Word: corn
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Winds. The weather was not all wet: Los Angeles had recorded only a tenth of an inch of rain since April 1. In the Midwest, summer's first good hot spell perked up the backward corn crop and the farmers' hopes. In the Pacific Northwest, hot winds pushed giant fires through unnaturally dry forests (see cut), near the 250,000-acre wasteland left by Oregon's "Tillamook burn...
Even in Holland, though they were "industrious and frugall," they had nearly foundered. In America they would certainly have starved without a cache of Indian corn, which they providentially and promptly appropriated. "Sure it was God's good providence," wrote Bradford. When the corn was used up, their first Indian friend and convert, Squanto, providentially appeared. Captured by British sailors some years earlier, Squanto had lived in London and spoke perfect English. He had returned to America six months before the Mayflower. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant their corn in small, properly spaced hills...
...Author Willison, blandly ignored the ship's doctor, Giles Heale. For medical advice they depended solely on one of their own members, Deacon Samuel Fuller. Result: almost every day somebody died. When at last the Mayflower sailed back to England, the harvest came in, and a gift of corn from Squanto increased the group ration by another peck of fresh meal. But the seven acres planted by the Pilgrims themselves were a dismal failure. This, said Bradford, was the fault of "ye badness of ye seed, or lateness of ye season, or both, or some other defecte...
Traders in the grain pit on the Chicago Board of Trade have not had so much excitement since the Cargill Grain Co. of Illinois cornered the corn market in 1937. This time it was an alleged corner in rye. As usual at such times, the air was hot last week with acrimonious charges and countercharges, all hinting at scandalous disclosures involving Government agencies and politicos...
...Food Administration, was that in December 1942 big General Foods Corp., and their brokers, Daniel F. Rice & Co., began buying rye futures, i.e., promises of delivery of rye at a future date. General Foods, which ordinarily uses little rye, had a plan to use it in place of corn syrup. By May 1944 General Foods and Rice controlled 11.8 million bu.-almost 89% of the deliverable rye. Other speculators soon realized that a corner was in the making, and they waded into the market with big chunks of cash. The rye pit seethed with all of the excitement...