Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-21

A picture of grain of corn, cut through the
middle and highly magniied, is a very wonder
full thing indeed, being nothing more nor less
than little starch box. Beneath the outer
layer of woody tissue may be seen the granules
of starch, packed in the most beautiful way,
the arrangement being after q crystalline man
ner. Enclosed within this curious nest OF
starch granules is the oval-shaped germ" sc
called. although the real germ is the little
''plumule" inside, which will eventually unfold
the first seed leaf of the plant. immediately
surrounding the plumule, in the center OF
which exists microscopic bit of protoplasm
that is the primary source Of the vegetable life
ia a quantity of heterogeneous matter with large
percentage of oil. Processes have re-
Gently been devised for extracting this
oil, and two factories are now
turning it out in considerable quantities. Every
part of the corn plant is useful. even to the
husks, which are utilized by the paper makers
as material for pulp, by upholsterers as q
filling for mattresses and the like, by orange
growers for packing their fruit and by the
South Americans Us wrappers for cigarettes.
CORN INSTEAD OF RICE IN CHINA.
Col. Murphy asserts that corn can be landed
on the coast of China from the United States in
thirty days by steam, and can be sold for one
half the price Of rice, which, as everybody
knows, is the principal food of the Chinese.
When they find this out it will not take the pig
tailed Orientals long to learn how to cook maize.
They are SO poor that they will eat anything
which will sustain life cheapness being the first
consideration. Surprising this frugal diet once
introduced among them, it il amazing to con-
slider the quantity of the cereal which they
would consume. taking into view the fact that
the population of that country il 400 600 OOO
Processes are said to have been recently de-
vised by which baked corn bread can be pre-
served in good condition for q year or even
more. At present 10000, OG0 bushels of the
maize produced i'll this country are annually used
for purposes Of distillation.
THE QUALITIES OF MAIZE
az an edible depend so largely upon the cook
ing Of it that the utmost stress is laid upon the
importance of educating the people abroad in
the proper methods of preparing it for the
table. What an excellent thing it would be il
only score or SO Of colored experts from Vir-
ginia or the CarOlinas could give popular in
struction on the subject in the various countries
of Europe. No other cooks have ever produced
such results with this cereal as the negroes of
the south, simple rs their methods commonly
were and are to this day. No better process has
ever been discovered than that of gathering the
corn fresh from the fields and pounding it in a
mortar in quantities sufficient for daily needs.
Bread thus prepared, hot from the ashes,
or just lifted from the smoking board
before the roaring fire, is revela-
ton to the Yankee of the north, where
corn bread, rs commonly made, is apt to taste
like 30 much chicken feed. White meal Seems
to be regarded with more favor than the yellow
In Europe, just rs it is in the southern states.
OF all the dishes produced from maize none has
excited such marked interest in foreign lands
as popped corn, the popping Of which arouses
the utmost astonishment on the part Of obsery-
ers unfamiliar with the grain.