1 Dec., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. a 581 
hever used in so many different ways for commercial and manufacturing 
purposes as in the past year or two. If we cannot induce the Europeans to 
take our corn for household uses, we can manufacture it into different articles 
of commercial value which they must take. This seems to be the trend of 
thought in the corn belt, and new inventions and discoveries annually open up 
hew consumptive markets for corn and its products. Corn is gradually entering 
into industries that seem far removed, in every sense, from this product of the 
fields. The queer corn shoes, corn hats, dolls, and neckties which were made and 
exhibited for celebrating the corn carnival stand in sharp contrast with the 
corn oil, corn cakes, and corn rubber. 
The one hundred and twenty odd recipes for using corn as an article of 
food, which Government experts published ten years ago for the benefit of 
benighted Europeans who did not appreciate this article of food, are not so 
important in increasing the consumptive demand as some of the recent 
discoveries. Corn oil, for instance, which is extracted from the grain, has an 
extensive demand in various trades where vegetable oils are essential. Corn oil 
can be produced more cheaply than most of our vegetable oils because of the 
relative abundance of corn, and in the last year much of the oil has been used 
for table purposes. No attempt has been made to substitute for good olive oil, 
but judiciously mixéd it will pass muster as a low-grade table oil. It is also 
a fair lubricating oil; but its largest use is in the trades and manufactures. 
Paint mixers employ it quite generally, and also manufacturers of fibre and 
shade cloth. It possesses qualities that recommend it particularly to these 
industries, and the demand for it is annually increasing. | 
Corn rubber is & new article which is substituted for pure rubber in 
certain lines of goods. ‘This cheap substitute is mixed with equal parts of 
pure Para rubber. The corn part of the substitute is taken from the refuse of 
the glucose factory. - About 5 per cent. of the corn in making glucose could 
not formerly be utilised, and this waste seemed absolute. The new corn rubber 
is manufactured from this apparent waste, and when mixed with pure rubber it 
produces an especially valuable compound. Improvements in this rubber 
substitute are made each year, and it has to a certain extent supplanted Para 
rubber for many purposes. ‘This imitation rubber is from 25 to 50 per cent. 
cheaper than pure rubber, but it has not been sufficiently perfected entirely to 
displace the Para article. The oil which is found in corn gives a pliability to 
the rubber compound that prevents it from cracking and breaking as most cheap 
grades of rubber do. Moreover, the oil of corn tends to prevent the rubber 
from oxidising—a fault common to most india-rubber. a 
There are five refineries of corn oil in the United States which use between 
10,000,000 and 20,000,000 bushels of corn and corn waste. Besides the output 
of oil, the refineries have made nearly 80 other different products from the corn 
But in spite of all these various products about 5 per cent. was practically 
waste until the discovery of the rubber substitute was made. The spirits 
distilled from corn constitute another large industry, and recently the employ- 
ment of the spirits in the manufacture of new grades of smokeless powder has 
creatly increased the demand for corn. The British Government has been a 
liberal buyer of the spirits for this purpose, and the Japanese Government has 
quite recently placed an order for several thousand barrels for the same purpose. 
An extensive European war would ae send the price of corn 
“booming,” because of its general need for food, and because it would be in 
demand for the manufacture of large quantities of smokeless powder. ‘The 
distilling companies are not only increasing in number, but the output of the 
largest is doubling. They absorb an enormous quantity of the farmer's corn, 
and prevent a surplus that might otherwise reduce prices below the point of 
profit for the growers. 
The comparatively new cattle foods owe their existence to the employment 
of corn in various manufacturing purposes. All of them have received scientific 
tests and the endorsement of experts in cattle-feeding. The corn-oil cake, 
which is really the refuse of factories, contains nutriment of a high order, and 
