The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-06-13

The Best Way or Keeping Corn TO
Grind into bfeal-How to Prepare &c

Grind into MeaI-How to- Prepare Il
b r Export.
A correspondent OF the Breeders
Gazette has the following suggestions
about corn and corn meal:
1 watched with u very deep interest
h efforts mad by "Uncle Jerry 7"
Rusk while he was Secretary of Agri-
culture to attract the attention of
European people to the value of Indian
corn as an article of human food, and
l earnestly hope that Secretary Nor
ton, hailing as he does from one of the
great corn-producing States, will see
the Importance Of following 1t up.
Maize is d~istinctively an American
product, and is the greatest of all our
cereals, blu its various uses and the
various methods of manipulating it SO
as to produce a platable and healthful
food are very imperfectly understood
even by u w people. Our expert
mental stations and our agricultural
colleges and societies ought to give It
more attention. Our millers out to be
authoritatirely told how to grind in
order to produce the best results. The
"corn-meal" of commerce is a miser-
able libel upon the genuine, well-pre-
pared and properly ground article. 1t
is ground too fine and proper care is
not taken to clean the corn thoroughly
before grinding.
There are one or two points, how
ever, upon which scientific investiga-
tion Is needed. When I was q lad l
lived in a country in which for many
years wheat could not be successfully
grown, and the farmers, too poor to
buy -four, were compelled to make tho
best of the corn crop and depend upon
1t for their bread all the year round ;
and 1T was the custom among the intel
ligent and careful ones among them to
preserve the cor in the husk until it
became necessary to have it ground for
immediate consumption, and then only
have enough ground ut a time to last
four Or five weeks. The difference be-
tween the meal or flour from corr
freshly husked and freshly ground, and
that from corn that has lain for some
months in the crib, bin or store house
is quite as great as that between a
newly-laid hens egg and one that has
been in q Chicago cold-storage COM
partment for sixteen months. 1 we'll
remember that it was my fathers in
variable custom to Jerk" (that is, to
pull the a from the stalk, retaining
the husk with it) enough of his corr
every autumn for the years bread for
in its native .'jacketh-an effectual
protection against filth, dust and ver-
min-until 1t was wanted for consump-
ton. And oh my how we did turn up
II noses and sniff at the corn bread of
our neighbors made from husked corr
that had lain q few months in the
crib =! The difference in flavor is simply
wonderful. And with us it was the
impression that corn-meal, no matter
how good when freshly ground, could
not be kept very long without serious
deterioration in quality.
Now, the questions for investigation,
especially as relating to foreign de.
mands, are: How can corn be pre-
pared for export so as to retain the
sweetness and flavor of corn kept in
the husk ? 1t cannot be sent abroad in
the husk for that would make it too
bulky, and that being the case canno
the f.'eshly-husked and freshly-ground
product be so put up in packages for
export as to preserve it's fine flavor for
an indefinite length of time? These
are questions of vital Importance to lie
as h great maize-producing country
of the world, and cannot our scientific
Investigators solve them?
In reading the account of Mr.. Muir
phys "corn banquets" in Europe ]
have always wondered whether or not
he really had good, sweet, fresh corn
meal to work with, or was it just such
"shipstuff" as one buys in the market
nowaday.
notice that Hon. G. M. Clay is of the
opinion that white corn makes better
food than the yellow varieties, and the
Southern corn is better than the North.
ern article. The white corn makes a
lighter-colored -four or meal than the
yellow, and may be preferred by many
on that account but it is my opinion,
based upon much eXperience. TINT q
blind man could not tell the difference,
unless possibly it might be to pronounce
the bread made from the yellow corn
rather sweeter than that from the
white. This was a question often and
often discussed at my fathers table,
but never definitely decided. We were
all Kentuckians, but when the family
was transplanted to a Northern State
we did not notice the difference be-
tween Northern and Southern corn.