DESCRIPTION, HISTORY, [Chap, 



a gentleman in the province of Artois, who had 

 cultivated the plant in his garden a great many 

 years, but who seemed not to have a very distinct 

 recollection of the manner in which he came by 

 the seed ; having, probably, several sorts, and 

 having confounded one with the other. 



28. My son, when he first showed me the 

 two ears of corn (which were very small ones), 

 urged me strongly to cause it to be introduced 

 into general cultivation, as he was convinced that 

 it would always ripen in England, and that the 

 crop would be greater than that of any other 

 sort of Indian Corn. When the spring of the 

 year came, he planted the two ears in my garden 

 at Kensington 5 but very little attention was paid 

 to it, and it was planted about here and there in 

 situations rejected on the part of every thing else. 

 Nevertheless, the corn ripened, and bore about 

 half a bushel of ears, a great many of the plants 

 having been pulled up during the summer, and a 

 part of the corn having been eaten green. Some 

 time in the winter my son renewed the subject of 

 cultivating this corn, and gave, as a proof of its 

 readiness to ripen in this country, the fact of its 

 having ripened during the preceding summer. 

 I was too full of the notion that there required 

 more sun than the country affords to ripen any 

 corn upon an average of years ; and, I observed, 

 that the summer of 1826, was a summer of ten 



