GRAIN AND ITS CULTIVATION. 149 



regions of Canada, almost to the Straits of Magellan. It 

 riots in the fierce blaze of our cloudless western sun, and it 

 is here that it attains the highest perfection. Its most pro- 

 lific area on this continent, lies between 42 North, and 

 38 South latitude, deducting a limited portion of the equa- 

 torial regions. Close attention in its cultivation is necessary, 

 when receding from these limits towards the poles, on ac- 

 count of a deficiency of sun for ripening it. In such locali- 

 ties, the smaller and earlier kinds should be planted on a 

 warm soil, so as to mature before the first frosts. 



Varieties. There is no one of the cereal grains or grasses, 

 which manifests itself under such multiplied forms as maize. 

 From the little shrubby stalk that grows on the shores of 

 Lake Superior, to the palmetto-like corn of the Mexican val- 

 leys ; and from the tiny ears and flattened, closely clinging 

 grains of the former, the brilliant rounded little pearl, or the 

 thickly-wedged rice corn, to the magnificently elongated, 

 swelling ear of the Kentucky, with its deeply-indented 

 gourd-seed, it is developed in every grade of sub-variety. 

 The kernels are long, round or flat, or shriveled like the 

 sweet ; and their color is white, yellow, blue, red or striated ; 

 yet each contains the same principles of nutriment, combined 

 in somewhat different proportions, and contributes for equal 

 weights, nearly in the same ratio, to the support of man and 

 the lower orders of the animal creation. 



The analysis of corn as given by Dr. Dana, is in 100 parts, 

 of flesh-forming principles, (gluten and albumen) 12.60 ; fat 

 forming, (gum, sugar, starch, oil, woody fibre,) 77.09 ; salts, 

 1.31 ; water 9. The yellow contains more oil or fatty mat- 

 ter than the white, and therefore yields a stronger or richer, 

 food. This quality gives greater intensity to the peculiari- 

 ties of flavor ; and by those not accustomed to its use, it is 1 

 not relished so well as the white. This is shown by the 

 preference given to the latter in England and Ireland, where 

 it has been recently introduced as a staple article of food. 

 The large proportion of oil in this grain, increases its tend- 

 ency to rancidity, when exposed to a hot and moist climate, un- 

 less previously prepared to resist this influence by kiln-drying. 



Besides the kinds in general cultivation in this country, 

 varieties have been occasionally introduced from abroad, of 

 a character so different, as almost to entitle them to the dis- 

 tinction of independent species. Such are the Chinese tree 

 corn, bearing its slender ears at the extremities of several 

 expanded branches ; the Egyptian, with its millet-like head ; 



