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Oli. XXXV. No. 9. 1 
WHOLE No. 1414. ) 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at \\a»lmnftoii.J 
by the Rural Publishimr Company, 
fF-nt ered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1ST? 
| husk, as in ordinary varieties. These secondary 
husks which inclose the kernels are an inch or 
two in length at the base of the ear. The ker¬ 
nels in many of these are abortive, hut higher 
up the husks gradually decrease in leugth, and 
as this takes plaeo the kernels become fully de¬ 
veloped until, near the summit, tho tnnie-like 
coverings scarcely inclose them; in fact, tho 
growing in undisturbed seclusion. It certainly 
looks as though suoh a spot might be hit upon, 
and we And that Mr. Charles Darwin, in refer¬ 
ring to this varloty, sayB : 
o a peculiar kind (or Corn) in which the grain, 
Instead of being uaked, are concealed by husks 
as much as eleven lines in length, has beeu 
stated, on sufficient, evidence, to grow wild iu 
Brazil. It is almost certain that the aboriginal 
form would have its grains thus protected; but 
the seeds of tho Brazilian variety produce, as I 
hear from Prof. Asa Gray, and as is stated in 
two published accounts, either common or 
husked maize; and it is not credible that a wild 
species when lirst cultivated Bbould vary so 
quickly and in so great a degree.” 
Mr. Darwin has certainly been misinformed 
in regard to the disappearance of tho husk from 
the kernel the first, season after tho supposed-to- 
bc Wild Corn is placed nndorthe influence of cul¬ 
tivation, for we have known the variety shown in 
our illustration to havo been cultivated In tho 
Western States for the past thirty yoars, without 
as yet showing any great variation when planted 
at some distance from the naked-kernel sorts. 
The change from this Wild Com with each ker¬ 
nel inclosed in a husk to that with naked kernels, 
as shown in Fig. 2, is certainly not so great a va¬ 
riation as from tho largo Horse-tooth Corn of 
the Southern States to the small Rice or Pop¬ 
corn of various forms and colors of kernels fa¬ 
miliar to most of our readers. 
Wo did not, however, propose to argue this 
question of tho origin of Indian Corn, but 
merely to present a few facts, leaving our read¬ 
ers to draw their own conclusions therefrom. 
DIFFERENT PRACTICES IN CULTURE. 
In regard to methods of plaut- 
\ / ing and cultivating Corn, there 
Mi if is a wide dilVeronco of opinion 
I | Jj, among farmers, which should not 
'/ exist if anything can be learned 
mlm from experiments and experience. 
I MU/ ) farmer will claim that a 
II M/iii'- greater yield can bo obtained by 
I MMm// . planting iu thills than in hills, 
|| JHUjbWfl while another denies this; but 
I tho former certainly haM the best 
II Mm/Mm iMifl side of tho question in theory, 
and, it is our candid belief, iu 
w0MmWmi P rw;lico au v, ‘ al * Ia localid ' J * 
where Corn is worth but a few 
ccni Is per bushel and labor is dear, 
W ',/ the extra cost of drill culture may 
w'/ . uot ljt: mado 8°° d b y tbe inclfcaH0 
iM yield per aero ; but such points 
can only bo d<id,rmiued by cftre ‘ 
1 WUwMM / tally-conducted experiments. 
\ Another mooted point is wheth¬ 
er wa can by careful selections of 
mW Heed increase tho number of ears 
; ; upon a stalk, and thereby increase 
|& M the yield per acre. Lt seems that 
Hi •; 4 wo have not gained anything in 
this direction during the past 
■ A three hmidred years, for some of 
the first sorts described produced 
mil two to four oars on each stalk, 
Milt while many of onr most popular 
mm varieties at this time give ns only 
one or two. This seems to be a 
waste of space, unless tho one or 
two ears are largo enough to make 
up for a loss in number. 
Questions in regard to the depth 
to wlneh Corn land should he 
plowed, also as to how many times 
the crop should be cultivated, and 
whether the cutting off of the 
roots daring cultivation is likely 
v to be more injurious than bene- 
ficial, are still debated by our far- 
mers. These questions, and many 
more which might be named, are 
terminal grains on some specimens prou uue 
more or less. The grains are white, somewhat 
hard and flinty, but not gveatly inferior in qual¬ 
ity to some of our widely-cultivated sorts. 
Whether this is the original type of the many 
sorts of Com in cultivation probably never will 
be found out, unless some one should happen to 
find a snot on this earth where true Wild Corn is 
SOMETHING ABOUT CORN 
It is generally conceded by onr botanical and 
agricultural authorities that Indian Corn (Zea 
Mays) is a native of America, bnt whether of 
North or Houth America, or of both, is a ques¬ 
tion which it would be difficult to answer at this 
late day. Corn was found among tho aliorigines 
of America, and although onr curiosity may be 
aroused to know whence they obtained it, prob¬ 
ably we shall never be accorded tho gratification 
of learning much more than is at present known 
upon this point. Much speculation, however, 
lias taken place in regard to tho appearance of 
the first or original varieties. 
In looking over tho works of the earliest 
writers who mention Indian Corn, wo find little 
or nothing which throws any considerable light 
on the subject- Gkrar.de, in his " History of 
Plants, 1597,” gives several illustrations and do- 1 
scriptions of Indian Com under the name of 
“ Turkie Come,” and asserts that some varieties 
came from Asia and others from the West In¬ 
dies. The white, red, yellow, golden, and one 
called the blue-and-wliite, are described by this 
old author and contemporaneous writers; but 
even those of a hundred years later throw no 
additional light upon this subject. Wo are com¬ 
pelled, therefore, to believe that many distinct 
sorts wire In cultivation previous to the discov¬ 
ery of America by Cowjlfiics. 
The aborigines on the Atlantic coast appear to 
have had varieties of Corn in cul¬ 
tivation which did not differ very 
widely from many of those culti¬ 
vated at this time, but whethor 
these came from Indian tribos 
further inland can only be con¬ 
jectured, in the absence of poei- 
tive information on this point. J|^ 
It is well-known that Cora is 
one of the most variable of all 
our cereals, and varieties are pro- A 
duced with the greatest facility, |||^\\ 
as a change of even a few degrees \\ 
of latitude is sufficient to produce V® 
a great variation in tho character- M l^v 
istics of any of our old and well- ™ 
established sorts. If this be true \ f 
now—aud we think no cultivator VlilllM 
of Com will doubt it-why may I|||| 
not changes equally great have ||U|] 
taken place with tbOHe varieties 111' 
cultivated by the Indians before I j 
tbe advent of F.uropeans ? This, 
we admit, is only a matter of i | j 
speculation on our part, and is [jj || 
merely preliminary to the intro- 1.1 | 
duction of a variety which, for II ||| 
many years, has been claimed as |j ||fj 
the original Wild Cora of America, || |i|| 
and the illustration accompanying J// 
this article is a most excellent Hf] M 
I representation of an ear B.ightly 
reduced In length, but otherwise IU> M 
of natural size. jfwllSr 
ThiB variety has been known Sj/j/M 
during tho past forty or fifty M’/M 
years under various names, such W jM 
as Wild Californian or Oregon ij.F 
Corn, llocky Mountain Corn, l|l# 
Texas Wild Corn, and, lately, xll 
parties have been offering it as 
Cow Corn, claiming that it was 
far superior to other sorts for 
fodder. It will be seen by a 
glance at our illustration that 
each kernel is inclosed iu a dis¬ 
tinct covering or tunic, the whole 
LI ear also being enveloped in a 
