The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-11-12
WILD INDIAN CORN.
Has the Parent Plant of the Cultivated
Grain Been Discovered.

(From Garden and Borest.)
q Many years ago researches were made
to establish the fact that maize BELONGED
exclusively to this country and was of
American origin. 1t was believed in 1887
that the plant in it's wild state was ex.
tinct, and thus one of the strongest areu-
ments to prove it indigenous was lost.
No eyidenoe could be found in Europe.
Asia. or Africa to show that the plant
existed prior to the voyages of Columbus
in 1899. or Pizarro, Kin 1924. Both of
these pavigators saw it growing, and we
have now reason to believe that the In
dams and Incas made uso of the grain
many years. before these visitors arrived.
We have corn that has been preserved for
several hundred years, and it may have
been grown over q thousand years ago.
In dry state this grain appears to be
indestructihle, and 1 have in my possess
ion some Peruvian corn that is certainly
several hundred years old. 1t is dry and
friable, is OF red color, and yields q
white meal. 1t was buried with So
called mummy prior to the year 1855,
and how long before history does not
tell. Peruvian corn was in small ears,
from three to six inches long, and bore
grains pointed on the top, not in lows,
but somewhat i'm brioated. 1t was evi-
IDENTIFY far removed from the wild stock.
Primitive corn, or wild corn, which
has been found in several different re-
gions Of this continent naturally lepro-
duc1ng itself. has character of growth
that fits it for long preservation in a
mild climate, although if planted and
cultivated for few years, all the charac-
teristics OF wildness gradually disappear.
The cobs of wild maize are thin and hard
covered with lines of mushroom shaped
elevations. each having wire-like pedi-
ole growing from the top, attached to a
glume enclosing small pointed grain,
mr. at grain. smaller than any popcorn,
These kernel husks overlap each other
toward the point of the ear, like the
shingles on the roof of q house. The i'm
brications are largest and longest at the
butt of the ears and gradually become
LEES pronounced as they advance in dis.
tinot rows to the point. The Individual
glummes are from an inch to two inches
long, ana are much longer than this
W here tine grains are not fertilized, per-
ticularly If the entire ear is of This char
acter, as is proved by specimen in my
collection. Owe. these imbrications is
the outside husk, as we have 1t in all
cultivated corns. Of course. the barn
and she corncrib soon make winter pro-
lection by the glumes unnecessary.
nrir all + =, Mo- l.
variety of corn, and 1T was attached to
mild climate; but, judging from analogy
and the effects of cultivation, We are OF
the opinion that there were snbvarieties,
and in them the grains were OF differ,
emit color and the glumes striped. The
Incas and Indians had different varieties
of corn, and grew ears of several oolors,
some uniform and others mixed, but
their cobs we're thin and sometimes the
ears quite short. Six varieties of the
wild corn found growing in unfreQuented
localities have been described, five of
which have seen, and several of which
have been grown. All have pedioels at
tached to the glumes, and the glumes
i'm bricated.
Tie word corn, in many languages,
simply means grain. Indian corn is In
dian grain distinctiyely, as the Indians
had no other. They had beans, Hquashes,
pumpkins, gonrds, fand melons, but
wheat, rye, oats, and barley belonged to
the Old World, and had to be imported.
The Indians grew corn over a wide range
of country and wherever the climate was
adapted to it.
Cultivation has done wonders with this
grain both in Its form and color SO that
now we have, perhaps, 100 varieties.
The plant varies from foot and half
to Is feet in hight, and ears from two
iuohes to Ii inches In ! ength. We find
in modern Indain growths ears that are
Hack, blue and red. besides mixed
oolors. We have also several varieties of
popcorn, sugar corn, and field corn.
Most of tie corn grown by Indians is
in small rounded grains, except that of
the cliff dwellsrs. who appear TO have
teen, in a measure, an agricultural
people. Their ceba were thin and their
grain In rows, but the individual grains
we're larger and square ended. Indented
corn seems also to have been known
ar ong them.
Every people must have drink. and
if the process of distillation is unknown
It ey Iesort to fermentation. Primitive
American races made drink out of
corn. analogous to beer, by fermentation
of the ear in its green state or after 1t
had dried. This was intoxicating to a
certain extent, Out, fortunately, much
less so than the modern disaillate from
tie same grain. The drinking mugs OF
the cliff wellers bear testimony to their
having had this habit. Great improve
ments have been made by the white race
III growing its cereal, and one of the
chief Of these is in he diameter of the
cob. which has been made to hold as high
as tw cnty -four rows.
From four to six ears have heen grown
on ono stalk, and ears produced of very
remarkable length. Sugar corn was in
troduced in 1779, and now it and popcorn
have entered into the race, and larger
varieties nTe being prodneen. TIE COM
iruroial rnriety known as 'Turkey corn"
is not maize, and does not Eeer its grain
en- an ear, but OIL the top in the tassel.
rs the broom corn does Turkey corn is
about eight feet high and bears a small.
rounded grain, which is either white OF
pinkish. in the East it is * nown by the
name of Dura. III e Turks and Egyp-
tians grow Indian corn, it is true, but il
was originally obtained from Am rrics.
TurkeJ corn and Inaizs have often hesD
coufounded 10y botanical wli.e,-. al
de TN ouis'' Is a distins tive grain.
Indian corn in its wild state has been
fouud in Ariz,np, southern Texas. the
valley OF Me xicn, and Central America.
Rocky Mountain corn l have known
long nsriod of time; 1t has very small