CHAPTER I. 



HISTORICAL. 



Indian corn, the Zea mays of botanists, is un- 

 questionably native to America. Before the 

 discovery of this country by Columbus this 

 cereal was unknown in Europe, Asia or Africa. 

 Maize was undoubtedly grown by the inhabit- 

 ants of North, Central and South America in 

 prehistoric times. Mounds that were erected 

 prior to the time of the Ameri(^an Indian, of 

 which he has no tradition, that have been ex- 

 plored in recent years, have contained corncobs 

 and charred kernels. In mounds excavated at 

 Madisonville, 0., in 1879, remains of maize were 

 found in quantities. In the caves occupied by 

 the early Cliff Dwellers in the southwestern 

 United States, ears of corn have been frequently 

 discovered. In South America Darwin found 

 on the coast of Peru, "heads of maize, together 

 with eighteen species of recent sea shells, em- 

 bedded in a beach which had been upraised at 

 least eighty-five feet above the level of the sea."* 



* Animals and Plants under Domestication, New York, 



1890, I, p. 338. 



(7) 



