Maize

MAIZE. Zea Mays. Corn, Indian corn. To the American ear, the word corn signifies that important member of the grass family, denoini nated. outside the United States, among English speaking people, Indian corn, (the word corn in Great Britain being the term used to designate grain generally). It is a plant of prime value, rivaling rice and sugar cane, in its importance to the human family at large, and in the United States standing ahead even of wheat, in money value, and in the number of bushels produced yearly, exceeding wheat nearly four times. It is a very important article of consumption alike for man and beast and is, indeed, the staff of life to the poorer classes in the South, where it is in more general use as an element of human food than in any part of our country. Botanically the corn plant is a most interesting one. The staminate flowers, (tassel) are arranged at the summit of the plant -where their pollen may fall upon the pistillate spikes, (ears) below ; these are dense spikes covered with sheaths of abortive leaves, the husks, which often have their blade more or less developed. The silk of the ear is the elongated pistils, one of which pro ceeds from each ovary or kernel. The cob is the thick rachis, and the chaff which covers it the glumes and paleT. From the lower nodes or joints aerial roots are often thrown out, imi tating in an humble way the celebrated Banyan tree. The juice of the stem, before the grain is perfected, eontains a considerable amount of saccharine matter, and sugar has been obtained from it. The young eArs of some varieties have much ..sugar, which is changed to starch as the grain ripens. In the varieties known as sugar corn much sugar remains unchanged and gum is also a constituent. Under the words corn and Indian corn, in this work, we have referred to the word maize as designating eorn, and this to prevent confusion to others than American readers, and for reasons explained in this article. Maize is a native of South Ameriea, but before the discovery of America had become pretty generally distributed among the wandering tribes of Indians in the temperate regions of North America. Although a tropical plant and of course exceedingly sensitive to frost, even the late varieties will ripen where there is about five months of sum mer without frost, and the earlier varieties in 100 days. Cultivation and climate has broken this remarkable grain up into numerous varie ties, of every color from dark purple through the reds and yellow to white, and varying re markably in their constituents of starch, sugar; gum and oil, some, as the dent varieties of the West and South, producing large quantites of starch, others, as tike flint varieties of the East hav ing gum and oil notably. Those varieties denom inated sweet eorn, being especially rich in gum and sugar. The stalks of all the varieties are rich in saccharine when the grain is in milk. So much so that sugar in notable quantities has been produced therefrom, not however in quan tities to warrant working it, since, in the South, the true sugar cane, and in the North the varieties of sorghum are more profitably worked. Indian corn may be properly divided into four distinct groups. The Flint corn of the sea coast States, the Dent corn of the West and South, the Sugar varieties containing gum, sugar, oil, and but little starch, and the Squaw or flour corn. The varieties being marked by their tender ness, the skin being filled with starch granules which readily break into powder, the ilint varieties contain largely of gum and oil, and the dent varieties as largely of starch and oil. The analysis by M. Payen given below shows the amount of proximate principles of maize as compared with the other cereal grains: As showing the constancy of species in retaining characteristics for long ages under cultivation, where no e,special means were used to change them by special cultivation, we give three illus trations. Fig. 1 shows a cob of Indian corn from a rock cave of Arizona; Fig. 2, the corn of the present time as cultivated by the Puebla Indians of Arizona; Fig. 3, an ear of corn found with a mummy of Ancient Peru, the date being so far distant that the age can not even be guessed at. To return to Indian corn of the present day, Dr. Emil Wolff, makes the plant, cut early, or just at the time of blossoming, to contain in 100 parts: water, 82.2; organic mat ter, 16.7; ashes, 1.1. Or, of nutriment contain ing nitrogen 1.1; nutriment not containing nitro gen, 10.9; woody fiber, 4.7; total nutriment, 12.0. Or, again, fat 0.5; phosphoric acid, 0.08; lime, 0.07. The total amount of nutri tious matter exceeded that of Swedish clover, peas, vetches, oats and lucerne, cut when in flower, as it also did the leaves of cabbage, beets and carrots. As compared with the common English field turnip, the per centage of flesh form ing nutriment is the same, of fat forming mate rial nearly double, as between the maize plant, and turnips, while the amount of water in the green stalks and leaves is less than half as much, a. curious and interesting comparison, consider ing that the turnip is the sheet anchor of English husbandry. Maize is the real fallow crop of. &the West. It was once, and should now be, the fallow crop of American hushandry, both North and South. From many analyses made by Mr. J. H. Salisbury, of ZTew York, the fol lowing is the average, of the whole plant calcu lated without water, and just before the forma tion of the ear; Sugar and extract 35.00 Matter obtained from fiber by a weak solution of potash '2.00 Dextrine or gum 6 0i Albumen and caseine 7.90 Woody fiber 39.00 Total 100 00 The analyist as to the value of maize as fodder, says, the plant during tasseling, owing to the very large per centage of sugar and extract, with the respectable quantity of albuminous matter and dextrine which the stalk, leaves, and sheaths contain, must form a very palatable and nutritious fodder. This has been well borne out since, by those who have drilled, cultivated, and fed Indian_ corn to dairy cows in the West. Those who. have persisted in sowing the corn thickly—three to four bushels per acre—and feeding it half grown, blanched and watery, from overdue crowding, hold contrary opinions. If they will drill it, in rows two feet apart, at the rate of one bushel per acre, and cultivate it until it begins. to shade the ground, and will feed it from the time the blossom begins to appear until the grain is half grown, it will be found a most valu able and economical forage plant to tide over the dry season in the West, from the middle of July to the middle of August, especially, if they avoid.

