CHAPTER XIV 

 COEN 



America and Corn Discovered. When Columbus 

 sailed toward the west over the unknown ocean, he 

 hoped to reach the rich cities of Asia and the Spice 

 Islands. Here he expected to obtain a rich cargo 

 of spices, some of which were worth their weight 

 in gold. But, instead of reaching China, Columbus 

 landed upon a new world where white men had 

 never been before. Instead of rich cities, he found 

 only a vast wilderness inhabited by savages whom 

 he named Indians. The Indians lived by hunting 

 and fishing and by raising a few plants which were 

 new and strange to Columbus and his sailors. These 

 were squashes, tobacco, and maize, or corn. Colum- 

 bus never knew what a wonderful golden treasure 

 he had found in this Indian corn. It has come to 

 be one of the most valuable crops in the world. 

 When the com crops fail there is a scarcity of food 

 for rich and poor and hard times for everybody for 

 many months. 



Corn Saves the Pioneers. This Indian corn was a 

 great blessing to the early immigrants from Europe, 

 for the wheat and rye which they had brought with 

 them would grow only in well-tilled fields and these 

 pioneers were poor farmers with poor tools. There 

 were no well-tilled fields, and men would not work. 



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