200 Harshberger. — Mai. 



■-5 ' 



strengthen credit, expand the volume of manufacture, speed 

 the wheels and fill the sails of commerce, and make a nation 

 prosperous. 



Maize, the greatest arable crop which we grow, occupying 

 the largest portion of our cultivated area, has never been 

 known to fail. It is destined to occupy, in America, the 

 place that rice fills in India, China and Japan, that cassava 

 fills in South America, and that sago occupies in Borneo, 

 Java and the Indian Archipelago — the staple food of man. 



Maize lends itself thoroughly to use in architecture and 

 mural decoration ; for industrial designing it has unrivaled 

 pre eminence. " Let the rose, queen of flowers, bloom for 

 England; let Ireland honor the shamrock; Scotland her 

 thistle bold ; let the lily unfold her pure white petals for the 

 joy of France; but let the shield of our great republic bear 

 the stalk of bounteous golden corn." 



The author is indebted to the following gentlemen, who 

 materially aided him: Major J. W. Powell, A. S. Gatschet, F. 

 Webb Hodge and Frank H. Cushing, of the United States 

 Bureau of Ethnology, for suggestions as to the North Amer- 

 ican Indians ; Professor Otis T. Mason, National Museum ; Mr, 

 Stewart Culin ; Professors Simon N. Patten, whose economic 

 works have been drawn upon, J. T. Rothrock, W. P. Wilson, 

 John A. Ryder and J. M. Macfarlane, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania ; Dr. William Carruthers, British Museum, Dr. 

 J. H. Gilbert, Rothamsted, England, Mr. John Redfield and 

 others. 



Philadelphia, June, 1893. 



