HARVESTING EARS, [Chap. 



fifteen or eighteen. The texture is nearly as fine 

 as that of coarse silk ; they are tough ; and upon 

 the interior ones one may write tolerably well. 

 In all the corn countries, they are used in the 

 making of mattresses, and in all those cases 

 where our upholsterers use hay or straw. For 

 these purposes they are excellent, being elastic, 

 very durable, and, though in use for an age, 

 never crumble into dust like hay or straw ; and, 

 therefore, do not harbour and tend to assist in 

 generating, those creeping or skipping things, 

 which, by what right of nature I know not, claim 

 the privilege (like other claimants that 1 could 

 name if I would) of interfering with our peace 

 and of sucking our blood ; and which, if they 

 could speak, would certainly be as clamourous 

 for emmwipation as any of the rest. 



139. Upon this subject a gentleman has 

 written to me to inform me, that, a captain of a 

 vessel made him a present, many years ago, of a 

 mattress made of corn husks ; that it served, after 

 having served the captain on board of ship, as a 

 bed for the informant's children for several years ; 

 that, at the end of that time, " part of it was 

 taken out to stuff the seat and back of an 

 arm-chair; and that, from a desire to save 

 expense, these husks, which had already served 

 so long, and which had been, in the case of the 

 children, put to so very severe a test, are now. 



