Thus prayed the Iroquois Indians when the corn had ripened on the hills and valleys of New York State long before it was a state, and even before Columbus had turned his ambitious prows westward in quest of the Indies. Had he found the Indies with their wealth of fabrics and spices he would have found there nothing so valuable to the world as has proved this golden treasure of ripened corn. The origin of Indian corn, or maize, is shrouded in mystery. There is a plant which grows on the tablelands of Mexico which is possibly the original species, but so long had maize been cultivated by the American Indians that it was thoroughly domesticated when America was discovered. In those early days of American colonization it is doubtful, says Professor John Fiske, if our forefathers could have remained here had it not been for Indian corn. No plowing nor even clearing was necessary for the successful raising of this grain. The trees were girdled, thus killing their tops to let in the sunlight; the rich earth was scratched a little with a primitive tool and the seed put in and covered; and the plants that grew therefrom took care of themselves. If the pioneers had been obliged to depend alone upon the wheat and rye of Europe which would only grow with good tillage they might have starved before they had gained a foothold on our forest-covered shores. While maize has never been a popular grain in European countries outside of the southermost parts, yet on the great continents of Africa and Asia it was welcomed from the first, and is now largely grown. It has ripened for so many centuries on the slopes of the Himalayas that if you were to ask one of the natives to-day how long it had grown there he would answer you "always." It is fitting that a grain which is so peculiarly adapted to be the aid and support of a great civilization should grow upon a plant of such dignity and beauty as is the maize. The perfect proportions of the slender stalk to the long gracefully curving leaves; the plumed tassels swaying and bowing to every breeze and sending their pollen showers to the waiting skeins of silk hidden below; the ripened ear with its exact rows of shining yellow grains wrapped in silken husks; all these make the corn plant as delightful to the eye as it is intrinsically important to the welfare of nations. No more wonderful lesson in plant growth can we find for our study than this lesson of the Indian corn. [Illustration: _Fig. 277. Parts of corn kernel._] LESSON ON INDIAN CORN FOR SPRING AND SUMMER.