107 



grateful nourishment. The traditions of our families hand it down 

 from generation to generation as the peculiar New England cereal. 

 It is connected with our earliest individual memories. In the 

 various forms in which it is prepared, in bread, johnnj-cake, pud- 

 dings, mush, samp, hominy, muffins, the remembrance of its excel- 

 lence lingers upon our palates. No New England farmer thinks 

 his round of crops complete when this is omitted. Poets sing of 

 its beautj and gracefulness. 



" When the maize-field grew and ripened, 

 Till it stood in all the splendor 

 Of its garments green and yellow, 

 Of its tassels and its plumage, 

 And the maize-ears full and shining 

 Gleamed from bursting sheaths of verdure."* 



Young men connect some of their happiest reminiscences with 

 evenings spent in husking frolics, when the lucky possessor of a 

 red ear exacted from not unwilling maidens the kiss to which it 

 entitled him. 



I propose to give a brief historical sketch of the reasons for be- 

 lieving that maize is a native of America. But before this, to 

 notice the principal arguments offered in favor of a contrary opinion. 

 They are embodied in a work published in Paris in 1836 by M. Bon- 

 afous. He first alleges the statements of certain authors, who, be- 

 fore himself, had advanced the idea of the Eastern origin of 

 maize. The leading thought is that maize was brought from 

 Arabia to Germany, and was called Arabian corn. Others, whom 

 he quotes, assert that maize was brought from Asia to Greece, 

 from thence to Germany, and was called Turkish corn. 



In the eighteenth century other authors, chiefly French, revived 

 and defended this theory. There are still others who pretend 

 that the Arabs brought maize into the Spanish peninsula. Others 

 again affirm that grains and stalks of maize have been found in a 

 sarcophagus at Thebes in Egypt. 



A sufficient answer to all this is that the description which 

 some of these writers give of the cereal that they call maize, 

 proves that it was not maize, but millet or sorghum or some simi- 

 lar grain. As to the name Indian^ it grew out of the fact that 

 the new world was regarded, at first, as a part of the Indias which 

 Columbus hoped to find by sailing west. Other names, as Turk- 

 ish and Arabian, only show that maize was early adopted by differ- 

 ent nations. 



The principal testimonies that confirm the American origin of 

 Indian corn arc already familiar to persons conversant with the 

 natural sciences, and, of CDursc, to many members of this Soci- 



* Longfellow's Hiawatha. 



