CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 

 V 



t CHAPTER XYI. 



i 



CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 



513. The plants generally cultivated by farmers may 

 be divided into four classes: 1. The cereals or grain 

 plants, comprising the plants cultivated for their large 

 farinaceous, or mealy seeds ; 2. Leguminous vegetables ; 

 3. Forage plants, or plants used principally in the feed 

 ing of stock ; and 4. Plants used in the industrial arts. 



514. The Cereals. The term cereal is derived from 

 Ceres, the fabled goddess of corn. The cereals embrace 

 all those annual grasses cultivated for the nourishment of 

 man, including Indian corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice 

 and millet. Buckwheat might be added, in a practical 

 classification, though not properly included among the 

 cereals, as its seeds have much the same quality and are 

 used for the same purposes as those of the cereals properly 

 so called. 



515. Indian Corn, or maize, is one of the most important 

 of the cereals cultivated in this country, both on account 

 of the numerous uses to which it may be put, and the 

 great amount of nourishment it contains. It is an 

 American plant, and was found in cultivation among the- 

 Indians on the first discovery of the continent. 



516. Light and porous loams a little sandy, are most 

 likely, if well tilled, to yield large crops of Indian corn. 

 But it easily adapts itself to a variety of soils, and will 

 flourish on all if well manured, except the strongest 

 clays. 



517. Land should be prepared for Indian corn, in very 

 much the same way as for other crops, and the preparation 



