47 

 EGYPTIAN CORN. 



BY SANFORD UOWARD. 



The term Egyptian com has been applied to various grains. It 

 has been appHed to a variety, or perhaps to more than one variety, 

 of Indian corn (^Zea mays)^ and many readers may recollect the 

 numerous complaints of imposition in regard to corn sold under 

 this name at an enormous price, a year or two since, in Illinois. 

 But to call any kind of Indian corn, or maize, Egyptian corn, is 

 improper, as it is strictly an American plant, and was wholly un- 

 known in the Old World till after the discovery of this Continent. 



With more propriety has the term been applied to some kinds of 

 Sorr/hum, a genus of grasses, the species of which have been 

 sometimes referred to the genus Holcus, and sometimes to An- 

 dropogon. It may be remarked that the term corn, in a general 

 sense, signifies the cereal grains. Of the genus Sorghum, there 

 have been introduced into this country the common broom-corn, 

 the so-called Chinese sugar-cane, the Imphee, Guinea-corn, 

 Egyptian-corn, &c. — all brought from Asia or Africa. They all 

 bear a close resemblance to each other — as much so as do the dif- 

 ferent kinds of Indian corn — and it is not improbable that they are 

 merely varieties of a single species. 



The introduction of different kinds of Sorghum into this country 

 is not of so late a date as many persons suppose. It is said that 

 Dr. Franklin introduced broom-corn towards the close of the last 

 century. Even the Chinese sugar-cane, which was so much talked 

 about a few years since, Avas cultivated here forty years ago. It 

 was distributed under the names of Egyptian millet (or Egyptian 

 imrple millet) and chocolate-corn — it being claimed that from the 

 seeds, when roasted like coffee, a decoction resembling chocolate 

 could be prepared. (See American Farmer, vol. iv, (1822.) 

 page 326, and the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and 

 Journal, vol. vii, page 348). It was cultivated in small patches 

 in this vicinity, and corresponded in all respects to wdiat is now 

 called Sorgho, Sorghum, Chinese sugar-cane, &c. 



The so-called Egyptian corn, dourra, or durra, was also intro- 

 duced many years ago, cultivated as a curiosity for a while, and 

 then abandoned. But as comparatively few people take much 

 trouble to inform themselves in regard to things of former days, 

 plants which have been tried and found not adapted to our pur- 

 poses, are frequently introduced and disseminated as being new 

 and valuable. Sometimes, however, the same thing is, after a 

 lapse of time, disseminated under a different name. Thus, in the 

 case of Egyptian corn, or dourra, and the Chinese sugar-cane, they 

 were formerly called millet, as before mentioned, that being a 



