THE KING OF CEREALS. 271 



But above them all, in importance and excellence, stands the 

 native of America — 



INDIAN CORN. 



The poor man's crop, the farmer's assurance of a return for 

 bis toil among our rocks and hills, as well as along the alluvials 

 of our streams or the rich virgin prairies of the West, it deserv- 

 edly ranks among us, in the family of cereals, as number 1. 

 It is, after all, the most important crop to New England, and 

 in New England, if we except that of hay. It fills more bushels 

 than any other cereal in the United States. It has, under God's 

 providence, saved the nation from annihilation and death more 

 than once, and contributed largely to its unexampled prosperity. 



"With it our poultry, beef, pork and mutton are made. It is 

 a rich food alike for the human and brute animal. It gives 

 both nutrition and fat to its consumer. " Corn-fed " was once 

 an opprobrious term, denoting coarseness and vulgarity ; but it 

 denotes at least one well fed. Through its strength our horses 

 nobly toil for us. On its stimulating and palatable diet our 

 oxen patiently do our drudgery. Though, through its hybrid- 

 izing propensities, we have kinds of corn as numerous as 

 the sands on the seashore — whether King Phillip, Button or 

 Brown, red, white, yellow, or smutty white — whether grown 

 in the Canadas or on the shores of the Southern Gulf, it is 

 essentially the same. Though hard-shelled, it has a generous 

 heart. Like a Yankee, under its forbidding exterior it has 

 always something worth your attention, and, like the oyster, 

 ever opens richer than it looks. Hence, we feel, a wise states- 

 man will give it his attention, and a wise farmer make its 

 growth a matter of study and experiment. We confess to a 

 little shame at the poor figure it makes in Massachusetts, as 

 a crop, compared with many other States in the Union. In 

 1840, according to the United States census, 379,000,000, in 

 1850, 590,000,000, in 1860, 900,000,000, and probably in 1868, 

 1,500,000,000 of bushels, were raised. In Massachusetts, by 

 the same census of 1850, 2,345,490 bushels were harvested in 

 Massachusetts ; but in 1865, by the State returns, the value of 

 broom-corn and Indian corn reached only $2,969,837. Allow 

 for the increased price of the latter per bushel in 1865, and 

 deduct the value of the broom-corn, and it will be seen that 

 we do not raise as much in this State as in 1850. This looks 



