548 



THE TliOPlCAL WORLD. 



discovery. In this manner maize, which is found growing wild from the Rocky 

 Mountains to Paraguay, and had been cultivated from time immemorial, as well in the 

 Antilles as in the dominions of the Mexican Aztecs and of the Peruvian Incas, was 

 first conveyed from the New World to Spain, whence its cultivation gradually extended 

 over the tropical and temperate zone of the eastern hemisphere. Round the whole 

 basin of the Mediterranean, maize has found a new home, and its grain now nourishes 

 the Lombard and the Hungarian, as it does the Egyptian fellah or the Syrian peasant. 



While other cereals only produce a pleasing effect when covering extensive fields, 

 but are individually too insignificant to claim attention, the maize plant almost reminds 

 the spectator of the lofty Bambusaceae of the tropical world. Dark green, lustrous 

 leaves spring alternately from every joint of this cereal, streaming like pennants in the 

 wind. The top produces a bunch of male flowers of various colors, which is called 

 the tassel. Each plant likewise bears one or more spikes or ears, the usual number 

 being three, though as many as seven have been seen occasionally on one stalk. 

 These ears proceed from the stem, at various distances from the ground, and are 

 closely enveloped by several thin leaves, forming a sheath, or husk. They consist of 

 a cylindrical substance of the nature of pith, which is called the co^^and over the 

 entire surface of which the seeds are ranged and fixed, in eight or more straight rows. 

 Each of these has generally as many as thirty or more seeds, and each seed weighs at 

 least as much as five or six grains of wheat or barley. Surely a cereal like this 

 deserves beyond all others to symbolize abundance, and, had it been known to the 

 Greeks, it would beyond all doubt have figured conspicuously in the teeming horn of 

 Amalthea. 



While the British farmer is satisfied wkh an increase of twenty for one, the pro- 

 ductiveness of maize, under the circumstances most favorable to its growth, is such as 

 almost to surpass belief. In the low and sultry districts of Mexico, it is quite a com- 

 mon thing, in situations where artificial irrigation is practised, to gather from 350 to 

 400 measures of grain for every one measure that has been sown ; and some particu- 

 larly favored spots have even been known to yield the incredible increase of 800. In 

 other situations, where reliance is placed only on the natural supply of moisture to the 

 soil from the periodical rains, such an abundant supply is not expected ; but even 

 then, and in the least fertile spots, it is rare for the cultivator to realize less than from 

 forty to sixty bushels for each one sown. The productiveness of maize diminishes in 

 the more temperate climate of the United States; but even there it yields double the in- 

 crease of wheat; and such is the quantity annually grown that, in spite of its low price, 

 the value of the maize harvest more than twice surpasses that of all the other cereals. 



Another great advantage attending the cultivation of maize is, that of all the cereals 

 it is the least subject to disease. Blight, mildew, or rust are unknown to it. It is 

 never liable to be beaten down by rain, or by the most violent storms of wind, and in 

 climates and seasons which are favorable to its growth, the only enemies which the 

 maize farmer has to dread are insects in the early stages, and birds in the later periods, 

 of its cultivation. In mountainous countries, and the farther it advances beyond the 

 tropics, maize — a child of the sun — naturally suffers from the ungenial influence of a 

 cold and wet summer, which not only prevents the ripening of the grain, but also 

 develops a poisonous ergot in its ears, similar to that which an inclement sky is apt to 

 engender in rye. 



