Potash 23.175
Soda 3.605
Sodium 0.160
Chlorine 0.295
Sulphuric acid 0.515
Organic acids 5.700
------
99.175

The above table shows a smaller quantity of lime than is usually found
in the ash of this grain. It is, however, never so abundant as
magnesia; and Professor Emmons has shown that the best corn lands in
the State of New York contain a considerable quantity of magnesia. All
experience, as well as all chemical researches, go to prove that
_potash_ and phosphoric acid are important elements in the
organisation of maize. Corn yields more pounds of straw and grain on
poor land than either wheat, rye, barley, or oats; and it does
infinitely better on rich than on sterile soils. To make the earth
fertile, it is better economy to plant thick than to have the rows
five feet apart each way, as is customary in some of the Southern
States, and only one stalk in a hill. This gives but one plant to
twenty-five square feet of ground. Instead of this, three square feet
are sufficient for a single plant; and from that up to six, for the
largest varieties of this crop.

Mr. Humboldt states the production of maize in the Antilles as 300 for
one; and Mr. H. Colman has seen in several cases in the New England
States of America, a return of 400 for one; that is to say, the hills
being three feet apart each way, a peck of Indian corn would be
sufficient seed for an acre. If 100 bushels of grain is in such case
produced by an acre--and this sometimes happens--this is clearly a
return of 400 for one.

Of the whole family of cereals, _Zea Mays_ is unquestionably the most
valuable for cultivation in the United States. When the time shall
come that population presses closely on the highest capabilities of
American soil, this plant, which is a native of the New World, will be
found greatly to excel all others in the quantity of bread, meat,
milk, and butter which it will yield from an acre of land. With proper
culture, it has no equal for the production of hay, in all cases where
it is desirable to grow a large crop on a small surface.

Although there has been much written on the Eastern origin of this
grain, it did not grow in that part of Asia watered by the Indus, at
the time of Alexander the Great's expedition, as it is not among the
productions of the country mentioned by Nearchus, the commander of the
f