290 
this is what corn made possible to the most highly advanced In- 
dians within our domain. 
At what period corn spread to other parts of the country from 
the Southwest, or from Florida by way of the West Indies, we 
do not know, but doubtless its rate of travel was rapid. The more 
interesting point, perhaps, is what excellent farmers the Indians 
were to so successfully adapt an exotic plant, that had its origin 
in the highlands of a hot country, to the soil, climate, and altitude 
in which they chanced to live, by methods of cultivation which of 
necessity they devised (Fig. 5). It is indeed a far cry from its 
place of origin to the great prairies of our Midwest, to New Eng- 
land and lower Canada with their rigorous winter climate, and the 
desert sands of our vast Southwest. 
Yet wherever maize became known, there it was successfully 
cultivated by the skilful farmers of the Red Race. Strangely 
enough, the Indians of California, although well advanced in other ° 
directions, did not cultivate corn or anything else, but depended 
for their subsistence on the products of the rivers and sea, or on 
such wild stores as their habitat provided, not even disdaining in- 
sects and larvae. In other localities where in ancient times sub- 
sistence was gained from a none too prodigal Nature, the culture 
of the tribes was probably not unlike that of the California Indians 
when first known to the whites. Then maize was introduced, and, 
behold, a new era dawned! Agriculture largely superseded the 
gathering of wild products, vegetal and animal; dwellings more or 
less permanent were grouped in defensive villages, for to wilder 
tribes who preferred to follow the lives of huntsmen and raiders it 
became easy to make forays against their weaker neighbors and 
loot the hard-earned product of their toil. Therefore corn played 
an important part not alone in changing the mode of life of seden- 
tary peoples, but it afforded the chief incentive of stronger tribes 
to carry on their depredations. 
Quantities of Corn 
Owing to the varying conditions under which maize was culti- 
vated, several varieties were developed, four being mentioned in 
Virginia alone in Colonial times. Jacques Cartier saw large fields 
of corn about the site of Montreal in 1534, and six years later 
