_Corn, the most abundant substitute._ Indian corn is native to the
United States. Since it carried the Pilgrims through their year
of famine, it has always been considered our national grain. Other
countries have adopted it to some extent, but more than three
quarters of the world's corn is grown here. In 1917 our corn crop was
3,000,000,000 bushels, four times as large as our wheat crop. Most
of the crop has always been used as a feed-grain, with only a small
percentage for human food. The South has always used much more corn
than the North, actually eating more corn than wheat.

The foods from corn and the ways of using them are more numerous than
is often appreciated. Corn meal and corn flour are the most important.
We are making almost as much corn meal as wheat flour. The yellow and
white corn meals, milled from different kinds of corn, are practically
the same in composition, though slightly different in flavor. The
method of milling corn meal makes more difference in the composition
than the kind of corn used. The old "water-ground" meal was simply
crushed between millstones and only the coarsest particles of bran
bolted out. This ranks with Graham as a product of 100 per cent
extraction and like Graham, it may not keep well, because the germ
is left in. The new process, more like modern flour-milling, removes
some of the bran and germ. The product is a granulated corn meal which
keeps better than the other, and has practically the same composition,
though to some people a less desirable flavor.

If corn meal is further ground and bolted, we have corn flour. Some
of this has been put on the market lately and is proving a good
substitute for wheat flour; but the amount available is only a small
fraction of the amount of corn meal. Other important corn products
are hominy of different kinds, hulled corn, and popcorn. The latter,