name.
Maize succeeds best in the hottest and dampest parts of tropical
climates. It may be reared as far as 40 degrees north and south
latitude on the American continent; while in Europe it can grow even
to 50 degrees or 52 degrees of latitude, some of the numerous
varieties being hardy enough to ripen in the open air, in England and
Ireland. It is now cultivated in all regions in the tropical and
temperate zones, which are colonized by Europeans. It is most largely
grown, however, about the Republics bordering on the northern shores
of South America, California, the United States and Canada, the West
India islands and Guiana, on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and
partially in India, Africa, and Australia. We see the singular fact in
Mexico of land which, after perhaps thousands of years' culture, is so
little exhausted, that with a very little labor bestowed on it, a bad
maize harvest will yield two hundredfold profit, while a good crop
returns 600 fold.

This grain adopts itself to almost every variety of climate, and is
found growing luxuriantly in the low countries of tropical Mexico, and
nearly equally well on the most elevated and coldest regions of the
table-land; in the rich valleys of the Cordilleras or the Andes, and
on the sandy heights of those mountains wherever a rill of water can
be brought to nourish its roots. In short, it ripens under the sun of
America, in every part of both continents.

Though wheat is characterised as the most nutritious food for man in
all quarters of the world, yet the Indian corn crop of the United
States is not second in value to any product of the earth; cultivated
in the middle and Eastern States, nay, even in the rich cotton-growing
districts, Indian corn is fast rising in importance, and will soon
equal in value that important commercial staple. This indigenous grain
yields to the nation an annual average of five hundred millions of
bushels, and has, within the last five years, attracted much attention
as a life-sustaining food, more particularly at the period of
Ireland's severe suffering, in 1847, and the following years. Nations,
as well as statesmen and farmers, have found it an object worthy of
their consideration and esteem.

When due regard is paid to the selection of varieties, and cultivated
in a proper soil, maize may be accounted a sure crop in almost every
portion of the habitable globe, between the 44th degree of north
latitude and a corresponding paralle