INDIAN CORN. 23 



corn, whose sanguine wishes upon the subject of its 

 introduction as a field crop into England, led him 

 farther than most people have been inclined to accom- 

 pany him. A coteniorary writer remarks that, "Cob- 

 bett was corn-mad at one time. He saw too sopn by 

 twenty years, and depended on cultivation, rather than 

 importation. He wrote about Indian corn, planted 

 Indian corn, raised Indian corn, ate Indian corn, made 

 paper of Indian corn husks, and printed a book from 

 the Indian corn paper." There is to be seen in this 

 work a very minute and interesting account of the 

 various manipulations which must be attended to by 

 the maize-grower before his grain is ready for sale, as 

 well as very particular directions for turning the pro- 

 duce to the best and most profitable account in domestic 

 economy. 



The most important feature, perhaps, in the history 

 of maize, is its late introduction from the United States 

 into Great Britain and Ireland, as a cheap and nutri- 

 tious article of human Ijpod. For this partriotic and 

 philanthropic act, these two nations are highly in- 

 debted to the simultaneous exertions of our friend and 

 countrymen, Henry Coleman, Esquire, who has been 

 engaged for several years in making an agricultural 

 tour in Europe, and Dr. John S. Bartlett, late of the 

 British army, the latter of whom, addressed a letter on 

 the subject, in May, 1842, to Lord Ashburton, in which 

 he arrives at the following deductions : 



1st. That the labouring classes and the poor of 

 Great Britain require a cheaper article of food than 

 wheaten bread. 



2nd. That although wheat contains a larger portion 

 of gluten or the nutritive ingredient, bulk is necessary, 

 not only to satisfy the craving of hunger, but to pro- 

 mote digestion by the u stimulus of distension," which 

 bulk alone can give. 



3rd. That the craving of hunger being removed or 

 alleviated by the quantity taken, the mind is more at 

 ease ; the mental irritability consequent upon hunger 

 is assuaged, and man goes to his labour with cheer- 



