58 



FRUITS AND THEIR USES 



" Indian corn," says John Fiske, in The Discovery of America, 

 " has played a most important part in the discovery of the New 

 World. It could be planted without clearing or plowing the soil. 

 There was no need of threshing or winnowing. Sown in tilled land, 

 it yields more than twice as much food per acre as any other kind 

 of grain. This was of incalculable advantage to the English settlers 

 in New England, who would have found it much harder to gain a 

 secure foothold upon the soil if they had had to begin by preparing 

 it for wheat or rye." 



CORN \, 



'^640 to 3Z00 bushels per 5^u3re m,k 

 1 oyer 3B00 „ , .. , 





Indian Corn Production — Percentage 



I ' m:-, A 



ZEL 



' I \:m\ \ 



Jillinois 



liD.wa 



Mo. Kan. Ohio Ind. Tex. Rest of United States 



To-day, in spite of the great wealth which comes from our mineral 

 resources, live stock, and manufactured products, the surest index 

 of our country's prosperity is the size of the wheat and corn crop. 

 According to the last census, the amount of capital invested in 

 agriculture was over $20,000,000,000, while that invested in man- 

 ufacture was less than one half that amount. 



Corn. — About three billion bushels of corn were raised in the 

 United States during the year 1910. This figure is so enormous 

 that it has but little meaning to us. In the past half century 



