AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 241 



Eye. — This grain was cultivated in America shortly after the arrival of 

 the English, and yields from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, weigh- 

 iine from forty-eight to fifty-six pounds. In the aggregate, its production 

 in ths United States has decreased four million, four hundred and fifty- 

 seven thousand, except in New York, where, owing to the wheat insect, 

 and demand for distilling, it has increased about forty per cent. This 

 grain has never entered to much extent into our foreign commerce, as we 

 consume it as fast as raised. In 1850 two million, one hundred and forty- 

 four thousand bushels were manufactured into spirituous liquors. This 

 grain delights in a sandy soil, devoid of much vegetable matter, and in 

 which manure is not abundant. The loss of fertility by the export of this 

 grain would not be as much felt as that of wheat. The product of the 

 whole country in 1850, was about fourteen million, one hundred and 

 eighty-eight thousand, six hundred and thirty-seven bushels. The straw 

 is highly esteemed for manure, and is more generally thus applied than 

 that of any other cereal except, perhaps, Indian corn. ^ 



Indian corn takes precedence in the United States in the scale^cj? crops, 

 and is probably much better adapted to the soil and climate than any 

 other, besides furnishing to the people much the largest percentage of 

 nourishing food. It is of American origin, and is found growing from the 

 Rocky Mountains to Paraguay. It was first cultivated as a crop on James 

 river, in Virginia, in 1608 ; the yield then was a thousand fold. When 

 properly cultivated east of the Rocky Mountains, the yield varies from 25 

 to 135 bushels per acre. The increase of production from 1840 to 1850 

 was two hundred and fourteen millions of bushels, about fifty-six per cent. 

 In Illinois the increase has been equal to sixty per cent. In 1851 we 

 exported three million, four hundred and twenty-six thousand, eight hun- 

 dred and eleven bushels, and a million of barrels of Indian meal, and 

 manufactured eleven and a half million of bushels in spirituous liquors. 

 In 1850 the crop grown amounted to five hundred and ninety-two million, 

 three hundred and twenty-six thousand, six hundred and twelve bushels ; 

 in every forty-four thousand pounds of which, were the elements of fer- 

 tility, in sufficient quantity to enrich twenty-five acres of land, from which 

 may be deduced the loss of fertility to the amount of the quantity 

 exported and manufactured. The corn stalks, fortunately, remain upon 

 the farm, and form a principal ingredient in the composition of barn-yard 

 manure, and is found very valuable, not so much, perhaps, from the 

 nourishment which it is of itself capable of imparting to the soil, as from 

 the value it acquires, by combining with excrement, and absorbing urine, 

 in its different stages of decomposition. 



The oat crop may justly be considered one of the most important that 

 we raise, when we take into consideration the improvement and nourish- 

 ment it affords to live stock. This grain was first sown by Gosnold, on 

 Elizabeth Island, Massachusetts, in 1G02. It is a hardy grain, growing 



[Am. Inst.] 16 



