The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-08-18
AGRICULTURE.
a,0RN-HTs VALUE, DISCOVERY, nE'
RG,MEpTHON. ANALYSIS, GUhTA"
a.. WALTON, ETC. ..
BY r. ARMANr.

the most widely CULTIVATED gEhln LII bht
world, while the rapid increase Of Its cultiva-
tion. both in the old and new world, will ere
long give 1t precedence over the great Eastern
food grain.
The annual imports Of corn in England
amount to T5,00o,000 bushels, whose cost
represents S51 900 900, while the rest OF Eu-
rope produce or import much above that
amount.
In the United States there are 81 100000 acres
devoted To the culture Of corn, yielding an an
nual total Of 3oo0oo,ooo bushels.
Whilst India s raising enormous quantities
of corn which, as 1t satisfies the home market,
must amount to 2oO,0o0OOO bushels, at least,
Brazil follows In the American lead with an
annual crop Of 10000, 900 bushels.
LII italy the corn crop amounts TO 4500O,000
bushels In Austria, a0,O00,O0O; In hungary,
t}GO00.0O0 in France, 4O,0OO000; In Portugal,
IhODOO0O In Greece 100000; IN Turkey, 90,
100000: Iii Australia 100000
Technically nsnis, and botanieally Gen n,ais,
our great American grain belongs to the
graminaceous family.
All the varieties Of mails are annual herba-
ceous plants and exotic. OF all these. the
most Interesting on account OF Its paramount
utility in Our rural and domestic economies,
is the cultivated corn also designated rs Indian
corn, Spanish corn or Turkish corn.
arc: Fibrous, whitish roots, giving birth to one
or more stalks Of nearly. cylindrical formt
slightly depressed, iointed In their length and
from four to five and six feet high.
It's leaves are alternated, sessied, sheathed
ut their basis linear-lanoeolatcd, one and one
and o half feet long, Hight green in color, with
cred with short hairl on their surface.
Their male flowers are of a greenish white
color or sometimes slightly purpurine, ar
rayed in large numbers at the top Of the
stalk on several spears, whose assembage
form a paniole eight and twelve inches high
Their female flowers are very numerous,
sessite. or dwarfish and creeping, generally
located between the stalk and the sheathing
origin OF tho highest leaves, on common
axis. and themselves incased In o fOlaCeous
membrane which hides them altogether, ex-
cept their styles, which, being salient and
forming 9 tuft Of long filaments are well
visible.
The grain Of corn Is partly round, rather
angular and of the size Of bean; It's color
varies from golden yellow to a reddish vol
low or pale white. the grain Is laid out longi-
tudinally, In eight or ten rows, on the cob,
close to one another and half inserted In the
alveoles which mark the cob. 49,.
ORIGIN OF CoRN-H1BroRY OF IT'S CULTIvA-
TION, ETC.
Corn Is native Of America, where 1t was
found abundantly growing at the discovery OF
tho continent by Columbus, aud where. ac-
cording to indisputable evidences 1t must
have been cultivated at the remotest periods
of American ante-discovery combinations.
Some authors have enormously al Indian
origin to corn, whence they say it came to
Turkey, was thence brought to Africa and
finally to America, But the themes of these
theoretioians notwithstanding, we find no.
where d proof that corn was known before the
discovery of America.
Varro. CoIumeIla, pliny Dioscorides, Pal
ladius, Galien and Theophrastus and In fact,
all those who have dealt with rural economy
or written on medicinal or food vegetables,
are absolutely silent about mails, our corn.
There is no mention OF il made in the narra-
tives OF the early explorers TO Asia and Afri-
ca, while 1t is noteworthy that those authors
give the most lengthy and minute details rs
TO the products of those countries through
which they travelled.
The fact thata grain Of Indian corn was
found in the dried-up body of an Egyptian
mummy gave rise tp q theory that corn had
been cultivated by these people during pre-
historic periods, but the slonder likelihood Of
the arguments used refuted at once the as
sumption. That a rat might have dropped
that grain in hts quite modern Wanderings
through the hollow mummy is more than
likely, and TO account for the grains pres
ence III any other kind Of reasoning than this
most elementary rational one, is nothing
short of childishness or senile oddity.
II is impossible to trace beyond the fifteenth
century any author who had mentioned mails
in his writings, and The first Of these are
Spaniards to whom Europe was indebted
then Tor the 1lfSt descriptions OIL anu general
information on corn
Cultivated in Spain under the reign OF
Ferdinand and isabella, thence introduced in
Sicily. Italy, Dalmatia and the Mediterranean
coast corn was cultivated in France, during
the reign Of Henri IL, and quite extensively
in the sixteenth century.
The introduction of corn in England can be
rightly ascribed to Sir Walter Raleigh, but
its cultivation WIS mainly restricted to the
British colonies.
Like all plants that have been long sub.
iected to cultivation. corn has undergone, I'M
der mans care and management many modi
tications graduated as 1t changed soil, eli
mate and filth. so that it now embraces 8
large number of varieties that are well known
to the reader and do not differ materially, ex,
cept in size, yield, color Of grain, form of ears
and taste.
The following analysis by Payen and Bous
singault will give a fair average knowledge
of the chemical composition OF corn, which
may but slightly differ in all cases and va
rieties:
PAYEN's ANALYSIS OF CORN MEAL In 1o'
PARTS