Xij %tu^Ptlnr ’£pvo&' / yiciM>iy'<yaul(Z 
f-. ~ Aonoui fyOuXt sytXZLng. 4<rm & AeaZ'Mcrtic tf* 
l*Hdds£f : tAA / L cJ\£Lhjg&y Tier JtonvmLteurnA, jcMjux]/ 
'm&Jj uMAflb anadMn^xjmdi 
Mfithj Anhiu&iA/ xyro 
r-) p PAjyfct Afva/Umq, dxtid 
lituy^PtAr^L ylur 'TaaAA/. ~ . 
1-krur odrcruZ qou/tA- ■ Strict [ox l£utA ! ticH'S’7Uuf 
'Pilots tUA- —c pteck . Tloty c^ouede /yhurnterifc, 
^ \ -tLc 
/yoAfxd /jfudtuK Aijta., 176 u)i£p ij—jk, Xjuo~~ 
tfaxk — Hu/ e&ifc/i ffe XajqXuAj^ua. Mutuebj, 
Part II. 
Throughout America maize was not 
only prepared in the form of gruel, mush 
and bread, and sometimes of cakes made 
of paste of the mashed grains, but also in 
the form of powdered meal made from 
grains which had previously been parched. 
Quantities of this meal could be kept 
stored indefinitely and could be carried on 
hunting expeditions. The parched condi¬ 
tion of the grain prevented its molding 
and, to a great extent, its being infested 
with weevils. It could either be eaten dry 
or in the form of gruel, or added to meat 
or other food staples. In Mexico it was 
often added to chocolate in the prepara- 
ion of drinks. 
Maize was also used as the basis of fer¬ 
mented drinks in our Southwest, Mexico, 
Central America, and Peru. Sometimes 
in the preparation of these drinks the 
grains were moistened and allowed to 
sprout, very much like barley in the 
preparation of beer. It is possibly from 
the intoxicating effects of these fermented 
Ear of “Branch Corn ” 
drinks that the aboriginal Americans at¬ 
tributed supernatural powers to the maize 
and believed that certain spirits or gods 
were in it which produced the hallucina¬ 
tions or visions experienced by those who 
were intoxicated. 
This information from an authority of 
the department has so greatly broadened 
our story of corn as to lead us into the 
centuries before the discovery—into all 
parts of North, Central and South Amer¬ 
ica—and finds at the early dates men¬ 
tioned corn differentiated into many va¬ 
rieties ; minor ones adapted to different 
latitudes, as well as sweet corn, pop corn 
and field corn as now known. So our 
question of fact and science takes us into 
the realm of romance, as we think of the 
long ages and many countries and peoples 
so connected with the story and develop¬ 
ment of corn. The kernel that we hold 
in our hand, preparing to place it so that 
another generation may follow’—what is 
its full pedigree and v’hat the full story 
of its ancestry? To what far-off corn 
Adam can v'e trace its ancestry, and in 
what corn Eden was its first beginning? 
Up to this point our inquiry had led 
to America as the native home of corn, 
when there wms placed in our hands an 
article from “The Circle” of September, 
1008, in which it was said that a kernel 
of corn had been found with an Egyptian 
mummy “buried 40 centuries,” and that 
this, being planted, had produced both 
stalk and ears of golden corn. This 
statement, so disturbing to our acceptance 
of America as its early home, must be 
disposed of and determination made of 
its being fact or fable—so again reference 
was made to the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, Washington, and their word, w r ith 
conclusions negotiating this most roman¬ 
tic story, follows: 
Our specialists advise me that reports 
of maize having been grown in the Old 
World prior to the discovery of America 
have been made from time to time. Thus 
far, how’ever, none of these have proved 
to be authentic. There is no direct evi¬ 
dence that maize, which is of American 
origin, reached the Old World before the 
time of Columbus. A discussion of the 
indirect evidence will be found on pages 
20 to 24 of the Bureau of Plant Industry 
Bulletin No. 101, “A New Type of Indian 
Corn from China,” copy of which is sent 
you under separate cover. 
