CHAPTER XXVI I. 



INDIAN CORN (Z^A MAYS). 



'HPHE area under maize in Bengal is about 2401,400 acres, 

 ie., 3 17 per cent, of the total cultivated area of the 

 Province. In all the districts of the Patna Division, in 

 Monghyr, Bhagalpur. Sonthal Parganas, Hazaribagh, Singh- 

 bhum and Darjeeling, maize forms a principal article of 

 diet among the poor. The districts which have from about 

 5 per cent, to 15 per cent, of their cultivated area under this 

 crop are : 



Percentage of 

 Acres. cultivated area. 



Monghyr ... 397,000 1487 



Saran ... ... 253,500 13*92 



Bhagalpur ... 242,600 8*77 



Hazaribagh ... 217,200 1008 



Champaran ... 169,000 8*38 



Sonthal Parganas ... 162,500 8-96 



Darbhanga ... 143,900 6^07 



Muzaffarpur ... 110,000 488 



Patna ... ... 108,600 9' 2 9 



Darjeeling ... 22,200 878 



Singbhum ... 11,300 10*08 



329. This plant has not been discovered in the wild 

 state. In remote antiquity it was not known in the Old 

 World, but grown only by the Peruvians and the Mexicans. 

 It has been however found suitable for nearly every climate 

 and it is now grown successfully in the cold hills of Sikkim 

 and Bhutan as well as in the hot and arid soil of Man- 

 bhum and Singbhum. It does well in the moist climate of 

 Bengal and in the dry climate of the N.-W. Provinces, Raj- 

 putana and the Punjab. The American varieties are the 

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