Corn History

Corn is a member of the grass family of plants. Corn is a native grain of the American continents. Fossils of corn pollen that are over 80,000 years old have been found in lake sediment beneath Mexico City. It was first grown by the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca Indians more than 5,600 years ago. The Indians used the sugar-filled leaves of the corn plant as "chewing gum", immature corn as a fresh vegetable, and the dry, mature kernels of corn were ground into flour. Corn, squash and beans were known as the "Three Sisters" by the Native Americans - sisters who should be planted together. These three plants were important sources of food.

Archeological studies have found that corn was grown near in Ontario, Canada before 1200 A.D. By the time Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, corn was being grown from what is now Southern Canada to the Andes Mountains in South America. When Columbus landed in the West Indies, he was given corn by the Native Americans, which he took back to Spain. From there, corn spread quickly throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

The Pilgrims might have died during their first winter in the United States if the Native Americans hadn't given them corn to cook and eat. The Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to prepare corn, including how to make it into bread, soup, fried corn cakes, and pudding. The Native Americans also showed the Pilgrims how to grow corn by digging holes in the ground, dropping in some corn kernels and small fish, and then covering the holes. The fish served as fertilizer for the young corn plants.

Corn was so valuable that early settlers used corn to trade with the Native Americans for food and furs. The Native American farmers of the Ohio River Valley had been growing corn for over 1,700 years when the first white men crossed the Appalachian Mountains.

Both the United States and the rest of the world use corn primarily as livestock feed.

Dent corn is the most important commercial type of corn grown in the United States. Predominantly yellow or white, the dent corn kernel forms a dent on the crown of the kernel at maturity. Other major commercial types of corn include: flint corn, sweet corn, and popcorn.

Specialty corns grown commercially in the United States include waxy corn, high-amylose corn, high-oil corn, and high-lysine corn.

Corn has a long history of being used for more than just animal feed or food for humans. The British Parliament tried to encourage American colonists to turn corn into sugar with the Molasses Act in 1733. Today, over one-third of the sweeteners consumed by Americans comes from corn or another feed grain.

Corn also has also been used in the production of alcohol for many years. There is evidence Native Americans used corn to brew beer before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The 1792 Whiskey Rebellion in the United States came about when efforts were made to tax corn whiskey. At the time, it was not easy to move large quantities of corn so Western farmers converted the corn into corn whiskey, which was much easier to transport to customers.

Long before the automobile became the common form of transportation in the United States, corn was being converted into ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. Many of the earliest engine prototypes were designed to run on ethanol. Ethanol is a growing market for corn.

Corn is the most widely distributed crop in the world. Corn can grow at altitudes as high as 12,000 feet in the South American Andes Mountains and as low as sea level. It can also grow in tropical climates that receive up to 400 inches of rainfall a year or in areas that receive only 12 inches.

Corn is the largest crop in the United States, both in terms of acres planted and the value of the crop produced.