THE GOLDEN CORN. 41 



As evidence 4;hat the mechanical genius of the country is 

 not yet exhausted, but is as untiring as ever, it may be stated 

 that the patents issued for improvements in agricultural 

 implements and machinery for the year 1872 exceeded one 

 thousand, of which thirty-six were for rakes, one hundred 

 and sixty for hay and grain harvesters and attachments, one 

 hundred and seventy-seven for seed planters and drills, thirty 

 for hay and straw cutters, ninety for cultivators, seventy- 

 three for bee-hives, ninety for churns, and one hundred and 

 sixty for ploughs and attachments ; and that the annual 

 manufacture of agricultural implements amounts to over 

 $52,000,000. 



THE KING or CEREALS. 



.Having alluded briefly to the wonderful progress made in 

 the improvement of the implements of the farm, by means of 

 which the possibility of production has been so largely in- 

 creased, let us consider for a moment the practical results 

 attained. 



Indian corn has always been regarded as the great staple 

 crop of the country. It is a plant of American origiu. In 

 the universality of its uses, and its intrinsic importance to 

 mankind, no other grain can be compared with it. Its flexi- 

 bility of organization is such that it readily adapts itself to 

 every variety of climate and soil, from the warmest regions 

 of the torrid zone to the short summers of Canada. The 

 early settlers, as we have seen, found it in cultivation by the 

 Indians, and it soon became the leading crop throughout the 

 country, the crop upon which the colonists relied, not only for 

 food, but for sale and exchange for other necessaries of life. 

 It soon became a prominent article of export, especially 

 from the Middle States, — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 

 Delaware, — and, to some extent, from the States farther south. 

 Thus, in 1748, South Carolina exported 39,308 bushels, and 

 in 1754, 16,428 bushels. In 1755, there were exported from 

 Savannah 600, and in 1770, 13,598 bushels. And so, in 1753, 

 North Carolina exported 61,580 bushels; and the exports 

 from Virginia, before the Revolution, sometimes amounted to 

 600,000 bushels a year. The total amount exported from 

 all the colonies, in 1770, was 578,349 bushels. These figures 



