SECRETARY'S REPORT. G3 



tor wheat sown early in September, on new land, has succeeded well, and 

 if our corn and potatoes could be removed by that time, winter wheat 

 would do quite well to follow them. Eut sown late, it is not so sure 

 as spring grain." 



Indian Corn. 



The colonists of New England early learned something of 

 the value of Indian corn. Gradually, they and their successors 

 added to that knowledge, and to-day, perhaps, we know some- 

 thing more still; but it is doubtful if the half be as yet fully 

 realized of its true worth. It takes precedence among bread 

 crops as yielding the greatest amount of nutritious food. An- 

 other peculiarity, and one which marks it as a most wonderful 

 gift of Providence, is its peculiar power of adaptation to widely 

 varying climes. Not a State, from the xitlantic to the Pacific, 

 from Maine to Texas, but will yield this invaluable crop in 

 abundance and with certaint}-. By growing it year after year, 

 any where within the limits of the United States, if not at first 

 just suited to the climate, it rapidly varies, until it assumes a 

 type exactly adapted to the locality. Thus by paying due regard 

 to the selection of seed, every locality may have its own style 

 of corn, and the one best suited to its peculiar wants. It 

 may ripen surely in the short seasons of Maine, or it may occupy 

 the long summer of the sunny south; the ear may be long or 

 short, large or small, eight or eighteen rowed, the stalk high or 

 low, the kernel white, yellow or brown, flinty and oily, or soft 

 and mealy ; yet in all its varying phases we recognize the prince 

 of grains, and one which experience and analysis alike show to 

 be unequalled in the combination of good qualities which go to 

 make up its value. These it is not proposed to dwell upon at 

 length, nor is there need, for the bare mention of a portion of 

 its excellencies will suffice to warrant all which is claimed 

 for it. It will furnish more nutritious matter for man or beast, 

 and make bread and meat at less cost, than any other grain. It 

 is the surest of all grains to ripen a good crop. It is adapted 

 to our seasons, it loves, the summer's heat; and give it depth of 

 good soil, it will laugh alike at severe droughts or drenching 

 rains. It has fewer enemies, and is less liable to the attacks 

 of disease and the ravages of insects, than any other bread 



