re outside heaven. Of them all
the Raja and his harems liked none better than the reed from which they
could suck honey. But Indra, being a jealous god, was wroth when he
looked down and beheld mere mortals enjoying such delights. So he willed
the destruction of the enchanted garden. With drought and tempest it was
devastated, with fire and hail, until not a leaf was left of its
luxuriant vegetation and the ground was bare as a threshing floor. But
the roots of the sugar cane are not destroyed though the stalk be cut
down; so when men ventured to enter the desert where once had been this
garden of Eden, they found the cane had grown up again and they carried
away cuttings of it and cultivated it in their gardens. Thus it happened
that the nectar of the gods descended first to monarchs and their
favorites, then was spread among the people and carried abroad to other
lands until now any child with a penny in his hand may buy of the best
of it. So it has been with many things. So may it be with all things.

X

WHAT COMES FROM CORN

The discovery of America dowered mankind with a world of new flora. The
early explorers in their haste to gather up gold paid little attention
to the more valuable products of field and forest, but in the course of
centuries their usefulness has become universally recognized. The potato
and tomato, which Europe at first considered as unfit for food or even
as poisonous, have now become indispensable among all classes. New World
drugs like quinine and cocaine have been adopted into every
pharmacopeia. Cocoa is proving a rival of tea and coffee, and even the
banana has made its appearance in European markets. Tobacco and chicle
occupy the nostrils and jaws of a large part of the human race. Maize
and rubber are become the common property of mankind, but still may be
called American. The United States alone raises four-fifths of the corn
and uses three-fourths of the caoutchouc of the world.

All flesh is grass. This may be taken in a dietary as well as a
metaphorical sense. The graminaceae provide the greater part of the
sustenance of man and beast; hay and cereals, wheat, oats, rye, barley,
rice, sugar cane, sorghum and corn. From an American viewpoint the
greatest of these, physically and financially, is corn. The corn crop of
the United States for 1917, amounting to 3,159,000,000 bushels, brought
in more money than the wheat, cotton, potato and rye crops all
together.

When Columb