SECRETx\.EY'S REPORT. 61 



It is curious that the word maize in the Gaelic or Irish is 

 " food." In the Lettish and Livonic language in the north of 

 Europe, mayse is " bread." 



The word corn is from the Saxon " corn," the Dutch koorn, 

 and the German, Danish and Swedish " korn." This word is 

 the same as for grain, and is used for that grain which is the 

 general one of the country. The edible seeds for man are 

 called bread* corn unless when growing in pods, when they are 

 called pulse. In England corn means all grain, as corn laws, 

 corn exchange — but especially " wheat ;" in Germany, rye, 

 which is the grain almost exclusively in use there as food ; in 

 the Scandinavian Peninsula, barley, and in the United States, 

 maize. A Pennsjdvania court has decided in that State at 

 least, that " corn " means maize, Indian corn. 



In the United States corn was first cultivated by the English 

 on James River, in Virginia, in 1608, and according to the 

 Indian fashion. The yield then was from 200 to 1,000 fold, 

 and the same increase was noticed by the early settlers in 

 Illinois. The cultivation has increased continually since then, 

 and in no State has it retrograded. In New England it has 

 increased fifty per cent, since 1850, and it increased the same 

 in the ten preceding years in New England, New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. From 1840 to 

 1850, when it was 592,000,000 bushels, it increased in the 

 United States, forty-six per cent. In Illinois it increased 

 sixty per cent, in ten years. In 1858, in the United States, 

 the crop was probably 670,000,000 bushels. 



Indian corn is one of the natural grasses. The grasses are 

 variously divided and classified. Some are designated as natu- 

 ral, some as artificial ; the former name comprising all the true 

 grasses, that is, plants with long, simple narrow leaves, each leaf 

 having many fine veins running parallel with a central promi- 

 nent vein or mid rib, and a long sheath divided to the base, 

 which seems to clasp the stem, or tlirough which the stem 

 seems to pass. The stem is generally hollow, but Indian corn 

 is one of the few exceptions and is solid, and closed at the nodes 

 or joints. The artificial grasses comprise those plants mostly 

 leguminous, which have been cultivated and used as grasses, 

 though not of that family, such as the clovers, sanfoin and 

 medic. But in botanical language, and speaking precisely, the 



