Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 126, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1917 — American Farmers Will Win The Great War [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

American Farmers Will Win The Great War

I Without food for I /• neither the United States I nor her Allies can 1 crush the enemy ::The / \ great corn crop may / \ be the real life / \ saver for us / 4P ROBERT H. MOULTON

4 HE farmers of the United States ||l are on the firing line of the great * war today. Their plows are worth y<- —II many cannon. The seed they sow /7 EglhlU* * s wor th regiments of men. For no army can fight without foo(l and “° ua,lon can sustain " ar fe ' without food. The allies, our allies, are beginning to ee l t,ie P want, not in the same degree as the people ’of central Europe, but that will come unless America puts forth all her energies to supply them. But it is most essential to feed America first. Even now a large class of onr people are feeling the weight of food shortage. Food riots and partial famine are threatened by crop failure in the United States, go it is up to the American farmer to do his best. Many conditions have contributed to bring about the situation in which there are hunger riots In a land so rich naturally. Much of the shortage of food is primarily due to costly habits of eating which for many decades have been holding all classes in their clutch. The time is at hand when the nation will appreciate the many valuable articles which before Columbus came the Indians were developing. There are many food products native to the Western world which have been unaccountably neglected. The most striking examples of unused value in foods is the corn crop. Every other nation in the world Is eager for American corn, and yet this cheap and highly nutritious cereal is neglected in the land which is its main source of supply. What wheat was to the armies-of old, corn could be to the forces of the United States.r * The legions of Hannibal and of Caesar subsisted on the whole wheat; Gaul’s conqueror in his “Commentaries’’ tells how soldiers chewed frumentum as they marched. To this day Roman and Punic skeletons are unearthed on the old battlefields of Europe and the skulls are firm and hard because of the valuable salts and bone-building constituents which came from the wheaten diet of the ancient soldiery.

Corn is no less valuable as a builder of brave and sturdy men. The favorite ration of Davy Crockett was parched and ground corn, which he carried with him into the depths of the forest. It was a saying of his that if a man had a gun and ten pounds of parched corn he could easily live a year. His diet was a trick learned from the Indians. who were able to withstand .the fatigues of ■warpath and hunting trail because of this simple and quickly assimilated food. The corn, rich in starch and protein, parched until it was made quickly digestible, was rttlxed with water. A cupful of this most simple of all the elixirs had the effect of almost instantly .strengthening the tired body. The government of the United States urges upon the people of this country that at least one-fourth part of cornmeal be addecLto wheaten flour tn the ' making of bread. As a matter of fact; earn has been used In the form of a tine flour for centuries by various tribes of Indians, and when well enough ground it is fully as palatable as the wheaten product. The coarse cornmeal bears littje resemblance to the impalpable powder of corn which the primitive races of this continent made by grinding between istones and that by hand. The outer covering of the kernels Is scraped off after soaking them in * bot water to' which a little lye has been added. This flour is mixed with wafer at times, and the*' white liquid resulting is quaffed with much relish. It is an emergency ration of the highest food value. Whittier has sung the praises of the dish of eamp and milk by homespun beauty poured. The flominy block in the time of Daniel Boone was an gdjunct of the cabin of ever.! settler. It stood at the edge of clearings as a mark of the diet to which those steel-thewed pioneers looked for strength. The johnnycake and the com pone of the hardy mountaineers of the South bear abundant testimony to the body-building qualities of the staple from which they are derived. , Corn enters into the composition of patent break-

fast foods, but long before the days of cartons and bright labels the Indians were making corn dishes which for delicacy of flavor and dietetic value put the products of this modern day to shame. They also constructed flapjacks which literally, melted in the. mouth. The tortillas of the Central American countries are a form of corn which appeals* to travelers. The tortilla is made of corn flour and Is a first cousin of the pancake. Before it cools it is rolled up and a surprise party put inside it,, usually a little highseasoned meat. It is then kept for future use. A favorite breakfast in the Central American cnnm tries, consists of two tortillas which have been Cheated before the fire. They and a cup of coffee are enough to satisfy even the hungriest Indian. Totopztil tastes much better than it sounds. It is a very thin, light wafer made by the Indians in

the southern part of this continent. The corn from tyhlcli The cake is made is first slightly parched and then pounded to a fine dust. The cakes are flakelike and*not much thicker than wrapping paper. They are carried in small bags thrown over the shoulders of the hardy Indians. Totopztil is dry and crumply and yet delicious in flavor as well, as sustaining in its qualities. The biscuit and crackers of civilization are tame in flavor as compared with this aboriginal provender. Corn flourishes In the fertile bottom of the middle West, under the lee of the mesas of Arizona, ami “even “TJT“ regions* of “the’ Northwest, “Where_uiLtil recently it had a hard time to escape the frost. One of the.greatest gifts which the Indiana bestowed upon the world was this grain of gold. The general impression is that the-redskin was merely a hunter, when in reality he was a walking experimental agricultural station. It is one of the favorite outdoor- pastimes of the Indians of the Southwest to laugh at the goffernment agricultural experts who have from lime to time been sent out there to teach them liow to grow corn. The Indians profess great interest, and not to appear unappreciative, they used to plant corn patches alongside those of the federal apostles of modern farming. The government corn came up bright and green and soon withered away, while that of the Indians flourished like weeping willows by the j-iver’s brink. The Indians in order to avoid the killing dryness often lodged the kernels three and four feet below the surface in the bottomof holes made by their planting sticks. Hence the development of the deep-growing corn which, often raises only its ear s above the surface. The corn or maize is essentially a tropical plant which had its origin in Mexico and was adapted to this climate by the Indians. The agricultural secrets of the Mandan Indians have recently been applied in the Dakotas with such success that the domain of the tasselcrowned King Corn has been much extended. The introduction of the Indian methods have made it possible for the farmers to grow a corn which can be harvested within GO days after it is planted and thus escape the frosts which would ruin it ’even In its maturity. Corn, therefore, should be an ideal food for both the soldiery and the civil population, for it now may be raised abundantly in practically every part of the country. Vast tracts could be devoted to the grain and many crops could be harvested. In winter the Americans could learn the value of the hqg and hominy, of the flavor of that delectable compound of cornmeal and pig’s head, known as scrapple, and could eat with zest fried mush and corn cakes. The summer would bring them corn flour and polenta, ajpl many other foods derived from the yellow cereal.