It appears not unlikely that the writer 
of the article in “The Circle” misinter¬ 
preted the word “corn,” which in English 
and other European writings signifies 
grain rather than maize, to mean Indian 
corn. The kernel of corn from Egypt, if 
mentioned by an English writer, probably 
meant barley or wheat, not maize. 
It should be remembered also that au¬ 
thentic record is lacking of seeds recently 
recovered from ancient tombs having ger¬ 
minated. Seeds brought fromy Egypt by 
travelers, who believed them to come 
from ancient tombs, undoubtedly have 
germinated and produced vigorous plants. 
Those familiar with modern Egyptian 
life, however, tell us that Egyptian 
guides, who show tourist to the old sepul¬ 
chres, reap a rich harvest by permitting 
tourists to recover such seeds from the 
ancient tombs; and, in order to have seeds 
in the tombs for the tourists to recover, 
the guides systematically “salt” these 
tombs, as Western mines were salted with 
minerals. wm. a. taylor, 
Chief of Bureau. 
Our authority so settles, negatively, 
this interesting story of the knowledge of 
corn in ancient Egypt, and of the won¬ 
derful life of a kernel germ during so 
long a time as four thousand years. But 
still the question remains, is the Western 
Continent the first home of corn? Bulle- 
Suggestive of a Primitive Form of Corn 
tin 161, Bureau of Plant Industry, under 
the title “A New Type of Indian Corn 
from China,’’again brings doubt of this, 
discusses it, and fails to determine it with 
finality. Extracts from this bulletin that 
best touch this question of corn history 
and origination follow: 
The discovery in China of a distinct 
type of maize has bearing upon the his¬ 
torical question whether maize was known 
in the Orient before the discovery of 
America. Though maize undoubtedly 
originated in America, the nature of the 
historical evidence regarding the extensive 
cultivation of maize in Chiua in the latter 
part of the sixteenth century seems to 
preclude the idea of very recent intro¬ 
duction. leaving open the possibility that 
this specialized type of corn has developed 
in China. The generally accepted view 
to the contrary is further thrown in doubt 
by references to its widespread use and 
introduction from the west that occur in 
Chinese literature published during the 
sixteenth century. 
A memorandum on the history of maize 
in China was prepared by Mei Ivi-chao, 
the intendant of the grain revenue for 
the province of Ivwantung. This memo¬ 
randum includes a list of the common 
names of maize and their derivations. All 
reference to the introduction of the plant 
are vague, except for the repeated and 
definite statement that it came to Chiua 
from the west, more particularly from 
“Si-fan.” a name formerly applied to a 
region to the west of China, including 
parts of Tibet and possibly Turkestan. 
Mei K’i-ehao adds that there is a tradi¬ 
tion in the provinces of Yunnan and 
Kweichow that maize was introduced 
there by Ma Fu-po from Cochin China. 
Mayers adds in a footnote that Ma Fu-po 
was known to have headed an expedition 
against the Si-fan tribes to the west in 
A. D. 36, and that he may have brought 
maize from there rather than from the 
south. 
Another contemporaneous reference to 
maize in China is given by Mendoza, an 
Augustine monk, who compiled the re¬ 
ports of the early Portuguese and Spanish 
missionaries in Chiua, in a book pub¬ 
lished in 1585. The first part, which 
contains the reference to maize, was 
based on the accounts of Martin de Her- 
rada and Geronimo Marrin, who visited 
China in 1575. Ilerrada was a scholar 
familiar with the Chinese language, while 
Marin is described as “a native of Mex¬ 
ico. a man equally distinguished for his 
piety and learning.” To a native of 
Mexico the positive identification of 
maize would be certain, especially as the 
reference is made in the following specific 
manner: 
“On their high grounds, that are not 
good to be sowne, there is a great store 
of pine trees, which yeelde fruite very 
sauorie: chestnuts greater, and of better 
tast, than commonly you shall finde in 
Spaine: and yet betwixt these trees they 
do sow maiz. which is the ordinarie foode 
of the Indians of Mexico and Peru.” 
