The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-01-13
An Indian on Indian Corn.


SOME ten years ago received from
an educated Indian of the Penobsco'
tribe (Maine) named Peol Susup. let
ter in regard to the cultivation and Sc
lection of corn with reference to its i'm
provement, especially in earliness. MIR.
Susup wrote:
"Indian corn is called BY the Indians
weachin, and is believed bv 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 cOu
have been propagated and ripened so
far north of its native tropical home has
been a subject of curious speculation
Every cultivator has doubtless noticed
how difficult it is to perfect the plant
from seed obtained at any considerab 2
| 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 Whit
| settlers of New England were indebted
for their seed corn of the varieties now
in use.
'tAn annual plant may extend itself
east or west along the isothermal lines
by accidental causes, but it could not
have moved into 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 ac-
climated in that country now consti-
tuting Canada and the New England
States.
ssThe 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.
dians observed that the time required
to produce and perfect a joint was one
change of the moon, and as the ear o.
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 woulC
mature some five weeks in advance O
that which should be formed on the sew
enth Joint. Bv constantly selecting fo
seed the lowest ears he finally obtained
varieties that produced from joint
, lower than the original plant, and Verl
much earlier. Thus in time corn wa
produced, small in stalk and ear, ant
adapted to the short summers of tn
North. Slowly but permanently il
, passed into the eight-rOwed corn, pro
: ducing constantly on the lower joints
| | and ripening in three months from tn
day of planting"
, This Indian account of the origin O
g early varieties of corn accords with m
, own observations. In Northeastern
: Vermont and the neighboring town
,. ships of Canada, corn ''sets" upon tn
: second and third joints. In the south
a, ern part of the State, in the Connect
, cut and 'Champlain valleys, the larg
+ ten and twelve-rowed varieties produc
: their ears from the fourth and fift
> Joints. Such corn will not thorough
| ripen near the Canada line, excep
: upon Lake Champlain. If we plan
!. Southern corn, as many do for gree
o fodder, we find the ears upon the sev
e enth JOINT and above, and this cor
: never ripens anywhere in New En-
: gland. Whatever the variety observed
the period required for its perfection
e measured by the number of joints frOr
the ground at which the ears ar
formed. If, therefore, the cultivate
of this plant wishes to advance III
ripening of his future crops, let hi1
It initiate the Indian in selecting tn
l. seed, and "pick low.'-Cor. EIanat7se
a assd Chronicle.