382 Agiiculhire. 



moting the fertility of soils, and hastening the pro- 

 cess of vegetation, the last age is also distinguished 

 by the introduction of a number of new and im- 

 portant objects of culture. 



Among these scarcely any is more worthy of at- 

 tention than the Fotafoe. This valuable root, which 

 is generally supposed to have been found originally 

 in North-America, was not much cultivated in 

 Europe till the close of the seventeenth century; 

 and even then was chiefly confined to Great-Britain 

 and Ireland, and seldom seen except in gardens, 

 as a curiosity. How much it has grown in im- 

 portance, and in the extent of its cultivation, since 

 that period, both in our own country, and in al- 

 most every part of the civilized world, is well 

 known. Instead of being deemed, as it once was, 

 a food fit only for the lower classes of society, it 

 has come into general and almost indispensible use 

 among all ranks. It has added another to the list 

 of cheap, simple and wholesome articles of nu- 

 triment, and furnishes an additional barrier against 

 famine, beyond what our ancestors enjoyed. 



No less important is Maize, or Indian Corn^ 

 another article, which, as an object of general 

 culture, may be considered as in a great measure 

 peculiar to the century under review. This valua- 

 ble grain was little cultivated, at the beginning of 

 the century, excepting in America. Since that 

 time it has not only become an object of more ge- 

 neral and uniform attention in our own country, 

 but it has been introduced with success into the 

 South of Europe, and several other temperate cli- 

 mates, where it Avas before unknown, and has 

 been constantly gaining ground, both in reputa- 

 tion and utility. The ease with which this species 

 of corn is cultivated; its great productiveness; its 

 exemption from injury by those seasons and insects 

 which destroy other grains; its singularly whole- 



