Arizona republican., 1898-07-08

time of the burial. It is through this source that we learn the Peruyians had succeeded in improving the wild va rieties to remarkable degree. The cobs of their corn were from three to six inches long, and bore good sized pointed grains.
 There was originally one variety of corn from which all the subvarieties sprung, it's existence cannot be today detected. It is certain that both the Incas and Indians had several varie- ties of corn, with ears and grains of different colors and cobs of various length and thickness. There have been six different varieties of the so-called wild or primitive corn found and 6e- scribed. In Peru and South America the natives raised chiefly a small cared dent variety; the Indians of the southwest adopted a large cared type, with grain that was very soft and starchy, while the tribes in the colder parts of the country used the smaller cared flint varieties. The first men, tion of sugar or sweet corn was in 1779, and thereafter it was raised in ever increasing quantities in the north.
 These were the chief varieties that the white men found growing iT Amer lea, and for many years they confinod d their attention to their improvement. through cultivation and selection. No plant in the new world was more sus- ceptible to cultivation than the Indian corn, and the settlers soon found that they could double their crop by giving due attention to the soil and surround ing conditions of the plants. It was a rude sort of a cultivation at the best; but l. was an improvement. upon the methods of the Indians.
 Beginning early in the present century we see experiments made in cross fertilizing corn, and named vari- cities begin to attract attention. In 1922 Thornburn of New York began to advertise the famous "Stowell's ever green" variety that is in popular demand today. Prior to this, however, King Philip flint corn had been used most extensively irt New England. It was an improved variety of the small cared flint corn raised by the Indian tribes in the New England states About the same time tha southern states were planting the large yellow dent and the Virginia white gourd seed.
 From 1S40 to 1ssG the varieties of corn multiplied rapidly. 4 white va riety called the Chinese tea corn ap- peared in 1840, and in 183S the old Dut- ton corn was advertised. In 1S48 the New York agricultural society men tioned three varieties of sweet corp the small early sweet. the Hematite and the large Rhode Island sweet,
 Pearl popcorn appeared about 1851, and immediately reached widespread fame and popularity. While New Erg- land was raising its particular varie- ties of sweet and flint corn, Ohio was devOting it's attention 10 large yel- low, fourteen rowed variety, and Indi- ana to white and yellow variety tha. promised ,nucoh. Virginia and the south depended on he large white and large yellow or Nansemond variaty.
 The improvement in corn culture really began in 1860, and since then the development has been so rapid that few realize the remarkable difference between the plants of today and those raised half a century ago. In 13s6 six ty-nine varieties of corn were caFa-
  the sweet, pep, husk, dent and flint kinds. Of these varieties not more than a dozen are generally known to- day. In 1884 the New York exper.m 7nt station at Geneva attempted to give a list of all the varieties of corn then recognized by science. Three hundred different varieties were collected, but these were reduced to 146 distinct va rieties when they were accurately de- scribed. These distinct varieties We're divided up into thirty-three kinds of sweet corn, forty-seven of dent, forty four of flint, twelve of soft and ten of pop.
 Since then the number of varieties has increased, and probably fully 560 names are applied to so-called varie- ties of Indian corn. Many of these are so much alike that it wou d take a pro fessional scotsman, as we'll as botan- ist, to mark the distinguishing clali- ties between them.
 Improved machinery has been intro duced to make cultivation more regu- lar and even, and the old methods of planting have been succeeded by new ones. In the west the farmers no long CT hill their corn; they plant it in rows and drills and try to raise one good ear to the stalk instead of three or four. The ears have increased in size; first doubling, and then tripling and even quodrupling the old ears of primi- tive corn. The grain of the ears has been made more regular on the cob, and much larger and finer than ever before. Through improved cultivation the crop per acre has steadily increas- ed in size and value. In our northern belt of states, where the seasons are short and severe frosts are late in the spring and early in the fall, quick growing varieties have been develop ed, so that the area of our corn grow ing belt has been gradually extended.
 The uses of Indian corn have ex- tended enormously in recent years un- til we have actually over 130 different formulas for preparing and cooking the products of this plant. As a food product in this country corn is used almost as extensively as wheat; but in Europe it has been slower to take