284: INDIAN CORN. 



There are those who consider this practice objec- 

 tionable and wrong, and who seem to be shocked at 

 the idea of burning as fuel a commodity so useful and 

 valuable for food. But a little reflection will show how 

 easy it is for the mind to be so warped by early im- 

 pressions and preconceived notions as to fail in making 

 simple and obvious distinctions. If this grain was 

 designed by Providence for the use of man, it must 

 clearly have been intended that he should so use it as 

 to derive from it the greatest amount of benefit ; and 

 the particular way or the number of ways in which he 

 should use it, is entirely a question of circumstances. 

 That the corn which keeps a man from freezing may 

 be just as useful to him as that which keeps him from 

 starving, is a dictate of common sense too plain to re- 

 quire argument. 



It is highly probable that the time is not far dis- 

 tant when the cost of producing corn will be so re- 

 duced by improved culture and improved varieties, 

 that the use of it as fuel will be much more general 

 and extensive than it is at present ; when it will take 

 the place of fire-wood and coal, not merely occasion- 

 ally and at a pinch, but in many places constantly 

 and systematically. Indeed, it would hardly be ex- 

 travagant to anticipate the time when farmers remote 

 from railroads and from wooded districts will make it 

 a part of their regular plan to plant not only a field 

 of corn for the granary, but another for the wood- 

 shed. 



MATTRESSES. The husks of corn are frequently 

 turned to a useful account by farmers and others, in 



