Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1885 — Eighty Tons of Popcorn. [ARTICLE]

Eighty Tons of Popcorn.

“Novelties in popcorn? Yes, sir,” said Boston’s only manufacturer of this toothsome commodity. “There's what we call ‘boss popcorn candy.’ It is of assorted flavors—strawberry, chocolate and vanilla—and such cake is put up in white waked paper. We sell it in lots to suit, and it retails for 5 cents per cake. Then we have a heavysugared corn in assorted flavors, called ‘crumbs of comfort.’ As a novelty, also, we get up large guess corn-balls, of any size, for church and society fairs. We made one some time ago containing three bushels of corn, and one quite recently containing over a bushel.” “Any more novelties?” “Yes, we make what we call ‘a return corn-ball,’with elastic attached,; which retails for a penny. And we are putting corn of assorted flavors into lace bags of many colors. These retail at 5 cents per bag. In the last four years we have gotten up no less than eight different styles of penny popcorn prize-packages. For Christmas we get up plain white and red and white sugared corn, of assorted flavors, for stringing. These strings of corn, as you know, are largely used for decorating Christmas trees. We have also what are called coarse corn cak’es, made with pure Porto Rico molasses, and put up in glass-front cans, and a ground or fine corn cake, also made with molasses, and put up in tin boxes. The latter are especially for the Southern and Western trade, but there is also a large demand for them in New England.” “Do you sell many goods in the West?” “We have been in the habit of sending goods to the wholesale grocers and confectioners of St. Louis and Chicago, but owing to the high price of corn for the past year or two, have had to sell them direct to the jobbers or middlemen nearer home. We bought seventy tons of corn from one seed house in Chicago last year, and used altogether perhaps eighty tons. We employ about ten hands all the year round.”— Boston Globe.