Cereals Not Just For Breakfast

Romans harvesting grain with their horse or mule.

       In the summer a visitor to our great plains states marvels at the miles of golden grain fields gently rippling in the breeze. This is more than just a beautiful sight, for these acres and acres of grains are vital to people all over the world. The important grains are corn, wheat, rice, barley, rye, and oats. Cereal grains are used in countless products, but only a very small percentage of the world's supply of cereal grains is consumed as breakfast foods.

       Cereals are members of the large family of flowering plants that we call grasses. We eat the seeds, which have unusually high food values. Different cereals grow under many different soil and weather conditions. From the tropics to the Arctic Circle, from sea level to high mountains, different cereal grains have found suitable growing conditions and have become the major part of the local diet. Almost the only people of the world who now lack staple cereal grains are those of the islands of the Pacific. There the coconut palm and other tropical foods take the place of cereal grains on native menus.

       The most truly American cereal is corn, for it originated in the Americas, and most of it is raised in the Americas. The staples of the Indians and pioneers were foods prepared from corn‚hominy, corn-meal mush, corn pone, and others. The task of husking corn was accompanied with contests, games, and much fun, so that corn-husking became a community project of early United States.

       A few of the many kinds of corn are popcorn with its tough outer coat over the kernel, sweet corn that we eat on the cob or from the can, and the corn that is used as fodder. Most corn is used as food for livestock right on the farm where it is grown. The corn crop of the United States is greater in volume and value than the combined crops of wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, and buckwheat. Corn is used in more products than any other cereal. Different parts of the plant are used for everything from corn meal to mattress stuffing and fuel.

       Wheat is the most important cereal of the Old World temperate regions today, just as it was in ancient times. White bread, the world's most popular bread, is made from wheat flour. Rice, the Asian ''staff of life,'' is the main food of more than half the world's population. However, because it is almost pure starch and not a complete food, the rice diet of the Asiatics is often supplemented with more nourishing soybeans.

       Barley, man's oldest cereal, is a very hardy plant. It is grown nearly to the Arctic Circle, and much of it is produced in countries like Russia. Centuries ago barley was the chief source of bread flour. Now its chief uses are as food for livestock, breakfast foods, and malt. Rye grows well in soils too poor and climates too cold for other cereals. Its black bread has long been the principal food of Central Europe.

       The cereal with the greatest food value is oats. Although it is made into oatmeal and other breakfast foods, most of it is used as food for livestock. Sorghum and millet are names used for a number of grains from different parts of the world. The sweet sorghum of southern United States is used for fodder and syrup.

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• How modern breakfast cereal was invented
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• From Oats to O's