NEW ENGLAND CLIMATE. 1G3 



to our climate, as well as our wants, is Indian corn. A few 

 bushels of this grain which had been stored away by the 

 natives, and were found by the Pilgrims before they landed 

 on Plymouth Rock, may be called the first fruits of their new 

 land of promise. Since then, the various merits of this most 

 useful as well as beautiful plant have ever been most justly and 

 wisely appreciated, and the twinkling maize field, as it has been 

 elegantly called by Bryant, has always formed the most striking 

 feature in our field cultivation. Another of our best native 

 poets denominates this vegetable : 



The plumed maize ■with shapely blade, 

 That stands like martial host arrayed. 



And certainly no plant of the grain kind stands up more manfully 

 under our fierce summer heats. It only begins to wilt when all 

 'our other crops have drooped, and the curling of its thick and 

 glossy leaves, is a symptom of a drought of the last degree of 

 severity. For a century and a half, its grain was our chief 

 bread corn, and though now less in use as sustenance directly 

 for ourselves, it furnishes us with much of our food, as the best 

 grain for fattening animals yet known. But we have only 

 begun to appreciate the value of this plant in another particular, 

 namely, as green fodder. 



Its worth, in this respect, was first brought into notice by 

 the late Col. Pickering, who states that it will yield for this 

 purpose more than ten tons of green food per acre. Still 

 further information on the subject may be found in the valuable 

 pamphlet on soiling, lately republished by President Quincy.* 

 When our grass is actually burned up by the dry weather, in 

 other words, in half our summers at least, this plant furnishes a 

 complete substitute to our grazing animals who prefer it to any 

 other food, and in all cases, whether the cattle are fed in the 

 barn or the field, forms a valuable addition which well repays 

 the labor bestowed in raising and reaping it. I cannot leave 

 the -subject of our New England climate without a word upon 

 its favorable influence on the health of our domesticated animals. 



* President Qmncy states, p. 5, that two square rods of land will afford an ample 

 supply of green food per day for each head of cattle, without any additional food. 

 He recommends sowing in drills at the rate of three bushels per acre. 



