40 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



tating malt liquors, and the chivalry and social progress of the people. In an- 

 other paper, this being already spun to a much greater length than we expected, 

 directions that may be fully relied on shall be given for curing bacon. In the 

 meantime let those who really wish to know what good "hams" are — not in- 

 ferior, or but little, to " Westphalia," (for they are " hard to beat,") — let them 

 go in among the snug, quiet, peaceable, orderly, industrious, neat, thrifty, sys- 

 tematic Quaker farmers and kousevnves in Montgomery county, Maryland, or 

 among the yet remaining gallant descendants of the old, well-bred, four-in-hand, 

 mint-julep and fox hunting tide-water families in Virginia, and he will then get 

 to know what a good ham really is ! — a thing never yet made in perfection cut 

 of a swill-tub or a ■pumice-trough. 



INDIAN CORN. 



EXPERIMENTS IN MANUFACTURING CORN MEAL. 



John S. Skinner, Esq. Wilmington, June li2th, 1H46. 



My Dear Sir: Messrs. Tattnal and Lea of the Brandywine mills have just 

 informed me that they have complied with my request and sent to their agents, 

 Messrs. Allen and Paxson, Wew-York, a sjuall specimen of ichile kiln-dried corn 

 meal, which is at your service to exhibit to the " Farmers' Club," or to experi- 

 ment with as a Marylander so well knows how, and thus enable him to testify 

 to its merits as an article suitable to the English market, under the favorable 

 prospect of an increased corn trade with that country. Tne sample sent is by no 

 means as good as may be manufactured when several hundred or thousand bush- 

 els are kiln-dried together, as they now do the yellow corn. 



The enclosed letter from Mr. James Canby, whose experience reaches to half 

 a century, will not be without its interest at your discussions on corn and corn 

 meal at the " Institute." The long-standing celebrity of the Brandywine mills 

 in the manufacture of flour has not been surpassed by their success, and, indeed, 

 almost monopoly of the kihi-dried corn meal business — for now upward of fifty 

 years. 



Durmg the whole of this period, except to the West Indies, and principally m 

 the shape of kiln-dried meal, but comparatively very little of this great and na- 

 tive grain has been exported from the United States to other countries. As a new 

 era is, however, opening upon us, and a requisition is about to be made upon the 

 inexhaustible supplies of Indian Corn which can be produced in our country, 

 every fact in relation to the best kinds, and modes of manufacture adaptmgitfor 

 transportation, are sought after with interest. 



The facts I have been enabled to collect principally through the politeness of 

 the Brandywine millers, agreeably to your request, arc cheerfully communicated. 

 Those disposed to investigate the numerous varieties of maize grown in our 

 country, can readily be gratified by referring to Emerson's American Encyclopue- 

 dia, Lorraine's Husbandry, and the pamphlet of Peter A. Brown, Esq. of Phila- 

 delphia, on this particular subject. The only reference to varieties necessary to 

 be made in this communication, is to the white and yellow corn of commerce; 

 the best of which will of course be selected to suit the market and taste of the 

 consumer. 



Early in the history of our country, you are aware that both public and private 

 attention were directed to the vast importance of this grain — that repeated at- 

 tempts to rear it in countries uncongenial to its growth have failed, and shipping 

 it abroad in bulk has been nearly abandoned, for the reasons assigned in Mr. 

 Canby's letter ; for when it cannot be safely conveyed from New-Orleans to 

 New- York and Boston without heating and injury, it cannot be exported to Liv- 

 erpocd and London, as one or more cargoes recently tried on account of t lie Eng- 

 lish government has fully tested. Experience therefore teaches, so far as yet as- 

 certained, that Corn intended for exportation must be kiln-dntd if 7iot manufac- 

 tured in the country wliieli produces it. This process, I am informed, was at- 

 tempted in Connecticut at the close of the Revolution, and about the same time 



