cowdery Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Someone recently asked about a history of corn. I found one, in the sense that I have found references to it, but I haven't found the book itself. (It is out of print.) It supposedly has one chapter devoted to corn distillation. It is: Native Inheritance, The Story of Corn in America, by Howard T. Walden II, Harper & Rowe, 1966. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bourbonv Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Chuck,Ed Foote gave me a copy of an article on the history of corn. It may be this article. I will look and see and send it to you if you wish.Mike Veach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdelling Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 The weather being nice tonight (it's not raining), I decidedto head over to the agriculture library to have a look atNative Inheritance, The Story of Corn in America.It's out of print, but can be had from online used bookstoresfor $10-$15.The book is rather readable, written basically on the level ofan encyclopedia. The text immediately gives away the 1966publishing date, gushing about the atomic age (including mentionof using radioactivity for genetic mutation...) with a tone thatbetrays either a true belief in bright new tomorrows, or a convictionthat enthusiasm for technology will, in fact, defeat the Communists.That said, it's a nice read all about corn. It's got a quick 12 pageson the pre-history of corn in central and south america (apparently"native americans" never saw wild corn), and then takes us from the1700s to the 1960s in three pages, with a few statistics thrown in. The rest of the book has detailed descriptions of hybrid corn, cornprocessing, etc. I didn't know that first-generation hybrids arevigorous, but vigor drops off in the second generation, so the bestcorn is a first-generation.The chapter on distilling is an basically encyclopedia-level description,with plenty of glowing things to say about how how great distillingis for modern agriculture.Nearby on the shelf was The Story of Corn by Betty Fussell,a nice 350-page coffee table book full of fun graphics and pithyquotes. Basically a description of the culture of corn. There wasa chapter on distilling, basically being fun highlights from Carson'sSocial History, Dabney's Mountain Spirits, andFoxfire, with a bit of original research thrown in. It had someearly quotes about corn beer, about bourbon, and about moonshinethat I had seen elsewhere, but were well presented.I'm still on the lookout for information on history ofgrain agriculture in America, with information such as geographicdistributions of rye vs. corn throughout history, when and howcorn really took off in Kentucky, what early strains of corn were grown,how exactly were rye and corn used at various times, relative prices,etc. I think that at some point rye was cheaper and less ediblethan corn, which lead to it's prevalence in distilling... but Ireally have no authoritative references for such things. I'mbasically looking for information on the history of grainagriculture in America with an eye towards the influenceof "the forces of agricultural history" on distilling.Tim Dellinger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratcheer Posted April 2, 2004 Share Posted April 2, 2004 I remember hearing an article about corn on NPR, a few years ago. The thing that has stuck in my mind is that in the 19th century, the Italians (in Italy) became so enamored of corn that they started eating it to the exclusion of everything else. They then had a mass malnutrition epidemic.Truth can be stranger than fiction.Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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