' Conservative.
ALL FROM A KERNEL OF CORN.
Chicago , Afarch 8. A company with
80 million dollars capital completed
its organization in New York this
week and it is to deal in nothing ulso
than corn buying the shelled grain ,
manufacturing it into thirty or forty
products and selling them. 'The
Corn Products company is the corpo
ration's name , and it controls the
Glucose Refining company , a combination
*
ation in itself ; the Pope Glucose company - ,
pany , the Illinois Sugar Refining
company , and the National Starch
company , another combination. All
these companies are to be conducted
as independent concerns , but the
Corn Products company will be in
control , and the usual "community of
interests" plan will be followed. In
one year this concern will use 75 mil
lion bushels of cash corn all to be
come manufactured products. Every
week means 1 million bushels
bought. Kansas in its normal years
raised 200 million bushels , and all ex
cept about 25 million bushels remains
in the state as food for hogs and cat
tle. The Corn Products company will
use in one year three times the sur
plus Kansas may have left from a
normal crop. It will consume as
much corn as all Europe buys in a
small export year , and nearly half as
much as the Europeans take in big
export years. A difference of ton
cents a bushel in price means 7/ . < mil
lion dollars to the products company.
That's the kind of a corn customer
this 80 million dollar company is to
be. The by-products of Indian corn
make the concern possible.
The average farm boy , hoeing be
tween the lanes of tall corn stalks ,
thinks the product of his long labor
in the hot summer days means only
feed for cattle and hogs , the rest to
the distillery , with probably a very
small portion for corn meal. Some
may have heard that the corn becomes
glucose or starch , but it would be
hard to convincethese.lads that they
are growing grain that may find its
way into beer , corn oil , sugar , rubber ,
mucilage , gum drops , wall paper ,
soap , ink , salad dressing , calico or a
dozen .other materials. It is hardly a
matter of twenty years since corn be
gan to find its way into these-products
to a large extent. Sixty years ago it
was fed only in the grain for the an
imals and ground for men to eat or
drink. Corn starch made from corn
was unknown. Thomas Kingsford ,
an Englishman transplanted in Now
Jersey soil , was making starch from
wheat every day seventy years ago in
Colgate's factory in New Bergen , and
when ho suggested taking the starcl
from maize he was discouraged and
even ridiculed. It was in 1842 that
he solved the problem and brough
from corn its first . by-product aside
from whisky and meal. Now practi
cally , all the starch madein the
United States is from Indian corn.
t was nearly forty years after Kings-
ford's discovery that the great family
of derivators was born , and every
day chemists arc working on the
ittle kernels , digging for now
sources of wealth.
The Little Germ is Overlooked.
There are four parts to a kernel of
corn the outer covering , the hull or
bran ; then the hard , -flinty or glnten-
ons part , then the starch and last the
little white point which extends
than any other constituent of Indian
corn the waste ceased. Now the
cerms are put under hydraulic pres
sure of something like two tons to the
square inch and the oil is squeezed
out of them. The little coats of fibre
left become a base for oil cake and go
back to the cattle.
Corn oil is of golden color , trans
parent and so sweet and pure that jt
often serves as a substitute for olive
oil. . Unlike other vegetable oil , it
will stand for. years in any climate or
temperature without changing its
color or .becoming rancid. In the
office of Dr. T. B. Wagner , chief
i M Tyis '
kt" )
MB. COBURN , OF KANSAS , IN JUNGLE OF STARCH , GLUCOSE , RUBBER , CONFEC
TIONERY , ETC. '
through -the tip and is called'the
germ. Of the four parts the germ ,
about the size of the wheat kernel , is
the most interesting and , when its
weight is considered , the most valu
able. Its history is like that of the
cotton seed , for only a few years ago
it was looked upon as a nuisance and
the starch and glucose manufacturers
spent money to get rid of it. Machines -
chinos cracked each grain , the mass
was given a bath and the"-light germ
floated out while the starch , bran and
gluten remained behind. ' After the
chemists found that the dispised little
germs contained an oil worth -more
chemist and vice president of the
Glucose Syrup .Refining company ,
stands a flask , .of oil , that has been
there for three years and it-is as-sweet
and clear , as the day it was made.
For a barrel of 380 pounds the manu
facturer in Chicago gets about $23 , or
six cents a pound nice price for what
was thrown away a few years go.
In the manufacture of paints corn
oil is. said to be of greater value , than
linseed oil. The corn product is less
readily oxidized than the other vege
table oils and-whito-paint made from
it remains whitewhile - -that made