Points for Purchasers of Flour. As starch is whiter than gluten, whiteness is therefore really no indication of the sweetness and strength of flour; and, although flour becomes whiter with age and will take up more water and make a whiter loaf, many prefer freshly ground flour for family use, as being better in flavor, while others claim that flour will “work better” if kept for some time after grinding. The brand or word “Patent” on packages of flour has come to signify, not that the flour is really patented, but that it is or should be finest quality. Fancy brands may mean little; they are put on at the whim of the maker. Flour is rarely adulterated at present, but good and poor grades are sometimes mixed. Inferior grades of flour are largely exported, while the best are mainly used at home. Graham flour is ground wheat from which the bran has not been removed. Flour is put up in barrels of one hundred and ninety-six pounds net weight, and in muslin sacks of various weights. Families everywhere invariably want “the best,” and dealers often adopt the excellent plan of buying quantities of some very choice and tried grade of flour and selling it in convenient sized packages for family trade, under their own brand and guarantee. Corn or Maize. This is one of the most beautiful of plants, and the Indians formerly ascribed to it a Divine origin. Hiawatha watched by the grave of the Spirit Mondamin, “’Till at length a small green feather From the earth shot slowly upward, Then another and another, And before the summer ended Stood the maize in all its beauty, With its shining robes about it, And its long, soft, yellow tresses.” Indian corn contains more oil or fat than any of the common cereals. It will make as white and fine flour as wheat, but this does not make good fermented bread, unless mixed with wheaten flour. CORN MEAL is healthful, nutritious and cheap, but, owing to its fat, is prone to attract oxygen and spoil, especially in warm weather. There are two kinds, one WHITE, the other GOLDEN YELLOW. They are equally nutritious, and about the same in price. Some prefer the one and some the other, but probably the yellow is rather the most popular. The starch extracted from corn is very extensively used throughout the country, and such leading brands of CORN STARCH as those of Kingsford, Duryea, etc., are well known. In fact, the consumption of all the products of corn is enormous. SAMP is corn deprived of its skin and eye and left whole or cracked in halves. HOMINY is corn ground or cracked into coarse, medium or fine grains, and pearled or polished. DRIED CORN, largely prepared by the Shakers, is sweet corn boiled and dried. It is excellent and much used as a vegetable. Rye Flour.