CORN AS FUEL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3165, 20 August 1881, Page 4

CORN AS FUEL.

Not a few good people, in parts were fuel i« cheap and food dear, have been shocked by reports from the West of settlers resorting to corn for fuel. To the sentimentalist ifc seems dreadful, almost sinful, that grain which might feed thousands of hungry people should be " destroyed"' in that way'; and we have heard some speak as thou_h it would be almost a virtue in the lowa farmer to freeze to death and save the corn for its more legitimate use as food. The lowa State Register looks afc the question in a more matter-of-fact and sensible way. It has tried corn as fuel, and finds that corn In the ear can be burned in stoveß made for •ither soft or hard coal, and is an especially good fuel for cooking stoves. Moreover, tho cost of growing corn in Towa is so small that it is as economical to raise corn for fuel on the prairies as it is to import coal or grow wood, certainly off the lines of railways. An acre of corn can be raised for about $6, including the rent of the land. Fifty bushels of corn will weigh 3,500 pounds, or equal to a ton and three-quarters of soft coal. This, at 15 cents, per bushel (which is as much as corn was worth on the farm away from railroads last winter), would be as cheap for fuel as soft coal at $4 per ton. Two bushels of corn will make _ fire which will keep a family warm all day, •yen in very cold weather. Some recommend raising sunflowers for firewood, but they are not as good as corn. Nor need fclie talk about burning corn create any reluctance to removing to regions where they have to burn coin for fuel. It can be raised in one-tenth the time and at less expense than timber can be raised for the same purpose, and the farmer may as easily and as conscientiously plant corn for fuel as sunflowers or trees. The Register is of the opinion, however, that though the prairie farmers will occasionally have to burn corn to keep warm, they are not likely to choose it as fuel when they can get coal or wood.