the mistaken idea of sowing the late varieties of. Southern corn, and use instead early and more dwarf sorts, especially the medium early varieties. of sweet corn. The insects and their larya3, which infest maize, are rather numerous, and yet with the exception of Wire worms which attack the. young plant under ground, the Heart worm, which destroys the plant by boring into the heart of the stalk, and the Corn worm which attacks the young ears, they are not common enough to. do serious injury. The range of Indian corn is most extensive, reaching from the torrid zone well up into Canada Far north the plant often does not reach four feet in height, the ears being. not thicker than a man's thumb, or more than four inches in length. On the other hand, some of the Southern varieties sometimes reach the height of from fourteen to sixteen feet, with ears as many inches long. It is a curious fact, however, that the largest yields .per acre are obtained in the middle region of cultivation, and with varieties neither dwarf nor yet of great height. The corn zone may be stated to lie. from the middle latitude of Tennessee and Kentucky to that of central Michigan, southern. Wisconsin and northern Iowa, The best cli mates being the latitudes of Ohio, Indiana, Illi nois, southern Iowa, northern, and central Missouri and Kansas. The center of corn pro duction and also the center of wheat production. since 1850 has moved gradually West, with each recurring decade, the center of wheat production,. however, advancing West faster than corn. The center of corn production in 1877 was a line. drawn north and south, near the center of Illinois. In another decade, we shall find the center of corn production removed to near the Mississippi river, and that of wheat undoubtedly beyond the Mississippi river. The center of corn production. can not travel much further West, for the reason that the dryer climate of the far West is not suited to the production of naaize. As showing the wonderful increase in production, we give a, table below showing the progress of the produc tion of maize in the last sixteen years, as gathered from the statistics of the United States. It must be remembered that the first three years were. years of civil war, with decreased production and inflation of prices. The acreage in the first two, years is lo*, and the price excessive. The year 1865 was a prolific one, with by far the largest average yield reached during the whole period, even in 1879, a year of great crops, giving less than thirty bushels per acre. The acreage of 1865. was nearly doubled in 1866, and nearly tripled in 1878. During the year last named our cornfields were nearly equal in area to the State of Kansas. The average product per acre was substantially the same throughout, amounting to 26.6 bushels during the latter eight years, against 26.8 bushels in the previous eight years. The four crops, 1875-1878, each exceeded considerably a billion and a quarter of bushels. As in the case of wheat, the supplies have grown faster than the eign outlet. During the first eight years we sent abroad but 1.20 per cent. of our product; during the latter eight years, 4.37 per cent. ; of the crop of 1877, we shipped abroad six and one half per cent., and of the crop of 1878 in about population. During the first eight years the out turn averaged 21.40 bushels per capita, and dur ing the latter eight years, 24.07 bushels; in 1875, it amounted to nearly thirty bushels. Our sur plus in later years has found an increasing for the same proportion. The average price obtained by the farmer has fallen off two-thirds in fifteen years, being 99.7 cents per bushel 1864, and 31.8 cents in 1878. The last named crop, though greater by 46,000.000 bushels than its predecessor, fell short of it $39,000,000 in aggregate value. The average value of each acre's yield has fallen to the unprecedented low figure of $8.55 in 1878; in 1864 it amounted to stalks of Indian corn, at that period when they are fullest of elaborated sap will make sugar equal in every respect when refined to cane sugar. Yet it is hardly probable that the making of $30.64. The last named year, however, was one of extreme moneyed inflation. The table above will show the produetion for sixteen years The corn crop of 1879 aggregated 1,547,901,790 bushels, on 53,085,450 acres, of the value of $580,486,217, or within about $50,000,000 value of the wonderful wheat crop of that year. In 1880 the production of corn was 1,537,535,900 bushels; less than that of 1879. Now as the production of wheat in 1880 was 32,000,000 greater than in 1879, while corn was less, we may conclude, that wheat was more remunera tive than corn. It is quite probable that we have already arrived at the maximum produetion which the country is capable of under an eco nomical system of agriculture, even allowing which is true, that the corn crop is the great *fallow crop of the West. It will be seen by the scale representing production and exports, given below, that the years 1875 to 1878 inclusive show an inereasing export. Of the crop of 1878, over 100,000,000 bushels were exported, and of that of 1879 still more. One reason why the area of corn production has remained com paratively steady is, that the demand for export wheat has wonderfully increased for the last three years,' owing to short crops in Europe. Hence the remarkable increase in wheat produc tion since 1876, as shown in the wheat scale, which has steadily increased including the year 1880. On this page is another table showing the number of bushels, acreage aud value of maize, by States, for the year 1878. It will be seen that the four States of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio raise about one half the corn grovvn in the entire country. For the years 1879 and 1880 these figures would be largely increased. It should not be omitted in this article, that the corn sugar will ever become a profitable indus try in the United States, notwithstanding the assertions of enthusiasts. It will not supersede the true sugar cane in the gulf States, nor sorghum further north. Nevertheless, it is possi ble, that some early varieties, rich in saccharine. may be available in prolonging the season of sugar making in the North, by working corn before sorghum is ready for the mill.