Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-07-30

FUTURE OF KING CORN
Phillips Predicts Reign Max and Gives His
i Reasons Therefor American Prosperity.


j. Reasons Therefor-lts Importa
Saturday Evening Post: The follow.
ing is by George Phillips OF the Chicago
board of trade:
Corn is the great. distinctive Aneri- |
can crop. 1t belongs as much to this |
soil as does the red man himself. From
the Mexican border to the hills of
Maine, from the shores of Puget sound
to the swamps of Florida, corn literally
covers our country with a great and
fruitful mantle. There is not state in
all the nation where Indian maze is
not an important part of the commons
wealths agriculture This can he said
of no other crop. Few of the men who
cultivated this majestic. fruitful Won
drolis plant. few of those who landle
it commercially, few who stake fortunes
on its price fluctuations. haze any con
ception of its significance To the Ameri-
can people and to their prosperity. The
magnitude of its acreage and volumn,
theu niversality of its distribution over
I the favored soil of the United States
and its adaptability to human needs are
! little short of marvellous No wonder the
most eloquent and picturesque COVER
nor Illinois ever had characterized it as
royal corn, Within whose yellow heart
Their is health and strength for all the
| naJions." The boyish dreams Of Richard
| Oglesby We're a,tuned to the symphony
lot the praire winds making Wild music
| among the millions of rustling corn
leaves. as he plodded barefooted be-
tween the towering rows. He knew corn
a., hot "A
/ vital sense which exceeds mere com
! mercial limits and which inspired him
| to exc!am standing upon the borders
Of this verdant sea | note world OF
| promises-and then before the year is
! CINE. i view its full frution and see It's
| heaped gold await the needs of man
The bigncss of the unions corn crop
and the Vital relation it bears To the
\ prosperity of the American farmer and
I,hat Of the country can only be grasped
thru the medium OF figures, but these
4 need be neither many nor tedious and
they should have peculiar interest for
ievery man whose heart is open To that
4 witch has large significance for his ma
4 tion
4. Draw a mental picture of a vast field
4 Of corn 100000 acres in extent, and
4 corn fields of America This is the
present corn acreage. AS a companion
i picture let the Imagination depict Il
mountain of corn containing 2.0OoooO,ooo
bushels of the beautiful yellow cereal.
This is one years harvest from the
great tield-simply an average annual
/ crop. The immensely of these figures
may we'll stagger the imagination of
>f,f- OF a a
4 cause him 10 ask: Where and how is
Iris monster harvest usedan That the
demand for corn should far exceed so
proaigal a supply seems almost impos-
a sible. But the facts show that the
worlds call for corn is far outstrlpping,
and in rapidly Increasing ratio this
enormous output of this country's corr
fields.
How this demand has grown to the
point to which 1t has reached, what are
the certainties of future development
and what 1t means to the American peo-
:. PIE may be briefly suggested by wore
of corn history. In all that may be said
Ion this score keep constantly in mine
this fact our 2,ooo,0oo.o0o bushels year
lis SO per cent of all the corn grown In
the world. Up 70 1896 we exported only
= . per cent of our crop-that is to say
: from So. 100000 to s5oo0.o00 bushels 9
year. During that period the prices re-
/. ceived by the farmer ranged from q
: cents to % cents a hushel save as inhu
: enced by unusually short crops.
Beginning with the middle of the las
! decade of the last century marked in
crease in the commercial uses of cor,
!, began. The perfection of milling ma
L.
), chinery, under the influence of American
n inventive genius made possible tn
. preparation from corn of a large varie
9 lty of human foods. Corn meal and tn
. coarser corn bread so popular aInon
a the colored people of the south, had, pre-
Il vious TO that time, been the main form
in which corn was utilized as an artcl
: of diet for man. With the new machin
, cry the Indian cereal was reduced TO tn
a f,neness of -four and Immediately thl
o product began a career of growing pop
q ularity. Dainties of various and tempt
a ing kinds were devised and faxed homi
a NY corn starch and breakfast foods 6
"a which corn was the main foundatio
u came into general use.
g This movement has steadily pre-
le gressed until today thirty large milln
lie concerns are engaged in the manufae
ID ture of food products from corn
l. authority OH this subject says that tn
se cereal is now the basis of forty-seve
10 food and los commercial products Sue
II has been the transformation wrought b
lie the change from the old burr" stones {
IN The custom mill to the modern nliilin
ID machinery. To all practical purpose
g this change in the utilization of corn {
re food has taken place within the la
ne six years
D. Meantime. from corn has grown {
= industry Of large proportions and n
~ tional Importance; the manufacture
grape sugar. or glucose. This 7
80 cent industry now consumes from 81
az 100000 to 6o,00O00o bushels of corn ea'
iis year, or more than double the capaci
ae Of all the glucose plants in existen
p FIVE years ago. How much of all III
Ed new product has been paid for by TO
81 eign nations? This is an interestil
ne question In 1880 we exported 10000
ne pounds Of glucose, worth $780, 600; in IL
at the volume increased to 11lOOO,t
to pounds worth s2,772.0O0, and in 1900 !
he sold foreign nations 222, 100000 pount