THE GRAMINEiE. 



205 



Iiistory of America. In the new world such 

 facts are too recent to admit of any doubt. Tlie 

 same class of facts, too, are exhibited in several 

 cases in the history of our empire in Hindos- 

 tan. We shall give a few examples. None 

 of the cereal grasses, properly so called, were 

 found in cultivation among the Mexicans when 

 tlieir country was first visited by Europeans. 

 The foundation of the wheat harvests at Mexico 

 is said to have been three or four grains, which 

 a slave of Cortez discovered in 1530, accidentally 

 mixed with a q^uantity of rice. The careful ne- 

 gro, who preserved and made so advantageous a 

 use of the few grains which a happy chance 

 had tlirown in his way, and which, in the hands 

 of a careless or thoughtless person, would, with 

 their future inestimable advantages, have been 

 lost to his country, b.as not been thought 

 worthy — doubtless because he was a negro — 

 of having his name preserved. The Spanish 

 lady, Maria d' Escobar, wife of Diego de Cha- 

 ves, who first imparted the same blessing to 

 Peru by conveying a few grains of wheat to 

 Lima, has been more fortunate. Her name, to- 

 gether with the means which she took for ef- 

 fecting her object, by carefully distributing the 

 produce of successive harvests as seed among the 

 farmers, have been gratefully preserved in the 

 records of history. The exact period when the 

 cultivation was commenced in Peru is not in- 

 deed known; but it appears reasonable to be- 

 lieve that this event did not occur until after the 

 date assigned for the introduction of wheat into 

 Mexico, as in the year 1547 wheaten bread was 

 hardly known in the important city of Cuzco. 

 The first grains of wheat which reached Q,uito 

 were conveyed thither by Father Josse Rixi, a 

 Fleming, who sowed them near the monastery 

 of St Francis, where the monks still preserve 

 and show as a precious relic the rude eai-then 

 pot wherein the seeds first reached their estab- 

 lishment. The lice- of Carolina is now the prin- 

 cipal produce of that portion of North America. 

 Mr Ashby, an English merchant, at the close of 

 the 17th century, sent a hundred weight from 

 China to this colony ; and from this source all 

 the subsequent rice harvests of that division of 

 the new world, and the large exportations of the 

 same valuable grain to Europe, have sprung. The 

 wheat now cultivated at Rohilcund, in India, 

 was propagated by seed brought from England, 

 since the conquest, by Mr Hawkins; and the 

 potatoe, within a very few years, has been ex- 

 tensively spread by us through the Indian pen- 

 insula, and thereby preventing the exclusive use 

 of rice, is generally ameliorating the condition of 

 the. native population. Facts such as these are 

 highly interesting, because they exhibit the mo- 

 ral as well as the natural causes which influence 

 the distribution of vegetable food throughout the 

 earth. 



Before describing the different kinds of corn, 

 it may be interesting to take a general view of 

 their cultivation over the globe. The utmost 

 limit of the culture of grain in Siberia reaches 

 only to the 60° of latitude; and in the more 

 eastern parts of the province these important 

 products are scarcely to be met with higher than 

 56°. In the more southern parts of Siberia, and 

 in districts adjoining the Wolga, the land is ex- 

 ceedingly fertile, so that crops of grain are ob- 

 tained with a very trifling amount of labour. 

 Buck wheat is very commonly cultivated in 

 this district ; and it is found that one sowing of 

 the seed will produce five or six crops in as many 

 successive years, each harvest yielding from 

 twelve to fifteen times the quantity first sown. 

 The seed which is shed during the reaping is 

 sufficient to insure the gi-owth of plants for the 

 following year without any manuring, and with 

 no more labour on the part of the farmer than 

 that of ban-owing the land in the spring. This 

 system is continued without intennission until 

 the diminished fertility of the soil compels its 

 abandonment; but this state of things rarely 

 occurs, until, as already stated, six years have 

 thus been occupied. Europe is indebted to Si- 

 beria for a particular description of oats, which 

 are considered excellent ; and at Yakoutcli bar- 

 ley is sometimes seen to arrive at maturity. 



In some districts of Lapland, situated to the 

 westward, the inhabitants are, by dint of careful 

 tillage, enabled to produce plentiful crops of rye. 

 In some spots nearer even tlian this to the pole, 

 potatoes are made to supply the place of grain ; 

 but for the most part the inhabitants are con- 

 strained to subsist upon dried fish. In Kamt- 

 chatka, which is considerably to the south of 

 Siberia, extending from 62° to 61° of north lati- 

 tude, but/ united with that province at its eastern 

 extremity, no attempts to cultivate the cereal 

 grasses have ever proved successful, the produce 

 not having in any case been sufficient to repay 

 the labour of the tillage. These features may, 

 however, be attributable more to the generally 

 ungrateful nature of the soil than to the effects . 

 of an unkindly climate, since in some spots where 

 the land is of better quality, other esculent ve- 

 getables are produced in tolerable perfection; 

 cabbages, carrots, turnips, radishes, beet root, 

 and even cucumbers, are reared constantly and 

 without difficulty. 



Barley and oats are the kinds of grain the cul- 

 ture of which extends furthest to the north in 

 Europe. The meal which they yield, and whicli 

 is seldom or never used by the inhabitants of 

 South Britain for human food, forms, on the 

 contrary, the principal sustenance of the inhabi- 

 tants of Norway and Sweden, of a part of Sibe- 

 ria, and even Scotland. 



Rye follows next in order, being associated 

 with oats and barley in the more northern divi- 



