DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, [Chap. 



regarded as no very severe penance to be com- 

 pelled to refrain from eating green ears of ivheat^ 

 rye, or barley, for as to oats, the chief ahment of the 

 labouring people of the northern parts of this island, 

 the chosen people of God seem to have known no 

 more about them than they did about the accursed 

 potatoe ; the word oat never having been seen by 

 me in any part of the two Testaments. 



21. But, to conclude this Scriptural history of 

 the corn, I beseech the reader, if he have still any 

 doubt upon the subject, to look at Genesis, chap- 

 ter xli. verse 5, which gives an account of Ph.a- 

 roah's dreams, '' And he slept and dreamed a 

 " second time ', and, behold, seven ears of com 

 " came up upon one stalk, rank and good." 

 Now, this can leave no doubt in the mind of any 

 man. The ivlteat root will send up sometimes, 

 if it have room, from twenty to fifty stalks, but 

 never more than one ear upon one stalk. Wheat, 

 barley, and rye, all send out not only seven, but a 

 great many more than seven, stalks from the 

 same root, but never was there yet seen more than 

 one ear at the top of one stalk. Seven ears is a 

 great number for acorn plant to have; but (and the 

 fact is truly curious) the New York Evening Post, 

 of the 2Gth of August last, records as a wonder ; 

 a corn stalk, on the farm of a Mr. Dickerson, 

 in Bedford count}^, having seven full ears upon 

 it. And, it happens singularly enough, that one 



