CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC, 



1817. 



June 3 is in the shape of a spruce-fir 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 a foot long ; and I have seen many, each of 

 which weighed more than eighteen 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 news-paper, 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 newspaper told us, had well-nigh 

 choaked the Noble Lord. The landlord had just 

 been showing me some of his fine ears of Corn ; and 

 I took the paper out of my pocket and read the 

 paragraph : &quot; What ! &quot; said he, &quot; swallow a whole 

 ear of corn at once I No wonder that they have 

 swallowed up poor Old John Bull s substance.&quot; 

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

 must have been wheat or barley. Then he said, and 

 very justly, that the 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, and the latter eat 

 cob and all. It is eaten, and is a very delicious thing, 

 in its half-ripe, or milky state ; and these were the 

 &quot; ears of corn &quot; which the Pharisees complained of 

 the Disciples for plucking off to eat on the Sabbath 

 day ; for, how were they to eat wheat ears, unless 

 after the manner of the &quot; Noble Lord &quot; above men 

 tioned ? Besides, the Indian Corn is a native of 

 Palestine. The French, who, doubtless, brought it 

 originally from the Levant, call it Turkish Corn. 

 The Locusts, that John the Baptist lived on, were not 

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