HISTORY OF CORN 



other new Indian articles." It is said to have been 

 cultivated in Andalusia and about Madrid before 1525. 

 " In Germany, corn is mentioned by Bock, or Tragus 

 as he is often called, who is one of the earliest writers 

 on German plants and published in 1539." Apparently 

 maize was known in France before 1536, but seems not 

 to have been cultivated in Italy before the latter part 

 of the sixteenth century. The Portuguese apparently 

 carried maize on many of their numerous adventurings 

 during the period 1500 to 1600 A. D., and introduced 

 its culture fairly early in that century into Africa and 

 parts of Asia. " Corn reached China in 1516," accord- 

 ing to Malte-Brun. However, according to Weather- 

 wax, 1 " several accounts in Chinese literature of the 

 sixteenth century have been cited as evidence that 

 maize was known in China in pre-Columbian times, 

 [but] there has been cited no authentic 

 mention of maize in Chinese literature definitely known 

 to antedate the appearance of the Portuguese in the 

 Orient in 1516." In this connection a peculiar form of 

 maize described by Collins- from China and dissimilar 

 to any known American type should be noted. 



" Today maize is extensively grown in Mexico, 

 Argentina, Hungary, Roumania, Italy, Russia, Egypt, 

 India, and South Africa; and, to a less extent, in Canada, 

 Peru, Chile, Central America, Spain, Portugal, France, 

 Germany, China, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. 

 But it is still principally an American crop, the United 

 States producing each year three times as much as all 

 other countries together." 3 



In reference to the great amount of corn produced 

 in this country, it is of interest to note the increasing 

 number of uses for the crop which American ingenuity has 

 discovered. Aside from the use of the grain as a source 

 of human food and of both the grain and vegetative 

 parts as feed for animals, there are a hundred or more 

 by-products now being used in American industries. 

 A few of the more important are: Corn oil in soaps, lini- 

 ments, dyes, paints, and oil cloth; corn dextrins for 

 library pastes, size, and glazes; corn " gum " (a rubber 

 substitute) in bath sponges, pencil erasers, can " rubbers," 

 and hot water bottles; corn cellulose in press boards and 

 insulating material ; and finally, various chemical residues 

 in maizolith for fountain pens, pipe bits, and similar 

 objects. 4 



No history of maize, however compressed, can omit 

 reference to the sumptuous volume of Mathieu Bonafous, 

 an elephant folio of 181 pages with 19 colored plates 

 published in Paris in 1836. This Histoire Naturelle, 

 Agricole, et Economique du Mais was apparently 

 the first monograph on Indian corn. Bonafous' theories 

 on the origin of maize and his system of classification 

 have been largely superseded with the acquisition of 



more knowledge and only his names for three endosperm 

 types remain current today. These include Zea Mays 

 rugosa as the designation for sweet corn. 



Friedrich Alefeld proposed a very artificial classi- 

 fication in his Landwirtschaftliche Flora in 1866 

 which was considerably modified by Friedrich Korniche 

 in his Systematische Ubersicht der Cerealen in 1873. 

 Here the latter author grouped the sweet corn varieties 

 together under the name Zea Mays saccharata, but, 

 unfortunately, made color of kernel the chief distinguish- 

 ing feature of his classification. Today, this system 

 seems of little use in view of the preponderance of yellow 

 and white types and the comparative unpopularity of 

 all other colors in the chief sweet corn producing areas. 



A number of quotations have already been made 

 from the work of E. L. Sturtevant, first director of this 

 Station. His work has profoundly influenced the study 

 of maize in this country, and all students of corn are 

 indebted to his keen insight and his laborious research. 



The works of Weatherwax, Collins, and Kempton, 

 cited in preceding footnotes, should be consulted by the 

 reader who wishes to delve more exhaustively into the 

 results of recent studies of maize. 



Sweet corn, the particular type of maize of interest 

 for this account, seems not to have attracted especial 

 interest among the Indians. No evidence thus far 

 produced shows any particular ceremony connected 

 with it similar to the religious rites attached to certain 

 color types among some of the tribes. Yet it was 

 undoubtedly distributed widely, as Hendry '" describes 

 an ear of sweet corn from near Huamachucho, Peru, 

 collected by M. Uhle and dating from 1000 to 1534 A. D. 

 The final paragraphs of his paper are of particular 

 interest here. He says, " It seems reasonable to con- 

 clude as follows: First, that sweet maize has been 

 derived through mutation from an older endosperm 

 type or types, and that such mutation has occurred in 

 at least one instance in the Peruvian Highlands prior 

 to 1534 A. D. 



" Second, since only varieties of the floury and flint 

 types are known to have existed there . . . and 

 since the specimen resembles the former in minor vari- 

 etal characteristics, ... it seems probable that in 

 this instance the sweet mutant first appeared in a vari- 

 ety of the floury type. 



" Third, a distinct group of sweet varieties . 

 is to be found under cultivation among the Indians of 

 the arid Southwest, and probably in Peru." 



Of its appearance in the records of white men, 

 perhaps the best statement is that of Sturtevant,' 3 

 which follows: 



" The history of the appearance of sweet corn in 

 gardens shows it to be quite modern. In the New 



1 Weatherwax, Paul. The Story of the Maize Plant, 18. 1923. 



: Collins, G. N. A new type of Indian corn from China. V. S. Dept. Air. Bur. Plant Ind. Bui. 161. 1909. 



Weatherwax, Paul. Loc. cit., 17. 

 1 For further information on by-products of corn the reader is referred to Slosson, E. E. Creative Chemistry, Chap. 10. 1920: 

 and also to Weatherwax, Paul. Loc. cit.. Chap. 25. 



'Hendry, G. W. Archeological evidence concerning the origin of sweet maize. Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron., 22:508-514. 1930. 

 ' Sturtevanfs Notes on Edible Plants, 619. 1919. 



