1869.] SUBSTITUTE FOE GEEEN PEAS. 107 



the tender flesh of the Calville Blanc, and note the difference. Anothei 

 qualification of this apple is, that it is said to be the finest baking sort known ; 

 but I cannot confirm this statement from my own experience, as I have never 

 grown enough of it yet on the walls to be able to prove it in this way, it being 

 too valuable as a dessert fruit. 



Welbeck. William Tilleey. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR GREEN PEAS. 



HEEE is an old custom still practised in some parts of Cheshire, as well as 

 in other agricultural districts, of cooking new wheat with milk, under the 

 name of Furmety. This milk porridge, or as it would be called in the 

 North, milk broth, was served up at the Wakes which, in the parish that 

 I refer to, took place on the 29th of June, at which time the wheat would 

 generally be ripe, although still soft. I mention this to show that we 

 Britishers, as the Americans call us, have actually eaten green com cooked 

 after our own fashion. Where Indian corn is cultivated, the green corn 

 is constantly used as we use Green Peas, and there is very little trouble 

 indeed with the cooking, as the com is shelled in a few minutes, and the 

 dish is then ready for boiling. I am well aware that it is not held " respect- 

 able " to copy the manners of the Americans, but the fact stands unquestioned, 

 that the Englishman, when transplanted to America, eats freely of Indian corn, 

 cooked like green peas. Maize or Indian corn has from time immemorial 

 been used as one of the chief bread-stuffs ; and we learn from Holy Writ that 

 our Lord's followers plucked the ears of the standing corn, no doubt in the 

 unripe state, much in the same way as we should gather green peas, and ate 

 them in the field. 



I have lately observed in an agricultural paper some instructions respecting 

 the cultivation of Maize in this country, in which it was stated that the seed 

 should be sown early in March. This might just chance to be right once, 

 perhaps, in a century — for I have seen the grass scorched by sunshine in March 

 — but this has happened once only in a long lifetime. Some twenty years ago the 

 Forty-Day Maize was freely advertised, and if I recollect aright, we paid 20s. for 

 a small bag of the seed corn, the bag probably containing about two quarts of 

 grain. There were very sensible instructions sent along with the seed. I suc- 

 ceeded in growing it, and it ripened to perfection in the climate of Devon. But 

 the instructions were, that the seeds should not be sown until the earth had got 

 warm, and the May bug, blind beetle, and bumbledor had made their appearance. 

 The instructions further stated, that the seeds were to be sown where they were 

 to remain, as the plant would not succeed well when sown in pots and 

 transplanted. 



The seeds must, therefore, be sown about the middle of May, and be left to 

 take care of themselves. The plant is a sturdy-growing variety of Maize, yet a 



