40 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



many varieties have been developed since. The 

 great industry of canning corn is supplied by 

 fields of this green crop. It is an important 

 vegetable in American gardens throughout the 

 growing season. 



The seventy-day corn of the colder parts of the 

 country, that makes a dwarf stalk, and attends 

 strictly to the business of maturing the ears before 

 frost comes, illustrates the changes that adapt a 

 plant to its environment. The 20-foot stalks in a 

 Southern field, that take six months to produce a 

 crop, illustrate the same fact. Varieties have 

 " strains" adapted to difficult conditions of climate 

 and soil. 



The native country of the maize plant is 

 probably Mexico. We cannot be sure. It was 

 unknown in Europe when the Spaniards under 

 Columbus found the Indians on the Island of 

 Haiti growing fields of a strange plant they called 

 "mahiz." In a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 Columbus says of his brother: "During a 

 journey into the interior he found a dense popu- 

 lation, entirely agricultural, and at one place 

 passed through eighteen miles of cornfields." 

 De Soto wrote home about the Indian villages, 

 where corn and meal were stored in large quan- 

 tities, and miles upon miles of growing grain 



