thin sections under a good microscope, will be found to consist of a great number of six-sided cells, filled with a fixed oil, which has been successfully employed for the purposes of illumination. It is stated that a distillery has been established in the vicinity of Lake Ontario, where this oil is extracted, at the rate of sixteen gallons from one hundred bushels of corn, leaving the remaining portion of the corn more valuable and in better condition for distillation than before the oil is extracted. On this oil depends the
POPPING QUALITIES OF CORN.
For, when the kernels are heated to a temperature sufficiently high to decompose the oil, a sudden explosion takes place, and every cell is ruptured by the expansion of gaseous matters arising from the decomposition of the oil, and the formation of carburetted hydrogen gas, such as is sometimes used in lighting large cities, the grain being completely evoluted and folded back, or turned inside out. This property is remarkably strong in the pop corn, and is common, in a greater or less degree, in all kinds of corn that abound in oil; but those varieties destitute of a horny covering, as the Tuscarora, and white flour-corn, will not pop under any circumstances whatever.
This change in corn is one of considerable importance, so far as regards facility of digestion; for, after the decomposition or extraction of this oil, it is more readily digested by man, though less fattening to poultry, cattle, swine, &c.
One important use of the oil in corn is undoubtedly to prevent the rapid decomposition of the kernels, when sown in the soil, and to retain a portion of pabulum or food, until needed by the young plant, and is always the last portion of the grain taken up. It also serves to keep meal from souring, as it has been observed that a flint-corn meal will keep sweet for years, even when put up in large quantities, without being kiln-dried; while the meal of Tuscarora corn will become sour in a very short time.
