ADAPTATION TO VARIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 39 



frost-bound Minnesota lends to its growth a short and 

 reluctant summer, where the rigor of a Canadian cli- 

 mate concedes to it a few weeks of glowing sun, or 

 where the fervid sky of Kansas, or the sultry air and 

 longer season of either Carolina produce an earlier 

 development and a larger growth ; in short, wherever 

 on this continent civilized man can exist with tolera- 

 ble comfort, there will you find Indian corn pushing 

 its little cylinder of folded leaves through the soil, or 

 unfurling to the wind its long and graceful foliage, or 

 lifting its newly formed tassel to greet the rising sun. 

 Though its growth under tropical skies is more 

 rank and luxuriant, producing not unfrequently stalks 

 of prodigious size, the yield of grain is found to in- 

 crease as it advances toward the pole, and the largest 

 product per acre is said to be obtained near the north- 

 ern limit of its range. 



