The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-05-19
Trade Commissioner Tells of Value
Of Corn as Food.

ON~%NSS
s cereal calories for over 400 900, pee
ple," said DR.. j. A. LeClerk, Trad
: Commissioner of the Department G
Commerce, a man who has devote
= twenty years of his life to the stud
of serial chemistry. This statemen
was made in the course of an address
to members Of the American Cor
Millers Federation in Chicago recent
ly.
: Continuing he said, 1.-THE 10000,
900 starving or undernourished Rus
slams could be supplied with all tn
; cereal part of their diet needed from
Eve per cent of our annual corr
crop"
IMPORTANT ECONOMIC PROBLEM
'The corn crop of the United
States during the last ten years hal
averaged over two sand three-quar.
ter billion bushels. Fully 80 per cent
of this is fed directly to animals. Oh
the amount consumed by hogs and
cattle, we get back in the form OF
animal food for human consumption
no more than 10 per cent of the corn
thus fed. Knowing these facts, is
it any wonder that we should be in
terested in better utilization of our
corn crop? There certainly can be
no greater economic problem than
being consumed by animals.
USE OF WHEAT AND CORN AS
HUMAN FOOD.
During the pre-war years 1909
10 over 80 per cent of the wheat
crop of the United States, or approx
imately 470 per million bushels, were
used in bread. Of corn, however,
only 3 per cent of the crop, or ap-
proximately IS million bushels, were
ground into meal or flour suitable
for bread purposes. 1t is thus seen
that while our corn crop is over three
and one-half times greater than our
wheat crop, we consume as food di-
rect, less than one-fifth as much Of
the corn as we do of the wheat.
Each year in this country we con-
sumo about fifty pounds of corn per |
capita as human food The Italians,
on the other hand eat about fifty per
cent more than we do, or seventy-six
pounds per capita. The Roumanians
and the people of the other corn
growing countries, e. G. Hungary,
Russia, Bulgaria. Jugo-Slavia, grow
quantities and consume
large amounts of corn.
FOOD VALUE OF FLOUR AND
GRITS.
Looking at corn, -four, corn grits
and meal from the standpoint of their
and food value, it may
be asserted from the results of De-
partment of Agriculture experiments
that grits and meal have the SAME ,
value as rice. and that
corn -four and soft winter wheat
-four have essentially equal food val
lie. Grits can therefore replace rice {
IN the diet and corn -four replace 6
portion of the wheat -four, without
decreasing the value of the food one
ota. In this country, broken rice l
las often been as much as 33 per c
cent more expensive than corn grits; =
1t present wheat flour (clear grade)
costs about twice as much as corn
Jour. Corn -four and corn grits are G
his country and available not only :
or home consumption, but for ex-
port.
EFFECT OF CHILD FEEDING. n
There is one other encouraging o
eature not touched upon as yet, and V
hat is the probable effect of feeding k
'orn grits to so many children of o.
europe. Due to the unfortunate con-
lition of certain sections of Europe, L
here has been a very large and un- N
Isual demand for corn grits. Through Il
he activities of the American Relief
administration about one-half mil -
ion children in Poland, 100000 in d
AUSTRIA, $4,000 in Hungary, and now B
100000 in Russia, are being fed C
t least one meal day containing n
ither corn grits or rice as the cereal =,
ortion of the diet. l wonder if you II
ealize what tremendous propagan- sc
a for corn grits is being carried on T
y the American Relief Administra- G;
ION in feeding almost four million So
hildren. If it means anything, it H.
9rtainly should mean the elimina- ~
on to large extent of that preju-
ice against corn, which has in the v
asst characterized portion of the H
1pulation of Europe. p,
ONEY SAVED IN RELIEF WORK. K,
ITO show you what the feeding of To-
'rn grits means in the saving of -
oney, let me cite the example of DC
Jenna: From May, 1919, to Septem- st
9r, 1921, the American Relief Ad- Kl
inistration bought among other
odstuffs, $50 tons of corn grits
Id -four at $50 per ton, 4,262 tons
rice at $168 per ton and 7,214 tons /
-four at $158.60 per ton. l have
ready told you that the food value On
corn grits and of rice, and that of Su
IN flour and wheat flour (soft of
leat), respectively, was the same. toe
lat being the case, if the American ne
lief Administration had begun in soc
~, 1919, to feed corn grits one day an
d rice the next, as it was doing tho
len we visited Vienna, and it had
ed only 10 per cent of corn flour for
tn it's wheat flour from the begin SUI
lg of its activities, it would have are
red over $29O,0O0. At the same , mo
he it would have obtained and Civ iea
to the children Of Vienna food bus