CHAPTER I. 



IMPORTANCE AND HISTORY. 



Heer, of one grain of maiz, a reed doth spring 

 That thrice a year five hundred grains doth bring. 



— Sylvester, translation of Du Bartas' Divine 

 Weekes and VVo/kes, I. 3. 



All around the happy village stood the maize-fields. 



— Hiawatha. 



Importance. 



1 . Importance of the Maize Crop. — Maize is one of the staple CHAP, 

 food crops of the world ; the quantity produced is greater than 

 that of any other cereal, and climatic conditions alone limit 

 its more widespread cultivation. In those countries adapted 

 to its production it is more extensively grown than any other 

 grain. The total world's crop reaches the extraordinary 

 figure of 1,085,700,000 muids (3,875,927,000 bushels, or 108^ 

 million Colonial tons). Of this more than 75 per cent is pro- 

 duced in the United States, where the acreage is about double, 

 and the total production about four times that of wheat. The 

 whole of civilized Africa produces, at present, only about one 

 per cent of the world's supply. The following figures show 

 the comparative world's crop of the leading cereals for a single 

 year : — 



16,767,488,000 



The domestic consumption of maize in the United States 

 is at the rate of 7-14 muids (25-5 bushels) per capita of popu- 



