1 56 Harshberger. — Maize : 



it before 700 A.D. Agriculture was practiced on both con- 

 tinents and on the islands in the Gulf of Mexico by the year 

 1492, for when the Europeans arrived it was found every- 

 where. The Europeans carried it to Europe, from whence it 



spread. 



Maize was introduced first into Spain. Gerard, in his Herbal, 

 states that " these kinds of grain were first brought to Spain, 

 and thence into the other provinces of Europe, not (as some 

 suppose) out of Asia Minor, which is the Turk's dominion, 

 but out of America and the islands adjoining, as out of Florida 

 and Virginia, or Norumbega." M. E. Discourlitz says posi- 

 tively that maize was brought to Europe by the Spaniards 

 from Peru, 1 and Matthioli, in 1645, affirms that Turkish wheat 

 is not a proper name for maize, but that it should be called 

 Indian wheat, because it came from the West Indies. 



The names in Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, 

 Italy, Russia, Sicily and Sweden indicate that it was received 

 from Turkey, but this confusion was due to associating the 

 newly-discovered islands and continents with the East Indies, 

 the trade with which was carried on by way of Turkey and 

 the eastern Mediterranean. These mistaken geographical 

 notions were not rectified until 1522. when the globe was first 

 circumnavigated, and the lands to the west were proved to be 

 wholly distinct from the Asiatic continent. But the name 

 given to corn naturally lingered and became part of common 

 language, and as time passed it was impossible to correct the 

 mistaken impression. France appears to have derived the 

 plant from Spanish and West Indian sources. Grains of it 

 were sown in the sixteenth century in Spanish, Italian, French, 

 German and English gardens, and soon the plant was culti- 

 vated on a larger scale in the fields. Under the name kukuruz, 

 it was naturalized in Turkey, the Danubian countries and 



Hungary. 



It came to Germany from Italy, as Turkish wheat, or walsch- 

 korn. "Our Germany," says Hieronymus Bock (Tragus), in 

 his Neu Kreuterbuch, Strasburg, I539> "will soon be called 



1 Peruvian word zara was used in Spain (see pages 89 and 1261, which shows that the 

 word mahiz, maize, was not yet generally adopted. 



