The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-11-09
THE EMPIRE OF CORN.
By Frederick J. Haskin. in the Picayune.

market Tor an American product would
rebuild our merchant marine. He also
predicted that when the Panama Canal
was completed America would offer at
the potts of China and India a SubSti-
tute for rice at half the price of tina.
staple and of twice its food value AS
a result of Mr.. Murphy's missionary
work corn bread is still called Muir
ply bread in some of the European
capitals
Twenty years ago We exported only
| I percent OF our corn. We export only
| 10 percent at present; but the mag
| nlfcent home demand has put the CO.
real on commercial basis that insures
again the possibility of its becoming
fuel again, except in the event of a
serious panic The bulk of the crop at
| present never leaves the counties in
which it is grown. The producers
prefer to convert it into meat, cheese,
butter, milk, or other products. While
America has learned to assimiliate
| her corn in large quantities, Austria
| Hungary is now the second corn-prO-
ducing country in the world, and her
product is increasing every year, but
| the demand increases so much more
rapidly than the production that the
| annual imports increase materially
each year. Northern China, Italy and
| parts Of Africa are now using large
quantities OF corn for food. Our heav-
lest exports 60 to England, Holland.
Germany and Denmark. and a part of
the corn imported into these countries
finds its way to the tables OF the in
habitants.
Corn grows from Siberia to the
South Sea Islands. although the great
est producing section is the Corn Belt
in the United States, the latitude of
which is measured by the northern and
southern boundaries of Illinois. AL
most every civilized country is now
growing corn, and the acreage is being
expanded in most of them, but the
United States grows about IS percent
of the worlds crop, and as it will be
possible, in the opinion of experts to
expand the American crop to 5000, OO0,-
900 bushels on the present acreage by
improved methods of agriculture there
is no danger that this country will lose
her position as the great corn grower,
or cease to grow the proportion Of
the worlds crop that she now pro-
duces
Every state and territory in tho
Union grows corn. The crop means
millions in profits annually to trans
pOrtatiOn companies. 1t has built
thousands of miles of railroads in
the great west; it built Chicago, and
when the fire almost destroyed that
city corn rebuilded it. Aside from its
uses as food and for distilling whis-
key, corn is now the basis of number
OF important manufacturing industries.
Not until recently was it discovered
that the germ Of the corn grain con-
tanned valuable oil. Under high pres
sure this hitherto unconsidered part
OF the grain now yields a product that
makes it more valuable in proportion
TO its size than the rest Of the grain.
The oil is used for salad dressings and
other purposes, and is frequently sold
mas been for some years manufactured
into cellulose, used between the inner
and outer shells of battleships to pre-
vent piercing by missiles, and to pre-
vent leaks by swelling when the water
rushed into hole made by projectile.
Many kinds of starch are made from
corn, running from that which is serv-
hn fob Enf 1thJ oh .
Used in the laundry These are only
eW OF the important corn products.
mere being more than 100 altogether
The modern farmer, using the latest
machinery, has reduced from four
hours and thirtyfour minutes to forty
me minutes the human labor required
o produce bushel OF corn He knows
o the fraction of cent the cost OF
production per bushel. He lOOsens the
'round with gang pillow, plants the
rain by machinery, harvests it by ma
hinery, shells it by steam, stores it
n great elevators, ships it by train to
he lake ports and the sea, where
Is loaded upon steamships for export.
t is far cry from the methods Of
he Indian squaw who gOuged hole In
he ground with a stick and dropped
grain of corn into it by the methods
f the twentieth century farmer, but
Candolle is right the world is debtor
0 some wandering prehistoric Indian
or the preservation Of the grain that
5 now one of the greatest factors in
griculture, and the first crop OF the
reatest agricultural country in moHey
Orleans Picayune.
Fish to Fight Mosquitoes.