151 
INDIAN CORN GROWING IN NATAL. 
HERE are numerous varieties of Indian corn, sup- 
posed to arise principally from the difference of climate 
where the plant is cultivated, but there is no doubt but 
that America is its native country, for there, and also in 
the West India Islands, it is seen growing wild, and pro- 
duced in the greatest perfection from the wild seed. The 
height of American mealies is various, being from ten to 
twelve feet in ordinary situations, and in some places at- 
taining a growth of fourteen feet without losing any of its 
productiveness. The value of the grain to America is 
nearly as great as that of rice to India, for it forms a prin- 
cipal food for the inhabitants—white and coloured—and is 
almost the sole support of the Mexicans. Indian corn is 
also grown largely in the southern portion of the European 
continent, in continental Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. 
The plant is less subject to disease than wheat, since blight 
mildew, and rust scarcely ever affect it. The chief 
enemies in this colony to mealie growers are insects, where 
mealies have been sown very early in the season. 
The return of this crop, as compared with wheat, is ex- 
ceedingly large. In Mexico and Peru, where it grows most 
luxuriantly, its productiveness appears largest, for we are 
assured that in many favourable spots in these countries it 
frequently yields 140 to 150 bushels per acre, without ap- 
plication of manure; only this is where artificial irriga- 
tion is practised. To gather there from 100 to 120 bushels 
per acre, on loosely cultivated land, and where no artificial 
means ofwateringareused,isverycommon. Theproducefrom 
its mealies inthe Northern and Southern American States 
is less heavy than in Mexico and Peru, at least on the average 
run of lands, but is vastly superior to that of other cereals. 
Wherethe average yield of wheat per acre, on the generality 
of but fairly cultivated North American soils,does notexceed 
from sixteen to eighteen bushels, that of mealies comes up 
to forty or fifty. In some of the moist and warm regions 
of Mexico,two harvests of Indian corn are frequently 
gathered ; so, likewise, is this sometimes done in the West 
Indian Islands. In Australia, and in New Zealand, in 
favoured localities, the return is from forty to fifty bushels 
per acre. The culture of mealies has been always success- 
fully carried on in Georgia; the ordinary increase in good 
years being from fifty to sixty bushels per acre; and by 
