Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — Indian Corn. [ARTICLE]

Indian Corn.

The typical plant of the new world Is maize, or Indian corn. The early adventurers and settlers both in North and South America found In it a delicious food, easily cultivated, apparently indifferent to soil or climate, yielding in abundance twice that of any other grain, with much less labor, and susceptible of preparation for the table in many forms.' The white settlers found it the food of the Indians and made it their own, and for four centuries it has been the best known, as it is the cheapest and most nutritious, of the food supplies in the western hemisphere. And yet, after these centuries of knowledge, it has not obtained great favor in Europe. The potato, another plant indigenous to America, early became a popular European food,com! mon to the tables of the rich and poor, and the chief support of the poor in Ireland, but corn, a much more nutritious food, and quite as easily cultivated, has never been widely adopted. Our most persistent missionary efforts have accom-

plished but little more than convincing Europeans that our corn is good food for animals, though Colonel Murphy hopes for good results from bis efforts of the past few years. We whoarefamiliar from childhood with roasting ears, mush and milk, corn bread, johnny cake, and all the various forms of toothsome dishes that can be made out of Indian corn, wonder at the supineness, or rather obstinacy, with which people abroad meet our recomendations of it The poorer people stick by their heavy and unpalatable black bread, while the wealthier classes look with disdain upon a grain they think only fit for horses and hogs. The American aborigines regarded it as the best gift of the Great Spirit, and their folk lore abounds in stories and legends concerning it. In “Hiaw3tha” Longfellow repeats one of the legends of this “new gift of the Great Spirit” One of the great results of the Exposition will undoubtedly be to make this golden grain more familiar to the world and prove its value as one of the best of foods.