being 28.6 bushels per capita in the former and 25.5 bushels in the latter. This is the heaviest rate of consumption of any cereal grain during the Diagram showing the increase in the production of maize as compared with the population in the United States during last two decades fifty years, according to the reports of the census of 1900. was twenty-four and one-tenth bushels,-nearly twice that of wheat. There are several Southern States in which the annual yield is less than ten bushels per acre. In the seven surplus maize States the annual yield of maize is thirty-five bushels per acre. In these States nothing less than fifty bushels per acre is considered satisfactory by progressive farmers, and yields of seventy-five to ninety bushels per acre are not at all uncommon; while yields of more than 100 bushels per acre are frequently reported. 364. Export of Maize.-While a much smaller percentage of the maize raised is exported than of wheat, the amount is large and is increasing. But for the great shortage of the maize crop of 1901, the average annual exportation of maize for the five years 1898-1902 would have shown an enormous increase over that of the five years 1893-1897. Notwithstanding this great decrease, which makes the exportation of maize in 1902 by far the smallest for the ten years 1893-1902, the total expor tation for the five years given shows substantial gains over any other five years preceding. The total exportation for the five years 1898-1902 was approximately 160 million bushels of grain, while that of the five years immediately preceding was but little more than half that amount,-something less than eighty-three million bushels. Ninety-two per cent of this great export trade is handled by nine ports, named in the order of their importance, as follows: Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, Newport News, Chicago, Norfolk and Portsmouth, and Detroit. The export trade in maize meal is also fast assuming large proportions. The average annual exportation of this product for the five years 1898-1902 was nearly 800 thousand barrels (3,200,000 bushels), more than twice that for the years 18931897. New York, Newport News and Baltimore, in the order named, handled the bulk of this trade.1 The important importing countries have been Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Belgium and France. Cuba has imported more than a million bushels of grain annually during the five years 1898-1902. Other countries which export important quantities of maize are Argentina, Roumania and Russia. 365. Marketing.-The legal weight per bushel of maize in most States is fifty-six pounds per bushel, although the usual Types of shellers for farm use. A, one-hole hand sheller; B, two-hole power shelier; C, itinerant power sheller, made with four to eight holes for feeding in the ears. U. S. Statistical Abstract, 1902, pp. 301-303. custom well understood in many localities between seller and buyer is sixty pounds per bushel. A large portion of the maize delivered to the country elevator is in the ear, where it is usually shelled before shipping. In most States the legal weight per bushel of maize on the ear is seventy pounds, although it is sixty-eight pounds in a number of States. In some localities, custom requires that a larger number of pounds be given for new maize until a given date, say eighty pounds per bushel until December first. 366. Commercial Grades.-The system of inspection for maize is the same as that for wheat and other grains. As in wheat, soundness, plumpness and mixture of foreign substances or of maize of different color fix the grade. The weight of measured bushels does not enter into the determination of the grade. The Illinois Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners recognizes the following classes and grades: Yellow maize, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Usually in the Chicago market, more maize is dealt in than yellow and white combined, and much more yellow maize than white maize. The grade of all classes of maize usually dealt in is No. 3, No. 4 maize being much more common than No. 2. The following are the rules for grading yellow maize: No. I yellow maize shall be yellow, sound, dry, plump and well cleaned. No. 2 yellow maize shall be three-fourths yellow, dry, reasonably clean, but noʻ plump enough for No. 1. No. 3 yellow maize shall be three-fourths yellow, reasonably dry and reasonably clean, but not sufficiently sound for No. 2. Rules for white maize are identical with those for yellow, except three-fourths reads seven-eighths. Under these rules, all maize that is less than three-fourths yellow and at the same time less than seven-eighths white is maize. 367. Grade Uniformity.-Scofield1 has pointed out that the essential elements in grading maize are: (1) the moisture, (2) the percentage of colors in mixtures, (3) the percentage of damaged grains, and (4) the percentage of broken grains and dirt. He proposes to put all dent maize into three classes as follows: I. Yellow maize; at least 95 per cent yellow. 3. Mixed maize; all maize not included above. The maximum limits for each grade of yellow maize are suggested in the following table: 368. Nativity.-The records of the early voyagers prove that maize was cultivated on the American continent from Maine to Chile at the time of its discovery. It was then the great bread plant of the New World. Numerous varieties of maize have been found in the ancient tombs of Mexico, Peru and New Mexico. These monuments are supposed to be two thousand years old. As there were many varieties at this time, the cultivation of maize must have been considerably more ancient, although not necessarily so ancient as that of wheat. There was a semi-civilized race of people in Peru, Mexico, and even in New Mexico, who made considerable use of maize, using it boiled and roasted when green, and grinding it and making it into bread when ripe. 1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Bu. Pl. Ind. Bul. 41. 369. Value to Colonists.-Maize was the salvation of many of the early colonies, preventing the colonists and their stock from starving. The tame grasses had not been introduced, so that besides maize stover their stock had nothing but salt marsh hay. The early settlers learned the cultivation of maize from the Indians. The James River settlers, under the tuition of the Indians, began to raise maize in 1608, and within three years they appeared to have as many as thirty acres under cultivation. The Pilgrims found it in cultivation by the Indians on their arrival at Plymouth, and began its cultivation in 1621, manuring, as the Indians did, with fish. "According to the manner of the Indians we manured our ground with herrings, or rather shads, which we have in great abundance and take with ease at our doors. "You may see in one township a hundred acres together set with these fish, every acre taking a thousand of them, and an acre thus dressed will produce and yield as much corn as three acres without fish.” In the Jamestown settlement they planted pumpkins and melons in the hill with the maize. 370. Introduction into Eastern Continent. Maize is pretty certainly of American origin. It has been introduced into Europe, Asia and Africa since the discovery of America. After its introduction into the old continent it spread very rapidly across northern Africa and southern Europe and across Asia into China. The rapidity with which it spread gave rise to disputes as to its origin and considerable confusion as to its name. Maize has been known by the following curious names in Europe: Turkish corn, Italian corn, Roman wheat, Sicilian wheat, Indian wheat, Spanish wheat, Barbary wheat, Guinea and Egyptian wheat. These names were given it in various places on account of the country in which it was supposed to have originated. They simply indicate the country from which and through which maize was introduced. The names, with the exception of Indian, are those of places bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. This would seem to indicate that maize |