296 
OTHER FLOWERING PLANTS 
World was discovered, and it was one of the principal foods 
of the Indians. Now corn is grown wherever the season is 
not too short for it to come to maturity. 
Most of the work of planting, cultivating, and harvesting 
corn is done by machinery. Hand work is necessary 
only in removing the ears from the stalk and the husk from 
the ears. Because corn is so valuable a food for men and 
animals and because so much 
of the work necessary in 
raising it can be done by 
machinery, corn raising has 
become one of the most im¬ 
portant industries on the 
easily cultivated level 
prairies of the Middle West. 
Wheat and barley are men¬ 
tioned in the earliest litera¬ 
ture and were among the 
first plants cultivated for 
food. As men learned to 
till the soil and harvest these 
grains, agriculture became established and a marked step 
towards civilization was made. In China and India millions 
to-day depend very largely upon rice. 
An idea of the importance of the cereals as food crops can 
be gained from the following statistics as shown by reports 
in 1918. 
Rice, 
41,918,000 
bushels 
Wheat, 
918,920,000 
yy 
Oats, 
1,535,297,000 
yy 
Rye, 
76,687,000 
yy 
Barley, 
236,505,000 
yy 
Corn, 
2,717,775,000 
'yy 
These are for production in the United States alone. Cer¬ 
tain localities lead in the production of each grain. 
Figure 273. — Leaf of Oak. 
A simple leaf with a lobed margin. 
