CONSUMPTION OF MAIZE. ot 
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purveyors of maize to our markets the principal are Argentina, 
Roumania, and Russia. Canada is also credited with a 
considerable contribution in the annual Statements of Trade, 
but the shipments from the Dominion consist almost 
entirely of grain produced in the United States. From the 
latter country we received in 1899 direct consignments 
amounting to over 39,000,000 cwts. ; Argentina furnished 
fot oOOuewes., INoumania,, 7,354,000 cwts.; and “Russia 
2,640,000 cwts. Practically the whole of the maize meal 
imported is supplied by the United States. 
Maize occupies a larger area than any other crop in the 
United States, its acreage usuaily ranging from 75,000,000 
to 80,000,000 acres, with a production approaching 
2,000,000,000 bushels annually. Of this large production 
about 90 per cent. is retained for home consumption, .and of 
the remainder over three-fourths is distributed amongst 
European countries, mainly the United Kingdom, Germany, 
Netherlands, and Denmark; while Canada takes most of the 
balance. . 
In the United States, as elsewhere, maize is chiefly 
utilised as food for stock, especially for pigs, but it also enters 
largely into human consumption in various forms, and in the 
southern States maize bread is a popular diet. Other uses to 
which this grain is put in America include the manufacture of 
starch, glucose, whisky, and alcohol. The quantity of maize 
annually consumed in the United States in the manufacture 
of glucose is estimated at 40,000,000 bushels, and practically 
the whole of the starch of commerce for the entire country is 
derived exclusively from the same grain. Apart from the 
grain, the stalk and blades are also valuable as feeding 
materials and for other purposes, though these portions of 
the plant are generally left on the field to be burned before 
the planting of the next crop. The following passage from 
_areport™ by the Department of Agriculture at Washington 
presents a concise description of the economic value of 
maize from an American point of view -—“Itis predominantly 
the characteristic cereal crop of the United States, and its 
_money value is, perhaps, greater than that of any one crop, 

* Composition of Maize. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1898. 
