51 
plant was probably indigenous to the highlands of Mexico. Its 
use spread northward into the Mississippi valley and along the 
Atlantic coast until at the time of the landing of Columbus it 
was the principal and most common crop of all the agricultural 
tribes of this region. 
he growing crop on an Indian cornfield looked much like our 
fields of today, except that the corns hills were not arranged in 
definite rows. The extent and character of these cornfields are 
shown by those fields that have remained undisturbed since the 
Indians raised the last crop upon them. At the present time the 
individual hills in these cornfields are sod-covered mounds of 
dirt one to one and one-half feet high and several feet across. 
There are at Lake Koshkonong, Wisconsin, single fields of these 
corn hills comprising 40-60 acres. Along the Wisconsin Rive 
in Wisconsin and Illinois, there were continuous fields of these 
hills covering several hundred acres. The same was also true 
f Ohio, New York and other neighboring states. Most of these 
cornfields have, however, been effaced by the white man's 
cultivation. 
hile the crop has been improved both in yield and quality 
by the 300 years of our cultivation, there is no evidence that any 
distinctly new types have been developed. The flint, dent, soft, 
sweet and pop corns were all known to the Indians. Indian 
t, & 
Indian has made to the civilization and progress of the world. 
No discussion of the food plants of American Indians is com- 
plete without mention of the group of plants known as century 
plants, agaves, or magueys. They have, as a rule, thick, fleshy, 
rigid leaves which arise from a short, thickened, fleshy, basal stem. 
On account of its striking features, the ol is utilized in north 
temperate regions as an ornamental pla 
From the sap of certain species of agave a seh called 
pulque has been prepared from the time of ancient Mexican 
Indians. In the period of Spanish exploitation een the 
invasion of Cortez, the pulque industry was greatly extended. 
Various agaves have a food value which was utilized by the 
ancient Indians. The fleshy bases of the plants when roasted 
