MAIZE. 



261 



vated in all regions in tlie tropical and temperate zones, which are 

 colonized bj Eiu-opeans. It is most largely grown, however, about 

 the ^Republics bordering on the nortliern shores of South America, 

 California, the United States and Canada, the West India islands 

 and Guiana, on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and partially in 

 India, Africa, and Australia. We see the singular fact in Mexico 

 of land which, after perhaps thousands of years' culture, is so little 

 exhausted, that with a very little labor bestowed on it, a bad maize 

 harvest will yield two hundredfold profit, while a good crop re- 

 tuims 600 fold. 



This grain adopts itself to almost every variety of climate, and 

 is found growing luxui'iautly in the low countries of tropical 

 Mexico, and nearly equally well on the most elevated and coldest 

 regions of the table-land ; in the rich valleys of the Cordilleras or 

 the Andes, and on the sandy heights of those mountains wherever 

 a rill of water can be brought to nourish its roots. In short, it 

 ripens under the sun of America, in every part of both continents. 



Though wheat is characterised as the most nutritious food for 

 man in all quarters of the world, yet the Indian corn crop of the 

 United States is not second in value to any product of the earth ; 

 cultivated in the middle and Eastern States, nay, even in the rich 

 cotton-groping districts, Indian corn is fast rising in importance, 

 and will soon equal in value that important commercial staple. This 

 indigenous grain yields to the nation an annual average of five 

 hundred millions of bushels, and has, within the last five years, 

 attracted much attention as a life-sustaining food, more particu- 

 larly at the period of Ireland's severe suffering, in 1847, and the 

 following years. Nations, as well as statesmen and farmers, have 

 found it an object worthy of their consideration and esteem. 



When due regard is paid to the selection of varieties, and culti- 

 vated in a proper soil, maize may be accounted a sure crop in al- 

 most every portion of the habitable globe, between the 44th de- 

 gree of north latitude and a corresponding parallel south. Among 

 the objects of culture in the United States, it takes precedence in 

 the scale of cereal crops, as it is best adapted to the soil and cli- 

 mate, and furnishes the largest amount of nutritive food. Besides 

 its production in the North American Bepublic, its extensive 

 culture is limited to Mexico, the AYest Indies, most of the States 

 of South America, France, Spain, Portugal, Lombardy, and South- 

 ern and Central Europe generally. It is, however, also cultivated 

 with success in Northern, Southern, and AVestern Africa, India, 

 China, Japan, Australia, and the Sandwich Islands, the groups of 

 the Azores, Madeii-a, the Canaries, and numerous other oceanic 

 isles. 



Maize is not a favorite grain as bread-corn with the European 

 nations, for although it abounds in mucilage, it is asserted to contain 

 less gluten, and is not likely to be much used by those who can 

 procure wheaten flour, or even rye bread. 



The large importations which were made by our Government 

 dui-ing the prevalence of the potato disease, brought it into 



