Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/52

 H MAIZE consumed, it being made into a great variety I served is the manufacture of paper; an Aus- of bread :in.l cake*, conspicuous among which, trian, Von Welsbach, invented a process by U ,i ,-land brown bread, in which which the fibre of the stalks, leaves, and husks
 * il i> mixed with the corn meal in the

proportion of OIK- third. Hasty pudding, the I of which were celebrated in verse by Uarlow, is ;i mush or stirabout of Indian meal ingly cheap and nutritive food. In some lo- calitics only the dinty kinds of corn are used for meal, while in others the starchy varieties are preferred. Several varieties are known as pop-corn, of which there are white and yellow kinds, those with kernels pointed at the end, and oth.Ts with the grain of the ordinary shape; when gradually exposed to heat over a bri-k tin-, the oil in the grain becomes con- verted into gas, which at length ruptures the irrain, causing a singular inversion of its con- the corn thus popped is many times larger than the original grain, and snowy white ; as an article of food it is much prized by children and others, and the preparation of it is one of the small industries which in the aggregate amount to a respectable. sum. Corn is sometimes used as fuel ; upon prairie farms where there is no wood, and at long distances from a market where corn can be sold and coal bought, it becomes the cheapest obtainable fuel ; the cobs after the corn has been shelled from them are in general use as fuel, and farm- ers prefer them to any other to burn in smoke houses, as they think meat thus cured is better flavored than if wood is used; a pipe with a bowl made from a corn cob is a favorite with many smokers. Besides the uses of the grain, the stalks and leaves are of great value as cat- tle fodder; the old plan was to top the corn when the grain began to ripen by cutting off the stalk above the upper ear, and to strip off the leaves from the rest, and this is still done by some old-fashioned cultivators ; the improved method is to cut up the stalks at the ground as soon as the grain begins to harden, or is "glazed," tie them in bundles, and set these up in the field in largo stocks; treated in this way, i ripen* thoroughly, and all the fodder is saved in an excellent condition. Corn stalks are cut for feeding, and if cut and steamed they are considered equal in value to the common kinds of hay; one ton of stalks is yielded on the average for every 25 bushels of grain. Corn is often sown for the sake of a crop of fodder only ; in this case no regard is had to the grain, and the seed is sown thickly and the corn al- lowed to stand close in order to produce a more succulent crop ; it is cut as soon as the tassels open, and cured in small bundles. Large quan- corn are grown in this manner to be used as green forage; the plant flourishes best in the hot siiniim-r months, the time when pas- tures begin to fail. On dairy farms :l field of fodder corn is of gri-at importance in krrpin- up the supply of fo,,,l; the stalks are cut and Q to the animals in their -tails. Among the mi>eellaneous uses which the maize plant has could be converted into paper; a few years ago specimens of various grades, from the coarsest to the finest papers, were exhibited in this country, but the manufacture does not appear to have extended. The juice of the stalk be- fore the grain ripens is appreciably sweet, and both sirup and sugar have been obtained from it; the process of clarifying appears to be a difficult one, and for sirup the maize cannot compete with sorghum. The starch of the grain is converted into grape sugar, which in the form of a thick honey-like sirup is used by brewers and wine makers. As with all other forms of starch, that of maize, being capable of conversion into sugar, is by one more step capable of producing alcohol, and whiskey must be mentioned as one of the incidental products of the corn crop. The starch of maize when examined with the microscope is found to be of irregular grains with many sides, the result of mutual compression, having a distinct hilum ; the grains are only about one fourth as large as those of potato starch. Corn starch carefully prepared is much used in delicate cookery for puddings and the like ; a similar preparation is largely sold under the name of "maizena." The oil furnished by corn has been found ex- cellent for illuminating purposes, but on ac- count of the expense of extracting it is not likely to come into general use. The husks, or shucks as they are called in some localities, are put to many domestic uses ; slit into shreds they are used for filling mattresses, both by farmers and upholsterers ; large quantities are prepared at factories in the southern cities, and they form a regular article of commerce ; by select- ing the more delicate inner ones and plaiting them, table mats and other fancy articles, and even bonnets and slippers, have been made from them ; coarser ones are braided to form door mats, horse collars, and other wares. In America corn is cultivated from lat. 54 N. to 40 S., and in the eastern hemisphere from the Azores to southeastern Europe, some being raised in Asia Minor, Egypt, India, and China. The early colonists of this country soon learned its nses and manner of cultivation from the Indians; large crops were raised on the James river as early as 1608, and it has continued to be one of the most important of our agricultu- ral products.' In the older states it is a question with agriculturists whether corn is a profitable crop to raise simply for the grain ; upon poor lands it requires abundant manuring, and clean cultivation is essential to its success. In a ro- tation it is of great value as a cleansing crop ; i. e., the cultivation it demands leaves the land in excellent condition for whatever crop is to follow. Upon the rich lands of some of the western states the grain can be raised at a sur- prisingly low cost; the great fertility of the soil allows crops to be taken year after year without manure, and every mechanical appli-
 * tn.l water; this, eaten with milk, is an exceed-