Wayland Town Crier 9/18/11: ‘Wayland A-Z’: ‘Z’ is for ‘Zea mays (Indian corn)’. Indian corn has been grown in Wayland since Cakebread opened his mill at Mill Pond in 1643. During the 19th century, farmers began to fertilize their fields – there was plenty of barnyard manure around and they started to compete with one another for yield per acre.
In 1855, Indian corn grew on 312 acres of town land. It had to be dried and ground into meal. Farmers like Parmenter, Flint, Damon, Heard and Gleason owned land that yielded 30 to 40 bushels of corn per acre in 1882.
Hodijah B. Braman’s farmland, however, yielded 80 bushels per acre that year. Total yield then was 9,360 bushels. By 1875, it had dropped to 3,348 bushels, but some acreage had been replaced with green corn and popcorn.
While there are no large farms in Wayland growing Indian corn today, the farm manager at Mainstone Farm at the corner of Old Connecticut Path and Rice Road still grows cattle corn. He and his family often grow enough sweet corn to sell at a stand on the corner of Rice Road and Old Connecticut Path.