Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/51

MAIZE white through various shades of yellow to orange, red, brown, violet, purple, and black ; by the crossing of varieties kernels of two or more colors in stripes and blotches are pro- duced. In the Tuscarora and some others the grain is dull and opaque, while in the so-called flint varieties the mass of the grain, the albu- men, is translucent ; the opaque kinds are very starchy, while the others contain large propor- tions of fatty matter. In the varieties known as sweet corn the grain is very much wrinkled and shrivelled ; in these the conversion of sugar into starch is arrested, and the kernel does not fill out. A well developed stalk of maize is a most beautiful object; it has a state- ly sub-tropical aspect, and were it not so com- mon it would be prized with us, as it is in some parts of Europe, as an ornamental plant. A few years ago Mr. Thomas Hogg sent from Japan a very distinct variety (if not species), in which the leaves are finely striped with white, and when young often with a tinge of red ; the plant is only about 4 ft. high, but is very leafy, and retains its markings all through the season ; it at once became popular in Eng- land, but is less frequently seen in our gardens than its merits deserve. Some writers, inclu- ding Bonafous (Histoire naturelle du ma/is, Paris, 1836), have attributed an eastern origin to maize, and the subject has been the occasion of much discussion ; the matter has been thor- oughly examined by Alphonse de Candolle (Geographic ~botanique raisonnee, Paris, 1855), who sums up thus: "Maize is of American origin, and was not introduced into the old world until after the discovery of the new." It was found in cultivation by the aborigines from New England to Chili ; varieties not now in cultivation in Peru have been found in tombs of an antiquity greater than that of the Incas; and Darwin ("Geological Observations on South America," London, 1846) discovered "heads of maize, together with 18 species of recent sea shells, imbedded in a beach which had been upraised at least 85 ft. above the level of the sea." It is estimated that maize is eaten by a greater number of human beings than any other grain except rice; its analysis shows it to be admirably adapted to sustain life, and to furnish materials for the growth of both human beings and domestic animals. Ee- cent analyses show the following percentage of nutritive principles : albuminoids (flesh- forming materials), 10 per cenf. ; carbohy- drates (starch, sugar, &c.), 68; fat, 7. The amount of ash is a little over 2 per cent., and this contains a large proportion of phosphoric acid in combination with lime and other bases. The amount of fatty matter or oil is notable, varying with the kind of corn from 6 to 11 per cent. ; the hard flinty varieties of northern localities have the most, and the starchy kinds the least ; wheat contains only about 1^- per cent, of fatty matter. It will be seen that maize is a highly concentrated nutriment, and is capable of serving, as it does in some tropi- cal countries, as almost the sole food of the population ; it is more difficult of digestion than some other grains, and where, as in Cen- tral and South America, it is the chief food of the common people, they almost invariably accompany it with capsicum, in the form of chili Colorado or chili verde, as a stimulus to the stomach. While maize furnishes a large share of the breadstuff of our farming popu- lation, it is but little consumed in cities, except to give variety upon the table ; but indirectly it largely contributes to the support of city populations in the way of meats, poultry, but- ter, &c. In the unripe state maize in the form of "green corn" is a generally esteemed vege- table, and the quantities daily supplied during the season to cities are enormous ; the varie- ties already alluded to as sweet corn are in the northern states raised exclusively for eating in the green state ; the ears are plucked while the contents of the kernels are still milky. A large business is done in preserving this kind of corn in tin cans for use when it can- not be had fresh, and large quantities are dried, being firi-st boiled and then cut from the cob. The favorite dish called succotash consists of unripe beans and green corn cooked together, and in winter it is made from ripe beans and dried sweet corn. One of the primitive meth- ods of preparing the ripe grain for food is to soak it in lye from wood ashes to remove the pericarp or hull ; the grain in this process be- comes softened, and after w r ashing to remove the lye it is crushed into a paste upon an in- clined stone by rubbing it with a smaller long and narrow stone ; the resulting dough is then patted into thin cakes and quickly baked upon a tile or iron plate ; these cakes are the torti- llas of the Mexicans and other Spanish Ameri- cans, and it is probable that this method of preparing corn is of great antiquity, as the metatl, or stone for grinding, is found among ruins so old that all tradition respecting them is lost. Another simple method of preparing corn in use by the Mexicans is as pinole; the grain is roasted, then ground to a coarse meal, which is mixed with sugar and spices ; this is stirred with water to form a sort of gruel, and, the grain being already cooked, it is very nu- tritious ; pinole is often the sole provision car- ried by travellers on long journeys, and forms an important part of the rations of the sol- diers. The hull may be removed from the grain by beating ; this is done by hand in a wooden mortar, or on a large scale by machinery ; corn thus prepared is called hominy and samp, names derived, with the method of prepara- tion, from the aborigines; in the northern states samp is the whole decorticated grain, and hominy that which is broken or coarselj ground, a distinction not made at the south ; these preparations of corn are cooked by boil- ing. Hulled corn is the grain from which the hull has been removed by the use of lye, then thoroughly soaked, and afterward boiled until tender. In the form of meal maize is largely