INDIAN CORN. 543 



the f^lariiis' oversight and neglect to make any mention in the Census of such an 

 important item of agricultural contribution to the natural resources — an oversight 

 that will continue, in a thousand forms, to characterize the proceedings of the 

 Government and to degrade the landed interest until farmers shall manifest more 

 self-respect, and cease to have their eyes blinded by tlie filth or dazzled by the 

 glittering spoils of party. 



" It is proper to remark," says Professor Tucker, " that the Census omits several 

 [agricultural] products whose aggregate value would make no insignificant addi- 

 tion to the total amount. Among these are : 1. Blades of Indian corn, an excel- 

 lent fodder for horses and cattle, and which, estimating twenty pounds for 

 every bushel of grain, amounts to 3,775,000 tons, worth $37,750,000. 2. Peas 

 and beans. 3. Flax-seed. 4. Broom-corn. 5. Sumac. (J. Honey. 7. Feath- 

 ers." 



Supposing, then, the estimate of 500,000,000 bushels for 1847 to be correct, 

 and our crop of corn blades alone would be live millions of tons weight, which 

 at 50 cents a hundred, or $10 a ton, would amount to .$50,000,000. 



Here, then, we have in a single item of agricultural produce not even alluded 

 to in our national exhibit of the sources of our wealth, an amount about equal to 

 the whole product of mining and fishing industry in 1840. The annual product 

 of our agricultural industry, by the last census, including the items which, as we 

 have seen, are altogether omitted, was not short of $700,000,000, taking the Cen- 

 sus to be correct ; that of the mining interest, including iron and coal, $42,358,761 

 — the farmer contributing more by 16 to 1 than the iron-master and the coal mon- 

 ger ; and yet we will venture to say that the voice of the latter classes is heard 

 sixteen times as far and as quickly, and has sixteen times as much weight as the 

 iarmer's with our Representatives of the landed interest in Congress ! And is it 

 to be wondered at, since not a single Society can be persuaded to move, or a paper 

 be prevailed on to assert their political rights, as a class? But let us return to 

 the point from which we started, to wit, the necessity there is for a more thor- 

 ough examination into the value of the cob of Indian corn, to ascertain and com- 

 pare its nutritive and its fertilizing properties. 



In referring to the American Institute we reckon with confidence on the public 

 spirit, the enlightened views, and the great pecuniary and intellectual resources 

 of that national and popular Institution to take up all such questions with avidity, 

 and referring them, with ample remuneration, to men of known competence and 

 appliances for their examination, they will not only retain their popularity, but 

 acquire what yet more they covet, solid and enviable renown for having added 

 essentially to the knowledge and capabilities of the agricultural community. It 

 is in this confidence that though urged again and again to refer this and other 

 kindred subjects, if necessary, to particular persons, of undisputable excellence 

 as men of science, with sometimes liberal individual offers of pay for the analy- 

 sis, we have not felt that we could send abroad for information, without implied 

 insensibility to the adequacy of institutions on the spot, which pride themselves 

 on their adaptation to the performance of such service to American Husbandry, 

 and their readiness to render it. We should not fear to be reproached for over- 

 rating their means or their disposition, even were we to proclaim that either of 

 these Institutions to which we have referred will undertake to have analyzed 

 any substance that may be sent to them for that purpose, sanctioned by an Agri- 

 cultvral Society as to its important bearing on the general interests of Agricul- 

 ture ; for if (as ought not to happen) such substance should have been previ- 



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