[kwelstr]

"...and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut."

It has to be a grain other than corn (maize), since that one came from the Americas.

[amvalo]

Corn was actually a generic term.

[cygx]

It still is in British English (though this is apparently beginning to change? Bloody Americans :p).

[kwhitefoot]

It's generic in Norwegian too, although spelled with a k.

[kwhitefoot]

Corn still is a generic term.