Few plants are more useful to man than Indian corn, or maize.No grain, except rice, is used to so great an extent as an article of food.In some countries corn is almost the only food eaten by the people.Do you know why it is called Indian corn?It is because the American Indians were the first corn growers.Columbus found this grain widely cultivated by them when he discovered the New World.They pounded it in rude, stone bowls, and thus made a coarse flour, which they mixed with water and baked.Indian corn is now the leading crop in the United States.In whatever part of this land we live, we see corn growing every year in its proper season.Yet how few can tell the most simple and important facts about its planting and its growth!Corn, to do well, must have a rich soil and a warm climate.It is a tender plant, and is easily injured by cold weather.The seed corn does not sprout, but rots, if the ground is cold and wet.To prepare land properly for planting corn, the soil is made fine by plowing, and furrows are run across the field four feet apart each way.At every point where these furrows cross, the farmer drops from four to seven grains of seed corn.
