MAIZE. Ill 



subject that fell under his observation ; and who, 

 however enthusiastic he might be in the cause of 

 virtue and rational freedom, never suffered himself to 

 be betrayed into exaggeration, or to be carried away 

 by a too sanguine imagination in affairs connected 

 with the business of life. 



' It is remarked in North America, that the 

 English farmers, when they first arrive there, rinding 

 a soil and climate proper for the husbandry they have 

 been accustomed to, and particularly suitable for 

 raising wheat, they despise and neglect the culture of 

 maize or Indian corn ; but observing the advantage 

 it affords their neighbours, the older inhabitants, they 

 by degrees get more and more into the practice of 

 raising it ; and the face of the country shows from 

 time to time that the culture of that grain goes on 

 visibly augmenting. 



' The inducements are the many different ways in 

 which it may be prepared so as to afford a whole- 

 some and pleasing nourishment to men and other 

 animals. First, the family can begin to make use of 

 it before the time of full harvest ; for the tender 

 green ears, stripped of their leaves, and roasted by a 

 quick fire till the grain is brown, and eaten with a 

 iittle salt or butter, are a delicacy. Secondly, when 

 the grain is riper and harder, the ears, boiled in 

 their leaves and eaten with butter, are also good and 

 agreeable food. The tender green grains dried may 

 be kept all the year, and, mixed with green haricots 

 (kidney beans), also dried, make at any time a pleas- 

 ing dish, being first soaked some hours in .water, 

 and then boiled. When the grain is ripe and hard 

 there are also several ways of using it. One is to 

 soak it all night in a lassive or ley, and then pound 

 it in a lame wooden mortar with a wooden pestle ; 

 the skin of each grain is by that means skinned off, 

 and the farinaceous part left whole, which being 



