108 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



precedence of wheat itself.* Some late writers are of opinion, 

 that the native country of the Indian corn is still undetermined. 



That it is a native of this country, and has been extensively 

 cultivated in North and South America, from time immemo- 

 rial, we can entertain no doubt. This subject has been fully 

 and ably discussed, in an "Essay on Indian Corn,"t in which 

 it is shewn most satisfactorily, that it is a native of America. 



Indian corn has a wide range of temperature. In America 

 it flourishes from about the 40 of southern to beyond the 45 

 of northern latitude. It is extensively produced in Africa, 

 Asia, and the south of Europe. On all the shores of the 

 Mediterranean Spain, Italy, and the countries of the Levant 

 it supplies the food in most common use. The Edinburg 

 Quarterly Journal, says, that of all the cerealia, indeed, it is 

 that which, next to the rice, supplies food to the greatest num- 

 ber of the human race and it may be held to be the most 

 valuable gift of the new world to the old. 



Corn, either in whole or in part, is used for bread by one- 

 half if not by two-thirds of the inhabitants of the United States. 

 In the south the climate is unfavourable to the preservation of 

 wheat and flour; hence corn is of necessity a principal article 

 of subsistence with them; while in New England, mixed with 

 rye, it is preferred to any thing else for bread. $ 



The cultivation of corn must then be an object of primary 

 importance with every farmer; and the best methods which 

 experience or theory suggest to increase the quantity and value 

 of the crop, should be attended to by every one engaged in 

 its production. 



Wheat does not grow on the plains under the equator; it 

 flourishes only in regions that are temperate; while corn de- 

 lights in the brightest summer sun, and never suffers from the 

 most intense heat, if its roots can only be supplied with mois- 

 ture. It requires a good soil one is rarely if ever found too 

 rich, either naturally or artificially. It bears manure better 

 than any vegetable known among us requires deep plough- 

 ing, and sends out its roots to a very great distance and depth. 



For this reason, in a rotation of crops, corn generally forms 

 the first of the series, being, like some of the cultivated roots, 

 a gross feeder, and unlike some of the other grains, the magni- 

 tude and plumpness of the ear, usually correspond with the 



* It is generally ranked as the third grain in point of utility, by European 

 writers, they placing it before rice and wheat; but in the United States it takes 

 the precedence of all other grains. Essay on Indian Corn by PKTER A. BROWNE, 

 Esq. 



t An Essay on Indian Corn, delivered by PBTER A. BROWNE, Esq., LL, D., 

 before the Cabinet of Natural Sciences of Chester county, Pennsylvania. 



J Genesee Farmer, vol. vi. page 161, 



