The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-10
A NEW DISCOVERY.

to be experts, sometimes put severe strains on us laymen, and especially is this true when they deal with the subject of diet. Some one of them is forever telling us that a certain food is dangerous as a diet for human be- ings, and almost everything that man eats has been condemned by some ex- perts. Only q few days ago we com mented on the declaration of a food expert that beans contain a poison which renders them dangerous food and this in the face of the fact that no one can tell the time when beans were not used as food.
 Now comes one Dr. Hutchinson in a magazine article and gives out the in- formation that corn meal as a food "is disqualified from heavy and continu- ous use by the possession of poison ous clements or coarse and irritating particles or flores which upset the average digestion" We have not read the entire article but this extract gives the gist of his indictment against corn.
 Now, to begin with. the origin and antiquity of what we know as Indian corn cannot be settled. It is gener- ally claimed that 1t had it's origin on the American continent, but this is not a certainty. In some ancient Chinese records there are representations and descriptions of plant which shows at least a possibility that maize was known to these people thousands of years ago. In some of the cellars of the oldest houses in the ancient city of Athens some grains were found which again point to the possibility that the Greeks used corn long before the Christian era.
 But 1t is not necessary to enter into the question of it's antiquity in other countries, for our own America sup piles all the data needed. Even if this continent is not the place of its beginning it is certainly the place of its most extreme use. When the Puri- tans landed on the bleak coast of New England they found the Indians of that region cultivating, storing and eating corn products. When John Smith landed at Jamestown he found the same food in common use. When De Soto made his trip through this re- zion he also found that the staple crop was corn. In short, in whatever part of the American continent a white man has penetrated he has found corn the staple. Its cultivation was sim pie and even under the crude prepara- ton and methods of the native Indian 1t was not difficult to grow a fair crop of this favorite food of our aboriginal predecessors.
 And the Indians ate the corn In all it's forms. They had no mills to grind 1t into fine meal as we do. nor did they manufacture 1t into breakfast foods" but they found many ways to utilize it. The green corn dance held to celebrate the season when the ears were mature enough to eat was one of their most momentous and solemn festivals. Their hominy or sofka, was a standing dish. and parched corn, pounded to meal in a mortar. fur nished them a portable and sustaining food on their long marches or hunting expeditions. Corn was the universal standby of the Indian. Considering their mode of life and their ignorance of medical and dietetic knowledge they were a robust and healthy race, and whatever diseases and ailments they may have had did not proceed from corn diet
 And the whites followed the example set them by the red man: The Puri- tans found that in the new country Indian corn was the easiest and most reliable crop they could raise while they were bringing the forests under cultivation. In their little clearings they grew corn when no other grain crop was profitable or possible. It was the same in Virginia, in Florida and in all the other new settlements, following the examples set them by those upon whom they had intruded. Where can we find a more robust peo- nIe, man. woman or child, than were