MAIZE. 17& 



Maize, {Zea mais.) This is the true wheat of the Americans, 

 and it is now generally avowed that the plant is a native of the 

 New World. It is also well known that maize was introduced into 

 Spain long before potatoes. Oviedo states in his work, printed in 

 1525, that he had seen it growing in Andalusia and the neighbor- 

 hood of Madrid. The cultivation of this useful plant was observed 

 everywhere on the discovery of America by Europeans, from the 

 most southern parts of Chili to Pennsylvania in the north ; and in 

 the neighborhood of the equator, from the level of the sea to the 

 high table-lands of the Andes. Garcilasso gives a particular de- 

 scription of the procedure followed by the Incas in the cultivation 

 of this plant, the kind of manure, &c. At Cusco the Indians ma- 

 nured with human excrement dried and reduced to powder. On the 

 coasts they employed in one place guano ; in others, as the dusty and 

 sterile soils of Attica, Atiquiba, &c., they made use of the ofFal of fish. 



The uses of maize are very numerous. In America it is made 

 into cakes, which are a substitute for bread ; by fermentation a 

 vinous liquor is prepared from it called chicha. Before the conquest, 

 the Mexicans manufactured a sirup from the expressed juice of the 

 stems. In describing to Charles V. the various articles of provision 

 that were.met with in the march to Tlatclolclo, Cortez says, " They 

 sold us the honey of bees, wax, and honey from the stems of the 

 maize plant." Maize when ground and boiled makes a kind of 

 pudding in universal use, and the ear, when nearly ripe, whether 

 boiled in water or roasted in the ashes, is held a luxury by all class- 

 es. In the tropical Cordillera maize is advantageously cultivated 

 from the level of the sea to the height of 9186 feet above it ; that is to 

 say, it thrives in temperatures which vary between 14° and 27.5° C. 

 (57.5° and 81.5° F. ;) this circumstance explains its very general 

 introduction into Europe. 



Maize succeeds on all soils when they are properly manured ; 

 I have seen beautiful crops upon the most sandy soils and upon the 

 stifFest clays ; it requires much the same management as our ordi- 

 nary grain crops ; the climate alone should decide as to whether its 

 introduction into a particular district is opportune or not ; a certain 

 degree of heat is necessary to ripen it, and above all, the cold to 

 which it is exposed must not be too severe. It is for this reason, 

 that in the east of Europe the maize is sown in spring, when there is 

 no longer any apprehension of frost ; there would be a real advan- 

 tage in sowing late, were it not for fear of the frosts of autumn at 

 the season of ripening. The susceptibility of maize to frost and 

 climate generally, appears to me very analogous to that of the vine ; 

 and I doubt whether it would be wise to attempt its cultivation on the 

 great scale where the grape does not ripen in ordinary years. 



Maize is sown either with the dibble or with the hand, following 

 a furrow opened by the plough ; I believe that it ought never to be 

 sown broadcast, for it is a plant that requires room ; it is only in the 

 hottest countries that the drill system is less necessary. In Alsace the 

 drills are about 2^ feet apart, and the seeds are sown at the distance 

 of abou'- & foot from each other. This very considerable spaco left be* 



