318 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



cult to produce 40 bushels of wheat as 300 bushels of pota- 

 toes ; and, if we consume all the grain and make the straw 

 into milk, we shall obtain only 4,251,744 calories from the 

 product of one acre, which is only about two-thirds of the 

 quantity from an acre of potatoes. 



Indian Corn {Zea Mays). 



This crop is a member of the grass family, and was un- 

 doubtedly indigenous to the American continent. It was 

 extensively cultivated by the American Indians at the time 

 of the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and even 

 at that time there was a large number of different varieties. 

 It is not definitely known from what form or forms our cul- 

 tivated varieties have sprung. , It is often stated that the 

 so-called "pod" corn — a variety in which each kernel upon 

 the ear is enveloped in a separate husk — is probably the 

 parent form, or that the wild type produced grain in the 

 tassel, eaeh kernel enveloped in a husk, — the faet that corn 

 even now sometimes produces grain in the tassel being 

 brought forward as evidence ; but there is no proof that 

 either supposition is correct. 



Within a few years the attention of botanists has been 

 called to a new species, which has been called Zea canina, 

 because of the faet that the kernels are shaped like a dog's 

 teeth. This was found growing wild in Mexico, and the 

 natives of this district are said to look upon it as the origi- 

 nal source of the cultivated varieties of maize. This species 

 has been cultivated in the botanic gardens at Cambridge 

 and by Professor Bailey at Ithaca. As grown at Cambridge, 

 the tallest stalks were over ten feet high, with a diameter of 

 nearly two inches; but "the most striking peculiarity of 

 the plants was the abundance of lusty suckers, which grew 

 as rapidly as the main stalk, so that the plants, which had 

 fortunately been placed some feet apart, had the appearance 

 of two hills, one of the two bearing nine and the other 

 twelve stalks ascending from a common base." The cen- 

 tral stalk also branched higher up on the trunk, and these 

 side branches, as also those from the base of the plants, had 

 a tassel upon the ends and bore several ears along their 



