225 



Chapter. XVII. 



ON INDIAN CORN. 



The plant=;, known as Indian-corn, Rice, and Millet, though largely used 

 as bread-corn throughout the East, and in many parts of the south of 

 Europe and America, have been yet thought too tender to be brought to 

 perfection by means of our common system of husbandry in this country, 

 and have been only cultivated as rarities in our gardens. We sliould 

 therefore pass them over in a work devoted to British agriculture, were it 

 not that some experiments made within these few years upon a large scale 

 by the late Mr. Cobbett, and the accounts published by him of the culti- 

 vation of Indian-corn, as a field-crop, have justly attracted so much atten- 

 tion in the farming world, as to induce us to extract some of the leading 

 particulars of his details, together witli some further information on the 

 subject, which we have gleaned from other sources, as well as from our 

 own observation. 



INDIAN CORN 



Is not indigenous in any part of Europe, but has acquired the name of 

 Ble de Turquie, by which it is generally known throughout the continent, 

 from its being presumed to have been introduced from the Levant by the 

 Mahometans after their conquest of Constantinople. Some strong reasons 

 have indeed been adduced from tlie Scriptures by Mr. Cobbett, in support 

 of his supposition that it came originally from Syria; though it is not im- 

 probable that he may have confounded it with millet, which plant it in many 

 particulars resembles. Whether they be well-grounded, or not, it is how- 

 ever certain that it was found in its native state in the West Indies by 

 Columbus; for it is particularly mentioned by Pedro Martyr — who was a 

 contemporary of his, and who published an account of the first voyage 

 immediately after its completion — as being commonly grown in the island 

 of Hayti, and there called Ma'is ; or, as now termed, Maize. 



The plant springs upwards with a tall and strongly-jointed stem, the 

 summit of which is crowned with " a tassel" of numerous variegated flowers 

 containing the pollen, and performing the functions of a male ; while the 

 blossoms on the lower part of the stalk throw out long pendulous fila- 

 ments, called " silks," which are impregnated by the pollen falling from 

 the tassel. These female flowers produce from 2 to 5 ears — or, as they 

 are usually termed, " cobs" — varying from 6 to 10 inches in length, and 

 from ^ of an inch to double that size in diameter ; around which the corn is 

 closely piled in rows, bearing frequently more than 500 grains : differing, 

 however, in size, from that of a small tick-bean to that of a flattened pea ; and 

 in colour, from a bright orange to a very pale yellow, stained in some instances 

 with dark red, but producing a farina much resembling that of wheat. 



The interior of these cobs is a pithy substance enveloped within delicate 

 but strong folds of a silky covering, termed the husk, which serves as a 

 complete protection to the grain ; and the leaves, though not lumierous, 

 are very broad. In tropical countries it grows to a great size, and the 

 varieties are perhaps as numerous as those of wheat ; though, in America, 

 they are solely distinguished as the " yellow, or golden," and the " white, 

 or flint-corn" — meaning the early and the late species. Either kind, how- 

 ever, requires the full heat of our warmest summers, and botanists describe 

 the plant as being incapable of being regularly brought to perfection in 

 any country of Europe farther north than the 46th degree of north latitude. 



