New-York tribune., 1917-05-03

Plant this season more than ever before
that greatest OF American cereals, corn! IL
IS to o-day the most valuable OF all grains LOT
in mvriad forms it can nourish man and
beast and fowl, make heat. light and cover
and give aid to the arts of peace and war
Corn is the golden hope Of the nation. small
wonder, then, that the Indians worshlpped
its deity, Mondamin the mighty, as devoutly
as the Greeks Of old bowed at the shrines OF
Ceres.
A distinctively American food plant, maize
undoubtedly had its origin in Yucatan and
received first the attention Of the Mayas.
An insignificant grass at first, probably the
teosnte, it was developed through centuries
by redskin skill and brought TO its fullest
perfection in the United States. This land
is we'll called the granary OF the world, for
it has at times produced four-fifths of all of
this staple consumed by mankind. Its aver
age yield of corn is often 2,00O000,0O0 bush
els year or almost twenty bushels annually
for each inhabitant.
Despite the fact that the earth comes TO
US to buy corn, as it did the grain of an
cent Egypt, we have much neglected this
our heritage and sold it for messes Of alien
rottage. Now, when there is talk of war
bread" there is opportunity to rediscover
our most abundant and worthy article Of
diet.
The early settlers were appreciatlvc OF its
blessings, for they learned its worth from
that ablest of teachers. adversely. Had It
rot been for the corn which jamestown and
Plymouth begged, borrowed or stole from the
Indians in the Starving times" our whole
scheme of American colonization might have
collapsed. The more our ancestors ate of
the noble ears the more they thrived. Davy
Crockett, going into the trackless wilder
ress, carried over his shoulder a bag of
parched corn with which he sustained him
self as did the Indians on the chase. In
pioneer days every cabin had its hominy
block, and the mills of Virginia and the West
were crushing the strengthening samp for
the nurture of hardy race. We have not
yet become those "vapid idlers" who "loll i'm
silk" as Whittier described those who cared
nsught for the samp and milk by homespun
beauty poured Even to this day the most
luxurious will take hominy with duck at s5
portion.
What the Indian Can Teach Is
1t is we'll worth while, however, going back
to the Indian customs and bringing back
those recipes for the many delicious foods
of which the early explorers wrote. The
American sborgine iourished corn soups;
he prepared paatable breads, cakes and con-
fections and invented many dishes which,
though scarcely known to US moderns, would
nevertheless give us clear brains and hardy
bodies if adopted into our dietary. Corn
neal. as it contains no cohesive gluten, can
not be made into the leavened bread of com
merce unless it is mixed with the same bulk
of wheat -four. The loaf produced by this
method is very satisfactory. A corn flour
as fine as impslpable dust is made by some
Indian tribes by hand milling stones which
is better adapted for bread than the ordinary
meal.
The foods which the Indians make from
slightly parched corn among the most
nourishing in the whole human dietary. The
thin cakes used by the natives of South
America, the fakelike totopotzl, the proto-
type of all the cartoned breakfast foods, are
as sustaining as they are welcome to the
taste The tortilas of the lands of the South
ern Cross, kind of glorifed and rolled flap
Jack represent corn at its best
The tamale of Mexico combines meat and