FROM GRAIN TO EAR. 65 



is raised in six States, namely : Illinois, Iowa, jNIissouri, 

 Indiana, Ohio and Kansas. Massaclnisetts is not, strictly 

 speaking, a corn-growing State. Some one, whose love for 

 length exceeds that for breadth or thickness, has carefully 

 estimated that if all the corn grown in the United States was 

 put into freight cars ready for shipment, and these cars were 

 placed in a single line, the train would reach from I'oston to 

 San Francisco, or to the moon, I forget wdiich. Millions of 

 iinything are not readily grasped by the human mind, and 

 this calculation is only an attemi)t through mathematics to 

 make the vastness of the corn industry stand out in greater 

 clearness. 



Though Massachusetts cannot boast of the largest acre- 

 age, she has good grounds for feeling proud that within her 

 borders the tirst corntield was planted by civilized man. 

 The Pilgrim Fathers found this grain successfully cultivated 

 by the Indians, and, guided by the instruction of the indus- 

 trious squaws, the iirst crop was harvested in the autumn of 

 1621. From that time down to the present day, over two 

 hundred and sixty years, the culture of the corn-plant has 

 extended and its importance grown with the nation's growth, 

 until we tind it to-day a leading branch of our most protitable 

 agricultiire. Indian corn, the cherished child of the savage, 

 has come to be the acknowledged king of all our crops, and 

 •each year it is leaving a richer and richer legacy of golden 

 grain to the thouiihtful farmers who skilfully administer to 

 the successful reign of this royal plant. 



The capabilities of improvement of the corn-plant, wdien 

 .given good treatment, are remarkable. It has a plastic 

 nature, and ([uickly responds to any favoring conditions. 

 On this account a vast number of varieties have been pro- 

 duced. The further we trace back in the hi>tory of this 

 cereal the fewer the sorts found, and the poorer their quality 

 appears to have been. It is more than i)robable that the 

 existing varieties have all sprung from the same stock, which 

 was as much inferior to our best sorts of the present day as 

 the untutored Indian who grew it was beneath the intelligc nt 

 farmer who rejoiced in a rich harvest at his last ingathering. 

 The progress made in the past is like an index finger pointing 

 to what may still be accomplished. There is no standstill 



