AN ESSAY 



ON THE 



HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE OF INDIAN CORN, 

 AS AN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT. 



BY CHARLES LOUIS FLINT, 



The complete history of Indian Corn seems never to have been 

 written by an American. The materials for it must be sought in 

 old and uninviting volumes, in the narratives of voyages and travels, 

 and in no less than five or six different languages. The skilful labor 

 required to bring together the various and often conflicting accounts, 

 is by no means small. The writer who would undertake such a task, 

 should possess much knowledge of the botany of the Western con- 

 tinent, as well as that of Asia and the Asiatic isles, to be able to 

 draw the most natural and correct conclusions of his own. He who 

 shall do it, as it should be done, will render a great service to Amer- 

 ican Agriculture. 



In France, Parmentier published a work on maize in 1785. This 

 was soon followed by that of Ilarasti, in Italy, devoted to the prac- 

 tical details of the subject, in 1788. In Germany, Burger pub- 

 lished a work on the Natural History and Culture of Maize, in 

 1809. Still more recently, the labors of Bonafous, in France, have 

 thrown much light and interest upon the same subject. In Spain, 

 though no very valuable work has appeared on the history of maize, 

 such frequent allusions are made to it in the narratives of the voy- 

 ages of Columbus, Alonzo Negro, Penzon, Vespucci, and Cortez, as 

 to be of great service in determining its native country. The works 

 of Oviedo and Hernandez, also, are worthy of mention. Still more 

 important is the authority of Humboldt. 



The word zea^ which is applied to maize, is derived from a Greek 

 word which signifies to live ; and the reason of its application, is the 

 great amount of nutritive matter which the plant contains. Of all 



