The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1880-12-03

An Indian on Indian Corn.
SOME ten years ago / received from
an educated Indian Of the Penobscot
tribe (Maine) named Peol Susup. a let
ter in regard to the cultivation aud Sc
lection OF corn with reference 10 its i'm
provement. especially in carliness. Mr..
Susup wrote:
Indian corn is called by the Indians
weachin, and is believed bv them 10
have originated in Mexico. When white
men discovered America they found it
in cultivation over the two continents,
from latitude forty degrees south to the
island OF Orleans in the st. Lawrence
River. That was probably its extreme
limit in the northeast. How it could
have been propagated and ripened SO
far north OF its native tropical home has
been a subject of curious speculation.
Every c~ultivator has doubtless noticed
how difficult IL is to perfect the plant
from seed obtained at any considerable
distance south Of the region in which
ne e~ndeavors to raise il. Seed pro-
cured from New York will seldom or
never perfect itself in Maine, and it is
deemed unsafe to plant that brought
from Massachusetts,. How then did the
Indian. without other agricultural edu-
cation than that derived from his own
unrecorded and imperfect observations,
push its production from the Gulf OF
Mexico to the St. LawrenceP He GER
tainly accomplished this result ages be-
lore the white mar visited him, and it
was TO the natives that the early white
settlers OF New England we're indebted
for their seed corn of the varieties now
in use.
IAN annual plant may extend itself
east or west along the isothermal lines
by accidental causes, but it could not
have moved into q colder climate. re-
curing cultivation and care. without
great attention, and the application OF
more than ordinary skill. 1t must
have required ages to have been accli-
mated in that country now constituting
Canada and the New England States.
The Indian has his tradition re-
garding the method by which the north
ern varieties Of corn were obtained and
perfected. Like all the grasses and
many other annual plants. corn grows
upward by joints or sections. The In
dams observed that the time required
to produce and perfect a joint was one
change of the moon, and as the ear of
corn starts only from a joint there was
necessarily about seven days between
the forming Of the ears on successive
joints. Now If an ear could be made
TO start at the second joint, it would
mature some five weeks in advance of
that which should be formed on the sew
enth joint. Bv constantly selecting for
seed the lowest ears he finally obtained
varieties that produced from joints
lower than the original plant, and very
much earlier. Thus in time corr was
produced, small in stalk and ear, and
adapted to the short summers Of the
Slowly but permanently it
passed into the e%ight-rowed corn. pro-
constantly on the lower joints.
and ripening in three months from the
day of planting"
This Indian account of the origin of
varieties Of corn accords with nv
observations. In Northeastern
Vermont and the neighboring town
ships Of Canada, corn ..sets' upon the
second and third joints. In the south
part Of the State. in the Connecti-
cut and Champlain valleys. the large
and twelve-rowed varieties produce
heir ears from the fourth and fifth
Joints. Such corn win not thoroughly
ripen near the Canada line. except
upon Lake Champlain. II we plant
Southern corn, as many do for green
Iodder, we find the ears upon the sew
snth joint and above, and this corn
lever ripens anywhere in New En-
gland. Whatever the variety observed.
he period required for its perfection Is
measured by the number Of joints from
he ground at which the ears are
II, therefore, the cultiyator
If this plant wishes TO advance the
Of his future crops, Let him
initiate the Indian In selecting the
eed, and "pick low.'-C0r. Examiner
ind Chronicle.