Re: Corn vs. Maize

["Gary M. Sinclair, Harwich, Ma. USA" <sinclair@gis.net>]

Some links regarding Native American "Maize" are:
http://www.iso.gmu.edu/~sbryan/corns.html

and from the Corn History web sight:
THE HISTORY OF CORN
Before Christopher Columbus's voyage to North America, corn was grown only
by the Indians of North, Central and South America. The Indians in the
western hemisphere had grown corn for thousands of years prior to Columbus's
arrival in the New World. Indeed, petrified corn cobs that are over 5000
years old have been found in ancient Indian villages.

When Columbus's ships landed in what is now the West Indies, he traded with
the Indians and took corn home with him to Spain. From Spain, corn was
introduced to other Western European farmers, and eventually was distributed
throughout the world.

The Indian name for corn was MA-HIZ which the early settlers began to call
maize.

The Indians of North America helped save the earliest settlers from almost
certain starvation during their first winter in America by providing them
with corn to eat. After that first hard winter, the settlers were taught by
the Indians how to grow corn by planting corn kernels with small fish for
fertilizer. The Indians also shared their methods of preparing corn with the
settlers. This included corn bread, corn pudding, corn soup and fried corn
cakes.

Corn was so valuable in the days of the early settlers that it was used as
money and traded for meat and furs.
© 1995-2000 Ohio Corn Marketing Program

Gary M


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