El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-01-16
Corn Without Rain.

Corn Without Rain.
: ''Wheat and corn may not be grown
= after this in Kansas" said Rev. Johr
D. Woods of Evanston. The Kansa:
] farmer will turn his attention to the
, raising of African kaffir, and on thai
t he VIII feed his family aud his cattle
aud through it he will accumulate
wealth and again enjoy prosperity"
The Kansas farmer will no longer
+ pray for rain-the less of it the better.
The hot winds Will no longer burn the
crops, but they will thrive on it.
Neither sand nor alkali nor grasshop-
per nor chinch bugs will again be all
powerful factors in the annual com
putation, and everybody will grow
kaf1ir and eat kaftir and buy and sell
kaffir and Kansas will boom she
never did before. The dryest spot of
land in the whole state will grow the
biggest crop of kaffir, and the rich
bottom land will grow kaftir too.
Kaffir is cereal of Africa which
grows in the hottest and dryest places.
1t will grow almost anywhere where
it is hot. A few years ago Jerry Simp-
son shipped quantity of the seed to
his constituents, ard they planted it
and fed it to their cattle. Two years
ago we experimental on making flour
out of it, with the hope that the pro-
duct might be used to advantage in
best of success. The mills could net
grind it fine enough, so it was not al
together good to eat. Some how the
old burr process of grinding failed, and
many thought our scheme for feeding
hungry Kansas was failure. lie
product was good for the cattle ana
when the farmer could raise nothing
Else he raised katfir.
Last year we experimental more.
Nearly every mill in southern and
western Kansas was tried, but with
poor success, for the t1Our was invari-
ably too coarse to be pleasant to eat,
although the flavor was unsurpassed.
We did not despair, and two months
ago [ came to Chicago, bringing with
me 1900 pounds OF kaffir: For days
consulted with the leading millers of
the city in regard to the grinding of
the grain, and many OF them tried new
ways Of solving the problem. At last
we discovered a way. and the kathr |
flour can now be made as well as any
other flour. The old burr process was
abandoned and immense rollers used |
instead.
The first successful kaffir mill is
equipped at Marquette, Ks, and it is
dom GA wonderful business 1t is superior
in flavor to any other flour, and food
specialists pronounce it more nutritious
than the flour made from wheat.
Within few months | hope to arrange
my plans so as to be able to erect a
large mill in Chicago. The bread is
not only wholesome and palatable, but
in appearance very closely resem bles
ordinary wheat bread. Pancakes of
kaffir flour taste about as would that
of wheat mixed with some graham
flour.
81 have made mush which could
hardly be told from the mush made
from corn meal" said Mrs; Wood
''And [ have also prepared from the
5affir flour a dish resembling oatmeal,
which, think, is very pleasant to eat.
believe the new food is going to re-
volutionize cooking. Our only draw
back so far has been an inability to get
the flour ground fine enough for pas
,ry.'
J. W. Heigh. from Wichita. Kan,
says it is his opinion that within few
7ears kaffir will be grown extensively '
Ill through the West, but especially in I
western Kansas, Indian Territory, Tex c
Is, Arizona, and New Mexico. Il have =
Gen." he said 'some fine fields of ,
,affir in western Kansas, where prac- .
ically nothing else would grow. The
rain can be scattered broadcast, and
will spring up like weeds, and nothing
Gems to be able to choke it. If prop 7
rly planted one hundred bushels may
'e raised to the acre. The plant re
EN- bles sorghum in appearance. The
talks grow from four to eight feet in
eight, and the leaves are more plenti- J
al, and are also wider and longer, Q
han those of corn. The grain itself is Y
lightly larger than a mustard seed, j
nd is round, hard and smooth. The f
ull is very thin, and in grinding there +
, little chaff. The weight of the grain h
er bushel runs about sixty pounds, =
ne same as wheat, but bushel of :
affir will make ten per cent more
our than a bushel of wheat. In this O
espect and in the number of bushels h
err acre, the kaffir has a great ad- v
antage .''-Chicago Times-Herald. a