CORN PRODUCTS What a good all-around food the maize is! Do we use it as it deserves? Nothing tastes better when one is hungry than corn muffins, or a loaf of "Johnny-cake." The corn flavor is unex celled when good cooking brings it out. What else but this rich flavor makes the epicure take real delight in the "hoe cakes "of the mountaineers? These are nothing but fresh meal mixed in water to form a smooth batter, which is baked on a hoe or on stones in an open fire. The Indians origi nated the "corn pone," baked in the ashes, still one of the most delicious foods made of corn meal. Hominy and grits are cracked corn, which are boiled into a porridge. Samp is hulled corn, of which Roger Williams wrote: "The Indian come, beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold with milke or butter, is a dish exceeding wholesome for English bodies." Succotash is the Indian mix ture of green corn with beans, which they called "msickquatash." Sweet corn on the cob is delicious. So are green corn puddings, and the same corn, canned or dried for winter use.
Parched corn was a staple food of the Indian tribes. (No doubt parched corn led up to pop corn.) On their long journeys the Indians carried little bags of parched corn, which they ate with water, and it sustained them in times of war, and on hunting expeditions. It was no inconvenience to carry enough for several days in the wilder ness.
Glucose is made from the starch in the corn .grain. Formerly the glucose mills discarded the germ and the horny portion, both rich in food elements. Now the germs are ground and pressed
to extract the oil, which is exported to European countries where it is considered one of the best lubricants. It is used also in soap-making, and for cooking. A process of vulcanizing converts it into a substitute for rubber.
Dextrine, a valuable gum, is a by-product of the starch and glucose factories. Alcohol and whiskey are made from the fermentation of the whole grain. Ground fine, the flour and meal of corn are among the best cereal foods, though the abundant oil is likely to become rancid in a short time.
Corncobs are an excellent fuel. They are burned in the engines that drive corn threshers and other farm machinery. Corncob pipes are made of quantities of them. The stalks, leaves, and husks yield fibre suitable for use in making papers and varnishes. Nothing is so good as corn stalk pith to pack the water-tight compartments behind the armor plates of battleships. Corn silks are used in making filters. The husks have long been woven into door mats and stuffed into mattresses. Dry stalks make winter pasture for cattle and horses. Green corn is put into silos to feed dairy cattle in winter. Cut up, it makes part of a balanced ration for stock and poultry, espe cially when mixed with the cake from which corn oil has been pressed.