The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-01-10
fore the year 700. By the time of Co.

lumbus it was found everywhere. 1t
was one of the products of American
soil which the great navigator took
back with him to Spain and showed
to Queen Isabella. From Spain it
soon spread over Europe, and in the
sixteenth century grains of it were
sold in Italian, French, German and
English gardens. Before long it was
cultivated upon q larger scale upon
the fields. 1t became widely known as
"Turkish wheat" because the new
world was confused in the popular
mind with the East Indies, the trade
with which was carried on by way of
Turkey.
The ancient Mexicans, to whom the
development OF the usefulness of In
dian corn is due, we're highly civ
ilized people. They were skillful
builders, made utensils of copper and
tin, worked gold and silver into orna-
ments, had an elaborate religious sys-
tenn, preserved large literature on
parchment Of the maguey plant, kept
calendar and understood the art of ag-
riculture, raising beans, pepper, gourds
and many other fruits of tillage.
Their country was so densely popula-
ted that floating gardens were con-
structed, upon which all products of
the soil known to them, particularly
maize and beans, were sown. There
gardens were constructed with logs
overlaid with earth. They have been
described by historians as fairy
islets of flowers overshadowed by trees
of considerable size" Even to this
day such floating islands are built and
anchored in Mexican lakes for pur-
poses Of pleasure.
The ruins of great irrigation works
testify to the extent and development
of the cultivation of maize by the an
cient Peruvians. Their tombs COM
monty contained corn, either in the
ear or the grain. The bodies of these
people were buried in squatting po-
sition,. with the knees drawn up be-
meath the chin, and were rolled and
tied in mats. Heads of corn and cop
per agricultural implements were in
cluded in the rolling. With the
corpse were usually placed water
vessel and pot with grains of maize
All along the coast Of Peru for l 200
miles are scattered thousands of such
prehistoric tomhs. Darwin unearthed
some ears of corn on the seashore, in
stratum which had evidently been
raised by geologic action from nearer
the sea level, and to them he assigned
great antiquity.
In the houses of the ancient cliff
dwellers, in southwest Colorado and
| northern New Mexico, stalks, husks,
tassels, cobs and kernels Of corn are
found. That some of this material is
as old as the buildings is proved by
the fact that the stalks were used in
the construction Of the floors, being
| imbedded in the abode. The cobs
were also utilized to fill up chinks in
| the walls. They were about three
feet long. These habitations have
been deserted for at least five hundred
years. Further south is the land of
the living cliff-dwellers, in the Sierra
| Madre, between the Mexican States
| of chihuahua and Sonora. There re-
| side, on cliffs Or in caves, savages
who worship the sun and plant a lit
tie maize on the steep hill sides with
| out cultivation, though otherwise they
do not till the soil at all.
During the long winter that follow
ed the landing Of the Puritans, in
1920, they subsisted in large measure
on corn purchased from the aborigines
In the next year an Indian named
Squant, taught them how to plant it
and how to fertilize the soil with fish.
Thus they we're enabled to grow about
twenty acres of it. The Indians had
many ways Of preparing maize, mixing
it with beans, chestnuts and whortle-
berries. They made pottage of it
by boiling it with fresh or dried meat
and dried pumpkins, sometimes sweet
ening it with maple sugar. They also
boiled pounded hickory nut kernels
with the meal, and sometimes they
made bread composed Of corn meal
mixed with smoked eels and oysters or
clans.
Like other vegetables Of the garden
and field, Indian corn has been much
improved and altered by cultivation.
The form in which it now appears
would soon ,anish save for the agen-
cy of man. To preserve it the kernels
must be sown, for the latter are too
large to be carried by the winds, and
the sheathins husks prevent animals
from getting at the grain and distrib-
uting it. The provision made by ma
ture for the reproduction Of maize is
even unusually ample, the number OF
pollen grains furnished by each plant
being about $4,000, 900. Of course,
each kernel must be fertilized by a
grain of pollen in order that it may
ripen. Allowing two ears OF l,0OO
kernels to each plant, there are 5000
pollen grains for every kernel.
A kernel of corn is wonderful
r. ;c II, bov of ctorch