The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-12-03
An Indian ON Indian Corn.

SOME ten years ago 1 received from
an educated Indian of the PenobscOt
tribe (Maine) named Peol Susup. a let
ter in regard to the cultivation and Sc
lection of corn with reference to its i'm
provement, especially in earliness. Mr..
Susup wrote:
"Indian corn is called by the Indians
weachin, and is believed by them to
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 cultiyator has doubtless noticed
how difficult it is to perfect the plant
from seed obtained at any considerable
distance south of the region in which
he endeavors to raise it. 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. Lawrence? He GER
tainly accomplished this result ages be-
fore the white man visited him, and it
was to the natives that the early white
settlers of New England were indebted
for their seed corn of the varieties now
in use.
Gan annual plant may exte4d itself
east or west along the isotherulal lines
by accidental. causes, but it could not
have moved into a colder climate, re-
quiring 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 joint was one
change of the moon, and as the ear of
corn starts only from 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. By 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 corn was
small in stalk and ear, and
adapted to the short summers of the
North. Slowly but permanently it
passed into the eight-rowed corn, pro-
ducing constantly on the lower joints,
and ripening in three months from the
day of planting
This Indian account of the origin of
early varieties of corn accords with my
own observations. In Northeastern
Vermont and the neighboring town.
ships of Canada, corn "sets'' upon the
second and third joints. In the south
ern part of the State, in the Connecti-
cut and Champlain valleys, the large
ten and twelve-rowed varieties produce
their ears from the fourth and fifth
joints. Such corn will not thoroughly
ripen near the Canada line, except
upon Lake Champlain. If we plant
Southern corn, as many do for green
fodder, we find the ears upon the sew
enth joint and above, and this corn
never ripens anywhere in New En-
gland. Whatever the variety observed,
the period required for its perfection is
by the number of joints from
the ground at which the ears are
formed. If, therefore, the cultivator
of this plant wishes to advance the
of his future crops, let him
initiate the Indian in selecting the
seed, and "pick low.'-C0r. Examiner
and Chronicle.
The London Lancet has undertaken
to inquire into the hygienic conditions
of school life in educational establish
monte Aiunino ncina1lv tn disclose