221. Uses and value. ВЂ” About nine-tenths of the

crop enters the food ration of animals without first being

shelled. For fattening hogs and beef it has no equal.

Dairymen and horsemen also use much of it as feed. It

mixes well with alfalfa, which is a flesh and bone builder,

while corn furnishes energy and fat. Corn alone is not,

however, a balanced food.

Green, dried, and canned corn, hominy, corn meal,

cereal breakfast foods, popcorn, and corn sirup are

human foods. Corn oil, starch, distiller's grain, cobs,

husks, and pith find various uses, while the stalks and

leaves are used for roughage.

The value in dollars of corn produced in the United

Com or Maize 205

States exceeds that of any other single crop in this country

or any other one country, although the world crop of

wheat and rice surpass the world crop of com in value

because little maize is grown in the Old World.

The great number of uses to which corn can be put

gives it a value aside from its selling price. It was partic-

ularly useful to the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley

because it grew on almost unbroken land, even among

Fio. 61. — A good type of farm uraiQ bin.

the stumps. It furnished both animal and human food

and needed little care. It and meat were the chief foods

of the early colonists in Jamestown and Plymouth; it

accompanied the pioneers until they reached the dry plains

east of the Rockies, where wheat displaced it,

222. Storage and marketing. — Because of the high

percentage of moisture in kernels and cob, the grain

molds easily in poorly ventilated places ; hence the value

of the slatted cribs. After being shelled the germination

206 The Principles of Agronomy

power is injured by freezing, though the feeding qualities

are not hurt. On the other hand, the best way to handle

fodder is to shock it on well-drained ground. The con-

struction shown in Fig. 61 is a good type of store-house

for the farm.

Corn is marketed mostly " on foot," that is, fed to

animals that are being fitted for market. It does not

enter into world markets so largely as other cereals, but

where it does, it is handled much as is wheat except that

greater precautions are taken in drying.

For big markets there are grades Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 in

each of three classes — white, mixed, and yellow.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Com, Bowman and Crossley.

The Com Crops, Montgomery.

The Book of Com, Myrick et cd.

Maize, Joseph Burtt-Davy.

Cereals in America, T. F. Hmit, pp. 138-279.

Southem Field Crops, J. F. Duggar, pp. 78-216.

Manual of Com Judging, A. D. Shamel.

Field Crops, Wilson and Warburton, pp. 47-135.

Field Crop Production, G. Livingston, pp. 29-98.

Principles of Irrigation Practice, J. A. Widtsoe, pp. 255-264.

Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. II, pp. 398-427.

U. S. D. A. Yearbook for 1906, pp. 279-294.

U. S, D. A. Farmers* Bulletins :

No. 81. Com Growing in the South.

199. Com-growing.

229. The Production of Good Seed Com.

253. The Geraiination of Seed Com.

292. The Cost of Filling Silos.

303. Com-harvesting Machinery.

400, A More Profitable Com Planting Method.

414. Com Cultivation.

415. Seed Com.

Corn or Maize 207

537. How to Grow an Acre of Com.

546. How to Manage a Com Crop in Kentucky and West

Virginia.

553. Popcorn for the Home.

554. Popcorn for the Market.

617. School Lessons on Com.

CHAPTER XVIII

OTHER CEREALS

Besides corn and wheat, the cereals commonly grown

in America are oats and barley. Rye is less important

and rice is confined to a few districts in the South. Buck-

wheat, though not a true cereal, is grown to some extent

for grain. Sorghums are more important for forage than

for grain, and, on that account, are grouped with the

millets.

OATS {Avena sativa)

223. Origin and relationships. — It is little wonder

that oats were not used for human food until long after

wheat and barley, when we consider that wheat has no

husk covering the kernels and the barley has a much

thinner one than oats. The Egyptians knew nothing of

oats, and Greeks or Romans did not cultivate them,

extensively at least, although they knew them. This is

not strange, since the grain is primarily adapted for animal

feed. It is not surprising that oats probably came from

the region of the great central Eurasian plains — prob-

ably from the region of Tartary in west-central Asia —

where cattle and horses had long been cared for. They

spread over Europe later, especially in the cool, moist

sections. When introduced into America by the early

colonists, oats did best in the damp North.

208

Other Cereals 209

Like corn, the oat has but few immediate relatives.

Nearly all our commonly grown varieties belong to the

one species, Avena sativa, though one or two other species

yield some grain. Like all other true cereals, they be-

long to the grass family, but to the tribe Avense instead

of Hordese, which includes all the other small-grains.

Two grasses, tall meadow oat-grass and velvet-grass,

belong to the same tribe as oats. Not only in the

tribe but in the same genus with the oat is the wild

oat {Avena fdtita), one of the worst weeds of this grain

crop.