IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE II 



A review of the subject ^ leads to the fact that there is no authentic 

 reference to maize in the writings of travelers or naturalists prior to 

 the discovery of America by Columbus. Hebrew parchments and 

 Sanscrit scrolls are alike silent. With the opening up of the New 

 World and the discovery of the great staple grain of the western 

 continent, maize cultivation spread with lightning rapidity through- 

 out the eastern hemisphere. It became a definitely known and accu- 

 rately described food plant. 



One early writer,^ who no doubt had read with interest the early 

 discussions as to the origin of maize says : *' Maize was carried from 

 America to Spain and from Spain into other countries of Europe, to 

 the great advantage of the poor, though an author of the present day, 

 would make America indebted to Europe for it, an opinion the most 

 extravagant and improbable which ever entered the human brain." 



If the grain had been known before the Columbian epoch it would 

 have spread quite as rapidly as it did subsequently, which is good 

 evidence of its American origin and this origin is no longer disputed 

 by competent authorities.^ Edward Enfield in his book on maize 

 is so positive that maize is an American plant that he declares that 

 ". . . if any further evidence were wanting on this point it may be 

 found in the impossibility that a grain so nutritious, prolific and val- 

 uable, so admirably adapted to the wants of man could have existed 

 in the eastern world before the discovery of America without com- 

 ing into general use and making itself universally known. Had this 

 cereal existed there at that period it would have made its record too 

 clearly and positively to leave any doubt on the subject." * 



The researches of Harshburger and others indicate that maize is 

 a development of a Mexican grass known as teosinte (Euchlaena 

 mexicana Schrad.). Maize and teosinte by cross fertilization 

 produce fertile hybrid plants known as Zea canina Watson, or 



1 See Salisbury. History and Chemical Investigation of Corn, p. 8. 

 Albany 1846. 



2 Clavigero. History of Mexico; trans, by Charles Cullen, Lond. 1787. 

 1 :26. 



Clavigero in a footnote further states that the name Grano di Turchia, 

 by which it (maize) is at present known in ttaly, must certainly have been 

 the only reason for Bomares adopting an error, so contrary to the testimony 

 of all writers on America, and the universal belief of nations. The wheat 

 is called by the Spaniards of Europe and America, maize, taken from the 

 Haitina language which was spoken in the island Hispaniola or St 

 Domingo." 



3 Cf. Beverly. Hist, of Va. Lond. 1722. p. 125. 



"They say that they had their corn and beans from the southern Indians, 

 who received their seed from a people who resided still farther south." Van 

 der Donck, New Netherlands, (1656). Reprint N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans. 

 I :i37. 



■* See Bailey. Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, i :404. 



