Introduction of Maize
The indigenous crops were replaced slowly by other more productive crops developed in Mexico: maize, beans and additional varieties of squash. Maize, or corn, was a relative late comer to the United States. The oldest known evidence of maize in Mexico dates from 6,700 BCE. The oldest evidence of maize cultivated in the United States is about 2,100 BCE at several locations in Arizona and New Mexico.
Maize was first grown in the eastern United States around 200 BCE, and highly productive adapted strains became widely used around 900 CE. The spread was so slow because the seeds and knowledge of techniques for tending them had to cross inhospitable deserts and mountains, and, possibly, because more productive varieties of maize had to be developed to compete with indigenous crops and to suit the cooler climates and shorter growing seasons of the northern regions of the continent. It seems that maize was adopted first as a supplement to existing agricultural plants, but gradually came to dominate as its yields increased. Ultimately, the Eastern Agricultural Complex was thoroughly replaced by maize-based agriculture; Most EAC plants are no longer cultivated, and some of them (such as little barley) are regarded as pests by modern farmers.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Agricultural Complex
Famous quotes containing the words introduction of, introduction and/or maize:
“For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“My objection to Liberalism is this—that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind—namely, politics—of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“O Love, what hours were thine and mine,
In lands of palm and southern pine;
In lands of palm, of orange-blossom,
Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)