INTRODUCTION 



m 



fY chief regret in not visiting America is that I 



shall die without beholding what I conceive to 



be the most superb crop that grows, as it is, in 



itself, the most valuable," was the tribute to 



American maize, paid to the author by Sir John B. 



Lawes, the great Englishman, who did so much for 



scientific agriculture. 



Impressed with this view of the corn plant, emi- 

 nent specialists in the scientific and practical aspects of 

 the maize industry have co-operated with singular 

 enthusiasm in the preparation of the present work. The 

 careful reader will marvel at the close co-operation of 

 science with practice in the evolution of the corn plant 

 and of the industries dependent upon it. There is no 

 more fascinating or important chapter in American 

 agriculture. 



To the practical farmer, feeder or corn grower, 

 much that the following pages contain must come as a 

 revelation. The man whose knowledge of this subject 

 is really comprehensive will be first to recognize the 

 value and correctness of the mass of well-digested data 

 herein set forth. And even the farmer who is wedded 

 to the view that one hundred bushels of maize never 

 have been and never can be grown on one acre, will 

 perhaps obtain from this book a wider horizon and a 

 larger inspiration as to the possibilities of corn culture. 

 When two hundred and fifty-five bushels of 

 shelled corn, containing two hundred and thirty-five 

 bushels of crib-cured or dry grain, are raised on one 



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