CORN CULTURE. 269 



We read in the Scripture that Pharaoh dreamed, "And 

 behold seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank 

 and good ;" and Joseph's interpretation of the king's dream 

 shows that this prefigured the maximum yield in a season of 

 exceptional fruitfulness. Some of us have seen as many ears 

 of maize upon a single stalk. It was the corn which Joseph, 

 by his wise foresight, stored up in Egypt that kept the peo- 

 ple and their flocks and herds alive during the seven years 

 of grievous famine that succeeded the seven years of abun- 

 dant crops. It was in the grain fields and at the threshing 

 floor of the princely Boaz that he wooed and won the beau- 

 tiful and lovely Ruth, who in the fields had gleaned " ears of 

 corn" after the reapers. The Psalmist also speaks of the 

 valleys as being covered over with corn, and as shouting 

 and singing for joy. 



In this country, whenever corn is spoken of it is under- 

 stood that maize is referred to, and this includes the various 

 kinds, from the wild corn of America, with its kernels sepa- 

 rately enclosed in a little husk, up to the *' Chester County 

 Mammoth," with its stalks eighteen feet high and ears six- 

 teen to eighteen inches in length, and of proportionate 

 thickness. 



Indian corn is indigenous to America, where it has always 

 formed a chief article of food for the Indian races, from 

 whom its name is derived. Its cultivation was early intro- 

 duced from America to Southern Europe and Asia, and to 

 Northern Africa, where it spread with great rapidity. It is 

 alleged that corn was known in very ancient times to the 

 Chinese; but if so, it subsequently fell into comparative 

 oblivion. Indian corn is properly a sub-tropical grain ; a 

 native, probably, of the table lands of Mexico or Peru, 

 the great elevation of which gives them a distinctive charac- 

 ter from the low lands in the same latitudes. It thrives 

 best under a hot summer's sun, and its rapid growth and 

 early ripening give it a peculiar value for high northern 

 latitudes, where the summer's iieat is as intense as the win- 

 ter's cold. In England the summer's heat is not suflBciently 

 intense to favor its production. 



From a book published in London in 1857 I make an 

 extract : — 



