2i 8 Singing Valleys 



between it and the barrel, I sent it to the Muddy Hole Farm and 

 sowed turnips between the rows of corn. 



How to raise more corn from every acre of cultivated corn- 

 land was a problem that presented itself acutely to the minds 

 of eighteenth-century American farmers. They believed with 

 Dean Swift "that whoever would make two ears of corn, or 

 two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only 

 one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do 

 more essential service to his country than the whole race of 

 politicians put together." 



Generally, the efforts of these early corn-makers were di- 

 rected toward increasing the productivity of the soil and 

 in saving time and labor in the planting and cultivation of 

 the crop. Franklin was perhaps the first American farmer to 

 make scientific experiments with the cross-fertilization of zea 

 mays. His scientific interest in the subject was whetted by his 

 human appetite for corn. The letters to his wife, sent from 

 London in 1768, beg her to send him by the first packet out 

 from Philadelphia the American foods for which his tongue 

 watered apples, cranberries, dried peaches, buckwheat flour 

 and corn meal. And when these finally arrived, what a time 

 there was in the kitchen in West Mount Street, with the 

 American minister instructing incredulous English women in 

 the mysteries of yellow bread and griddle cakes. 



Even the French cuisine at Passy many years later was 

 threatened by the philosopher's appetite for cornbread. The 

 last thing Franklin wrote in Europe, besides letters, was the 

 engaging "Observations on Mayz or Indian Corn," which he 

 sent to the chemist Cadet de Vaux on April 28, 1785. It told 

 all that was then known about the use of corn as food for 

 men or animals, green corn roasted, boiled or dried, lye 

 hominy, corn meal, coarse or fine, hasty pudding, hoe cake, 

 cornbreads, popcorn, corn syrup, corn liquor, and corn fod- 

 der.* 



* Benjamin Franklin, by Mark Van Doren, p. 719. 



