54 



MODE OF CULTIVATION. 



The diseases which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in 

 Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as 

 follows-: 



1. La requitte, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it 

 is sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather 

 soon after planting. 



2. El carbon — a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or 

 coal, which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion 

 in the fruit is believed to be produced by an insect. 



3. El hanjo — a species of uredo, which forms itself in the ear 

 and ruins it. The disease is generally known as los Cuervos. 



The animals and birds that attack corn are: 



1. A sort of mole — talpa — which undermines the fields and 

 destroy the young plants. 



2. The larvce of melolontha^ which not only seize the roots, but 

 often destroy the stalks and ears. 



3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are cov- 

 ered, if they are not carefully watched during the approach of har- 

 vest. Neither day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of 

 these pilferers ; and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are 

 placed on high stages, overlooking the acres, whence the traveller 

 constantly hears their shouts, during the day, or the crack of the 

 warning whips, during the night. 



Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year, 

 especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is al- 

 ways sufficient moisture. In the tierra caliente, the rancheros, cul- 

 tivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In 

 the cooler d stricts they have two kinds of culture — one by irriga- 

 tion, and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, 

 by the Mexicans, into three kinds — the humido, aventureso, and 

 temporal. 



In the first mode of cultivation the Maiz tardio, is sown, and it 

 is usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a 

 soil capable of preserving the winter's moisture and the humidity 

 of the first spring rains, is called siembra de aventureso. In the 

 temporal, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted — such as 

 the maiz cuarentino — which may be cultivated either before or 

 during the rainy season, from May to November. 



It is rare that the common Mexican ranchero is sufficiently pro- 

 vident to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care ; and ac- 

 cordingly we find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields 

 abounding in stiff ungenial clay. 



