CHAPTER XIII 

 CORN 



Were a salesman to advertise Indian corn by a new name, recounting its 

 actual merits while ingeniously concealing its identity, either his words would 

 be discredited or he would have an unlimited demand for the seed of this 

 supposed novelty. HENRY 



159. Historical. Corn is generally thought to be a native of 

 America, and was probably first cultivated in Mexico about the 

 beginning of the Christian era. Columbus found the Indians 

 growing the crop. It is believed that he first introduced corn 

 into Europe, whence it soon spread into Africa, China, and 

 Asia Minor. 



160. Corn and the colonists. The Virginia colonists began 

 raising corn under the instruction of the Indians in 1608, and 

 the New England colonists in 1621. The soil farmed by the 

 Pilgrim Fathers was very poor, and the Indians taught them how 

 to fertilize the land by planting a fish about a foot long and 

 weighing nearly a pound in each corn hill. About two thousand 

 fish were required to fertilize an acre. The fish supplied the 

 needed nitrogen and phosphorus, although the nature of this 

 need was not then understood. Tame grasses and clovers, 

 which are so generally used now in raising live stock, had not 

 yet been introduced into this country, and the colonists had 

 little other fodder for their animals than that produced by the 

 corn plant. Thus the corn plant may have been the means of 

 saving some of the early settlers from starvation. 



