226 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



relied on for a crop in any part of Europe. In 

 tlie Mexican states, where this grain is known 

 by the name of Tlaouili, there are few parts of 

 either the lower districts — tierra caliente — or of 

 the table-land, whereon it is not successfully cul- 

 tivated. In the former districts its growth is 

 naturally more luxuriant than in the latter; but 

 even at an elevation of six or seven thousand feet 

 above the level of the sea, its productiveness is 

 calculated to excite wonder, if not to provoke 

 incredulity on the part of European agricultur- 

 ists. Some particularly favoured spots have 

 been known to yield an increase of eight hun- 

 dred for one ; and it is perfectly common in situ- 

 ations where artiiicial irrigation is practised, to 

 gather from three hundred and fifty to four hun- 

 dred measures of grain for every one measure 

 that has been sown. In other places, where re- 

 liance is placed only on the natural supply of 

 moisture to the soil from the periodical rains, 

 such an abundant return is not expected ; but 

 even then, and in the least fertile spots, it is rare 

 for the cultivator to realize less than from forty 

 to sixty bushels for each one sown. 



The system of husbandry employed is closely 

 analogous to Tull's horse -hoeing plan. The seed 

 is sown, from three to five grains together, at 

 regular intervals of three feet, in rows sufficiently 

 far apart to admit of the passage of a small 

 plough between them, for the purposes of loosen- 

 ing the soil around the roots, and of removing 

 the weeds. The use of manure is altogether un- 

 known in Mexican maize husbandry. 



Humboldt states, that in some warm and hu- 

 mid regions of Mexico three harvests of maize 

 may be annually gathered, but that it is not 

 usual to take more than one. The seed-time is 

 from the middle of June to near the end of Au- 

 gust. A great part of the internal commerce of 

 Mexico consists in the transmission of this grain, 

 the price of which varies considerably in not very 

 distant stations, owing to the imperfect state of 

 the roads and the insufficient means of transport. 

 As an instance of this, Humboldt mentions the 

 fact, that during his stay in the intendancy of 

 Guanaxuato, the fanega (five bushels) of maize 

 cost at Salamanca nine, at Queretaro twelve, and 

 San Luiz Potosi twenty-two, livres. For want 

 of a proper diffusion of commercial capital, the 

 Mexican public is without the advantage of mag- 

 azines for storing corn, and for preventing, by 

 that means, great fluctuations in price. It is a 

 fortunate circumstance, and one which should 

 be mentioned as adding very materially to tlie 

 natural value of maize in warm climates, that it 

 will remain in store xminjured for periods vary- 

 ing from tliree to five years, according to the 

 meim temperature of the district. 



This kind of com is generally planted in the 

 United States of America about the middle of 

 May, so as to avoid the mischance of its experi- 



encing frost after it is once out of the ground. 

 The Indians who inhabited the country previ- 

 ously to the formation of any settlement upon 

 its shores by Europeans, having no calendar or 

 other means of calculating the efflux of time, 

 were guided by certain natural indications in 

 their choice of periods for agricultural operations. 

 The time for their sowing of maize was governed 

 by the budding of some particular tree, and by 

 the visits of a certain "fish to their waters — both 

 which events observation had proved to be such 

 regular indicators of the season, as fully to war- 

 rant the faith which was placed on their recur- 

 rence. These simple and untaught people dis- 

 covered and practised a method of preserving 

 their grain after harvest, which afforded a cer- 

 tain protection against the ravages of insects, and 

 which might be advantageously adopted in other 

 situations, and in climates where this evil is very 

 prevalent. Their method was to separate the 

 com from the cobb as soon as the harvest was 

 finished ; to dry it thoroughly by exposure to 

 the sun, and to a current of air ; and then to de- 

 posit it in holes dug out of the earth in dry situ- 

 ations, lining these holes with mats of dried 

 grass, and covering them with earth, so as com- 

 pletely to prevent the access of air. 



With the exception of artificial irrigation, to 

 which recourse is not had in the United States, 

 the method of sowing and managing maize is 

 there singularly analogous to that pursued in 

 Mexico. The proportionate produce, from a 

 given quantity of seed, or a certain breadth of 

 land, is smaller, however, than that realized in 

 Mexico, although the practice of manuring is 

 universally followed. As compared with the 

 yielding of other kinds of grain, maize cultiva- 

 tion is, nevertheless, highly productive in the 

 United States. In Pennsylvania, where the 

 average crop of wheat does not exceed from four- 

 teen to seventeen bushels, that of maize amounts 

 to from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre. A 

 ^vi-itcr in the Monthly American Journal of Ge- 

 ology and Natural Science, considers that maize 

 produces the heaviest crops near the northern 

 limits of its range. The American farmers find 

 this advantage to attend the partial culture of 

 maize upon their farms, that the time of harvest- 

 ing is some weeks later than that of wheat, and 

 that, consequently, the general operations of the 

 harvest may be conducted without great bustle 

 and temporary advance of vv^ages, to be followed 

 by a season of inaction and consequently of idle- 

 ness to the labourer — evils which are commonly 

 experienced in England. 



The second variety of maize has white gi-ains. 

 This kind, which is cultivated in Spain, Portu- 

 gal, and Lombardy, is altogether a smaller plant 

 than the variety just described, seldom exceeding 

 six or seven feet in height ; the leaves arc nar- 

 rower, and the tops liang downwards. The eai-s 



