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Show We've Much to be Thankful For On a November day in 1621 the Pilgrims of Governor Bradford's Plymouth Colony were unanimous in offering thanks to God. Their gratitude was based on a few assets which, by today's standards, would be held small cause for thanksgiving. They had weathered a hard year in the hostile New World. Several of their original band, including their first governor, John Carver, had perished. Yet the survivors saw reason to thank God. The forest beyond their clearing was a source of logs for their cabins, fuel for their fireplaces, wild turkeys and other game for their tables. Perhaps most important: they had harvested a crop of corn, and this staple was their insurance against starvation in the winter ahead. Long before Plymouth, the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas had given thanks for corn, worshiped their corn gods, offered human sacrifices in gratitude for a bumper harvest. , Corn continues today its long record of serving man. This year, an all-time record harvest of 3.7 billion bushels represents, as feed, a bountiful basis for America's supply of meat, milk and eggs. Products made from corn starch, syrup, oil and others have literally hundreds of uses which add to the ease and comfort com-fort of everyday life. A host of foods ranging from bread, baking powder and salad dressing to ice cream, candy and soft drinks contain products of corn. Non-food items that rely on corn for some step of their manufacture include clothing and other fabrics, cigarettes, rugs and carpets, paper, colored inks, adhesives, automotobile parts, gasoline, dynamite, life-saving antibiotic drugs and other medicines. Corn Industries Research Foundation points out that corn serves man from the cradle to the grave for a corn product is in baby foods and another in embalming fluid! The Pilgrims, giving thanks for their corn harvest in 1621, could not foresee what a cornucopia of riches the familiar grain (Continued on Page Four) We've Much to be Thankful For (Continued from Page One) would become. The varied contents of this cornucopia illustrate one small aspect of the manifold blessings we have to be thankful for. |
