THE MAIZE HARVEST 163 



carefully piled up under a shed, as, from their saccharine quality, 

 they are an excellent food for horned cattle. Thus the field, 

 which in summer emulated the luxuriance of tropical vegeta- 

 tion, now lies shorn of all its beauty, the northern blasts soon 

 begin to howl over the naked waste, and a thick cover of snow 

 bears testimony to the advance of winter. 



In the southern states the periods of sowing and harvesting 

 are naturally earlier, on advancing farther to the tropic, the 

 former taking place in Texas in February, the latter in June. 



The ears are preserved in bins or cribs, either with or without 

 the husk, and it is not considered good farming to shell the corn 

 before it is required to be sent to market. This operation is 

 very easily performed. The only implement required for the 

 purpose is a blunt piece of iron, like a sword-blade ; when this 

 has been fixed across the top of a tub, the ear is taken in both 

 hands and scraped lengthwise across its edge until all the ^ains 

 are removed. In this manner an industrious man will shell 

 from twenty to twenty-five bushels of corn in the course of the 

 day. The cobb which remains makes a very tolerable quick- 

 burning fuel, and thus no part of the plant proves altogether 

 without use. 



The grain forms one-half the measure of the ear ; and so 

 correct is this estimate found to be, that in the markets of the 

 United States, where Indian corn is sold both shelled and with 

 the cobb, two bushels of the latter are taken without question 

 by the purchasers as being equal to one bushel of shelled grain. 



When we consider that the zone of cultivation of the maize- 

 plant extends from 49° N. lat. to 40 S. lat., and that it grows as 

 well in the low countries of the equatorial regions as on the 

 islands of Lake Titicaca, 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, it 

 is not to be wondered at that there are numerous varieties, from 

 the gigantic tlaouili of the Mexicans, which absolutely requires 

 a hot sun, and bears ears ten inches in length and five or six 

 inches in circumference, and the small variety with both yellow 

 and white seeds, and ears four or five inches long, which in 

 ordinary seasons will ripen its grain, even under the variable and 

 weeping sky of England ! 



The various uses to which the maize -plant and grain may be 

 applied cannot be better enumerated than in the words of the 

 celebrated Dr. Franklin. 



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