This cereal grain has dietary properties very similar to those of wheat. Its flavor and physical properties, however,, are very different. Since its proteins have none of the glutinous properties it is not possible to form a dough with finely ground maize. In the Southern United States maize is much prized as a human food. It was found in a dietary study to constitute 23 per cent of the total food intake of Tennessee and Georgia mountaineers, and 32.5 per cent of that of Southern negroes. Among 72 Northern families in comfortable circumstances only 1.6 per cent of the diet was derived from this grain (8). The great bulk of the maize crop, which in this country amounted to three billion bushels in 1917, is used in stock feeding.

The proteins of maize have a slightly lower value in nutrition when fed as the sole source of this dietary factor, than have those of wheat. Its mineral deficiencies are the same as those of the latter. These two grains are about comparable in their content of anti-neuritic substance, water-soluble B. It requires about 15 per cent of the food mixture of either, when they serve as the sole source of this factor, to enable young rats to grow in a normal manner. With such a diet, however, a female rat cannot successfully nourish four young during the nursing period, even when all other factors are highly satisfactory. For this purpose about half of the diet must be derived from a cereal grain, provided there is no other source of the anti-neuritic substance. Neither grain contains an appreciable amount of the anti-scorbutic substance, water-soluble C, unless it is germinated. During this process there is a rapid increase in their potency as foods protective against scurvy (9).