The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-10-13
KING CORN.
Various Uses of a Most Wonderful
Cereal.

had laid in the tomb for forty. CEN
turieS, was planted and grew into 4
great cornStalk, with spreading leav-
es and heavy golden ears. During
tkat period Of quieScence more than
one hundred generations of men had
lived and toiled and gone to their
long rest, yet the ife-spark IN that
kernel of corn survived, as by a mir
acle, and burst forth anew after four
thousand years Of slumber.
Scarcely less wonderful does it ap-
pear that the very paper this article
is printed on may be imbued with
corn stalk fibers, the new material
that is shortly to take the place Of
wood for paper making.
Are YOU going to the woods for
sport? Ten to one the smokeless pow
der Of your shotgun contains a cellu
lose nitrate made from corn. Thus it
may happen that the ducks you blaze
away at were fattened from the same
field of corn that yields the power to
drive the shot into them. If YOU car
ny a camera your films are probably
coated with cillodion that was made
from corn pith. If you are touring
in an auto your lubricating oil is
made from corn, if YOU Lave the kind
that does not gum: and If YOU have
the latest machine that explodes de-
natured alcohol instead Of gasoline,
Your alcohol is practically certain to
be made Of corn.
Corn is the most omnipresent thing
in the universe. Go where YOU will
you can not get away from it. AS the
moving picture machine flashes its
hundreds of thousands ii films on
the screen little do We think that
these miles Of picture films would
not operate without sensitizing ma
terial based on cellulose. obtained
mainly from the humble corn stalk.
The average man, if asked if he
could get along without corn, would
unhesitatingly answer yes. He would
bethink himself only of the hot 5ohn-
ny cake or corn muffin, or corn in
some form as breakfast food, or
possibly of popcorn. But how his
mouth would have heightened at the
corners if told that he must pay an
extra cent or two for every starched
thing he wears if the laundry may
not use corn starch; that his soap
Will rise in price without corn oil
from the glucose factory; that cheap
silk ties must be no more because
the cellulose adulteration is based on
corn pith. Tell him that his mucil1ge
bottle Will cost him ten cents instead
Of five if gum arabic is used instead
of detrind, made of corn. Remind
him that he must 60 back to>molasses
for table syrup, and that candies will
be both more costly and less palat-
able if deprived of the grape sugar
or glucose contents.
IF this average man still thinks he
can get along without corn, point out
to hin that the very great navy Of
this country would be fatally weak
ened in battle but for the Innings Of
corn pith in the vessels hulls. When
a shot penetrates the armor and lets
in the water the corn pith swells and
fills the hole. A navy without corn
pith would be as helpless as an old
fashionaed Spanish armada in a mod
ern sea fight. Remind the man also
that the animals Of the country rely
principally on corn for food, and that
beef, pork, poultry and dairy pro-
ducts would double in price but for
cheap corn feed.
Indian corn is as remarkable for
the tremendous quantities IN which,
it is grown as for its novel and Pc
culiar uses. In 1906 there were ac-
tually three billion bushels grown IN
the Unfted States enough to feed
the entire human family for three
years, if they were confined to a
corn diet. Most of this corn went In.
to pork, poultry. heef and through
the useful COW, into dairy products.
The acreage planted in the year
quoted was c hundred million, or
more than an acre for each man. wo-
man and child in the country. The
money value of the crop Was S1.17o.-
00O.G00. on more than sufficient to
pay the national debt.
The corn crop of the United States
IS worth twelve times as much as the
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