New Britain herald., 1920-03-09
CORN HAS HISTORY 7 GREAT AS COUNTRY
Staple Crop Plays Big Part in ;. Civilization

grown measuring 22 feet f inches Tn
 height, the tallest recorded corn plant.
 This was one of some 900. O.00O,ooo,ooo >hills planted to corn in 1918, the
 greatest acreage that this or any other
 country in the history of the world
 ever planted to any one crop. And
 the 1915 crop was approximately as
 great. Crop reports show that over
 1O0,0OO,Oo0 acres were in corn with
 yield of .OOo,oOO,OoO bushels The ~ stupendous magnitude of this yield . may be imagined when one says that <if it had been loaded on 2O-foot waG- k .ons, each containing 50 bushels these r wagons. placed end to end, would , have reached nine and one-half times,
 around the world-a distance of 2S0.-
 900 miles,
 Corn played it's highly important part in the great war; but it has al- 4 ways played a most important role in
 {all American wars from the very E earliest days. Corn was the mainstay | of Washington's soldiers during the feight years of the revolution, and in
 tho civil war the south could not have
 sustained itself a year without corn. Indeed, from the very earliest times ! Ghe history of Indian corn in America Y is a true romance. Colunob bus, writing
 to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella | in 149S, mentioned corn fields in the
 ,new-found America which were Is
 miles long. The Indian village of
 Hochelaga, which later became Mon
 treal, was surrounded by large corn
 fields. De Soto also found extensive
 acreases planted to corn in Illinois.
 We have been apt to think of the In- :. dian corn fields as comprising a few
 rows Of indifferent corn, crudely cul-
 tivated and of little consequence. As
 matter of fact, corn was of enor-
 nous importance to the Indians from
 one end of the United States to the
 other, and that the Indian corn fields s,were ' n5', destroyed in 1885 by shown by the fact that according to
 rsiilitary reports l,2oe;ooo acres of kcori, belonging to the Seneca Indians 8s in f6S5 by the English in New Work shIsststte,- and further. that -Frretr<~rrft', "i lyNhos10 years later invaded tho Onon- 1HEfga Indian country in New York, af spent three days with his soldiers in e uestroying their corn fields Largest Crop of AI -,ssN
 n As affecting the various Indian civ ii|fzpfons throughout the United States scogpANas the most potent of any fac f f3tCr-Tfrom Maine to Florida and from 74Adontana to the arid far southwest. & &Khe great bulk of the thousands of EIndlaH tribes had their corn fields, and though they were all hunters very 1, ,,,sfHwFa%were wandering nomads. The sEenefal conception that the American Indian was almost exclusively q meat V eater is decidedly wrong. Almost all were corn caters. This very general i. enitiyation of corn brought the In- . fafans into communities, with well de- Hned territories of hunting grounds ], Tor the different races and nations Corn undoubtedly came originally E1rom the south, probably from Mexico ERnd with it the Indians brought north *the art of pottery making and basket
 weaving. The planting. growing and
 Harvesting of tho corn was closely in '. tervo with the rites and symbols ssof the Indians religion-thosc of the Sfar Canadian north, where prayers
 must keep away the frost, and those of the hot and arid southwest. where Z '"Those Above" must be invoked for
 water for irrigation. Longfellow's
 Iliawatha embodieS the most beauti-
 full poetic recognition of the Indian
 
 nlsliZe fields; but the story of Ia- Y watha was no mere fancy of the poet, las many people imagine. Longfellow \ simply put to beautiful verse the story yEltnQwn in it's every detail to thousands of Indian families and tribes even to this day.
 Today neither in acreage nor value. s does wheat or any other crop compare
 with corn. During the last 10 years sst1eF acreage planted in corn in the Emitted States greater by from Y. 900, ,000 to 100000 acres than the
 ronbined acreuGes of wheat, rye, bar .l lleyvseoats, rice, buchw wheat and flax: sand the value of the crop was nearly {. .,AtQuarter greater than the combined Na1GeS of all the great staple food
 crops. Like no other important crop, <. corn is grown in every state in the Ss Alllion. And yet. impossible as it is { eto<lay to get along without corn, as a sSfopd ard as a producer of beef, pork, SnNtton, chickens. lard, butter. and ;t s-sffdzen other necessities, it is no moro x ifAp ortant than it was in the early 2 .dayS of struggling America. The col .f i6hists would literally have starved 10 Heath without it. They got it from | ffiendly Indians and began growing it y~1nm ediately. Every man of Capt .Iohn mith's colony was given an acr,, %N1E land anf instructed to plant corn I on it. It soon became q. medium of ssGxchange among the colonistS Taxes s@Fent and debts were paid iu corn, and SSEen wives were purchased with it That is, the cost of their transnorta- stion from England. -sE Dcyclopcd Tradinm Sni,;t