312 



INDIAN CORN. 



corn is a tropical or sub-tropical plant, yet it is capable of being 

 acclimated in almost any region up to nearly the 50th degree of 

 latitude on the American continent, and is adapted in some of its 

 varieties to almost any part of the country. Being a short-lived 

 annual it will succeed wherever the heat of summer is intense and 

 of sufficient duration, whatever may be the cold of winter. The corn 

 crop must have been of immense benefit to the early settlers of this 

 country. It succeeds well on new-cleared land; it requires little 

 cultivation there ; it gives a large increase for the seed planted ; it 

 requires a short season to mature, and could be used for food before 

 it came to matuiity. It is no wonder that this was a favourite crop ; 

 even yet there is said to be more land devoted to the production of 

 Indian corn in the United States than to any other grain. 



In Italy it is an important part of the cereal crop, and the produce 

 has been given at 45,000,000 bushels. How largely it enters into 

 the agricultural economy of the country may be seen from the fact 

 that in certain parts, the province of Turin for instance, the labourer 

 is allowed to share the produce of the Indian corn with his master. 

 In other parts of Lombardy, besides a money payment for wages, he 

 receives a proportion also, which when mixed with rye and millet 

 flour is made into a coarse bread. Amongst the better paid a 

 *' polenta " of corn meal is principally eaten : this, mixed with vege- 

 tables, and flavoured with a little bacon, is a favourite dish. 



In the south of Europe and on the banks of the Danube the culti- 

 vation has been attended with considerable success ; in Hungary, in 

 particular, the crops of maize are large and profitable, some 3,500,000 

 acres yielding 66,000,000 bushels. 



We have no details of the acreage under maize in the Austrian 

 empire, but in Baron Czoernig's ' Statistical Handbook ' (Vienna 

 1861) the production is returned at 43,076,000 metzen (1 j bushels), 

 which is nearly equal to the wheat produced. 



In Greece, where it shares attention with wheat, barley, and rice, 

 the production amounts to about three milHon bushels. In localities 

 where the land can be irrigated and the soil is particularly good, 

 maize is planted after the barley has been cut in the month of May. 

 The principal food of the peasantry consists of a coarse brown bread, 

 called " keramedopita," made of a mixture of barley and corn flour, 

 or " bobota," being a bread made of maize. 



In Portugal Indian corn is the staple cultivation of the northern 

 part, and the produce amounts to about fifteen million bushels. The 

 proportion that it bears to that of all other corn crops throughout the 

 country is one- half in respect to quantity and value, and one-third in 

 respect to the portion of the cultivated area devoted to cereals. The 

 universal bread food is " broa," a strong, wholesome, and not im- 

 palatable mixture of maize and rye. To the use of this bread food 

 is ascribed the well-being of the Portuguese peasant. 



In France the production is stated to be 30,000,000 bushels, and 

 the grain is grown and used chiefly for poultry, which, in the sub- 

 divided condition of the soil, is one of the mainstays of the peasant 

 farmer, as in England, so far, one of its chief uses is for feeding 

 pheasants, who thrive very fast upon it. 



