But we " fought it out on that Hue/' and came home " with 

 our banner still there." 



And now. in calmer moments, as it were, I am bold to 

 assert the belief that among all the factors of culture in the 

 United States, corn takes precedence in the scale of crops, 

 as best adapted to more soils, climates, and conditions; is 

 used for more purposes; furnishes more nutritive food for 

 man and beast ; has more commercial, cultural, and eco- 

 nomic value; gives more grain to the acre than any other 

 cereal ; more fodder than any other of the grasses ; puts our 

 beef in prime order; fattens our pork ; is the basis of our 

 butter and cheese supply ; furnishes immense manufactur- 

 ing material; has twice the value of cotton ; worth fifty per 

 cent more than wheat; its influence on the prosperity and 

 wealth of the United States is greater than that of any 

 other cultivated plant ; and to the transportation companies, 

 has " millions in it." The belief has been expressed that 

 had not the Pilgrim Fathers discovered this golden grain 

 the first winter they landed on our shores, this " land of the 

 free and home of the brave," would to-day bean " unsolved 

 problem." But why extend. Its uses and value are end- 

 less and incalculable. 



In round numbers, the corn crop of the United States for 

 1885 is put down at two billions of bushels, a gain of near 

 ten per cent on 1884. In the corn acreage of the entire 

 country there was a gain of six per cent. In the twelve 

 leading corn states, seven per cent; four per cent in the 

 south, and one per cent in the New England States. A 

 statistical calculator estimates that were all the corn crop 



