Chap. I.] Journal, — June. ♦ 



nights and little frosts. — N, B. I ought here to describe 

 to my English readers what this same Indian Corn, 



is. The Americans call it Corn^ by way of eminence, 



and wheat, rye, barley and oats, which we confoimd 

 under the name of corn, they confound under the name 

 of (/rain. The Indian Corn in its ripe seed state, c<)n- 

 sists of an ear, which is in the shape of a spruce-Jir 

 apple. The grains, each of which is about the bulk of 

 the largest marrow-fat pea, are placed all round the 

 stalk, which goes up the middle, and this little stalk, to 

 which the seeds adhere, is called the Corn Cob. Some 

 of these ears (of which from I to 4 grow upon a plant) 

 are more than afoot long ; and I have seen many, each 

 of which weighed more than ei(/fiteen ounces, avoir- 

 dupois weight. They are long or short, heavy or light, 

 according to the land and the culture. I was at a 

 Tavern, in the village of North Hempstead, last fall 

 (of 1817) when I had just read, in the Courier English 

 newspaper, of a Noble Lord who had been sent on his 

 travels to France at ten years of age, and who, from 

 his high-blooded ignorance of vulgar things, I suppose, 

 had swallowed a whole ear of corn, which, as the news- 

 paper told us, had well-nigh choake<l the Noble Lord. 

 The Landlord had just been shoeing me some of his 

 fine ears of Corn ; and I took the paper out of my 

 pocket and reud the paragraph : "What ! " said he, swal- 

 " low a ichole ear of corn at once ! No wonder tliat they 

 " have swallowed up poor Old .Fohn Bull's substance." 

 After a hearty laugh, we explained to him, that it must 

 have been wheat or barley. Then ho said, and very 

 justly, that llie Lord must have been a much greater 

 fool than a hog is. — The plant of the Indian corn grows, 

 upon an average, to about 8 feet high, and sends forth 

 the most beautiful leaves, resembling the broad leaf of 

 the water-flag. It is planted in hills, or rows, so that 

 the plough can go between the standing crop. Its 

 stalks and leaves are the best of fodder, if carefully 

 stacked; and its grain is good for every thing. It is eaten 

 by man and beast in all the various shapes of whole 

 corn, meal, cracked, and every other way that can be 

 imagined. It is tossed down to hogs, sheep, cattle, in 

 the whole ear. The two former thresh for themselves^ 



