“It is a curious fact that the ancients, even as late as Greek times, knew nothing about sugar; at least, in its pure state. They got a good deal of it in fruits and vegetables, of course, and the Greeks used honey very lavishly. They not only ate it, but they made an intoxicating liquor out of it which they called mead. But of sugar, pure and simple, they knew nothing whatever. Their language hasn’t even a word for it. Yet in our time sugar is one of the most important products in the world, so important that many nations pay large bounties to encourage its cultivation.” “By the way,” asked Phil, after a few moments’ meditation, “what is the most important crop in this country?” “Wheat”--“cotton,” answered Will and Constant respectively. “No,” said Ed, “corn is very much our most important crop.” “More so than wheat?” “Four to one and more,” said Ed. “Our corn crop amounts to about two thousand million bushels every year--often greatly more. Our wheat crop averages about five hundred million bushels. And as corn has more food value in it, pound for pound, than wheat has, it is easy to see that not only for us, but for all the world, our corn crop is quite four to one more important than our wheat.” “But I thought corn wasn’t eaten much except in this country?” queried Irv. “The Germans and French and English don’t eat it.” “Don’t they, though?” asked Ed, with a quizzical look. “Don’t they eat enormous quantities of American pork, bacon, and beef? And what is that but American corn in another shape?” “That’s so,” said Irv, this time sitting bolt upright. “I’ve heard that the big farmers all over the West keep tab on the price of meat and corn. If meat is high and corn low, they bring up all their hogs from the woods, fatten them on the corn and sell them. But if meat is low or corn high, they sell the corn.” “And they know to the nicest fraction of a pound,” added Ed, “how much corn it takes to make a given amount of pork.” “Well, even if we didn’t sell any corn at all to other nations,” said Phil, “I should think our crop would help them. _We_ eat a great deal of it, and if we hadn’t it, we’d eat just so much wheat instead, and so we should have just that much less wheat to sell to them.” “Exactly,” said Ed. “Every thing that feeds a man in any country leaves precisely that much more to feed other men with in other countries.” “And what a lot it does take to feed a man!” exclaimed Will.