SnxmexB jH^utljlg l^isitcrr 



i _a - ^«nw f ■ ■ t -', « *i w , fm ■■ig -? 



1 IH- ! 1 mi I —a u 



CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HII>L. 



*Thoke who Labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, whose breasis hi: has miue hi» i-bcumar dkposite fob substantial and t.enuine virtl'e."— ./i5^.*oti. 



VOL. 8. NO I. 



CONCORD, N. H., JANUARY 31, 1846. 



WHOLE NO. 85. 



THE FAlilllEK'S ,lIlO\TIIKV VISITOK, 



i'l'i;i.l>HKIi II V 



ISAAC HILL,&: SONS, 



' ISSUED OX THE LA^T DAY OF KVERT MO.NTH, 



At Athenian Uuiltliiig. 



g:5-GENKRAL .-VfJF.NTs.— n. CooK, Kfciie, N H.; Thomas 

 It. Hampton, Wasliiniilon City, I). C; John .Marsh, Witsli- 

 itigloii St. Uosum, aiiuis. ; Charles Wauiien, Briiiliv Kovv, 

 U'orccsrer, Mass, 



TEUMS.— To silicic siiliscrib.rs, Fitlij Coits. Tt-n pi-r 



cent, ivill b.- itliowfil tu tin? |);'rstin nlio simil sl-ikI more lli;ui 



, out' subscriber. Tvv-lvo copies willbc si-iit for the advancr 



nayim-nl of Fu-r Dollars; twelllv-tivu copii-s for Ten Dollars; 



i.\ly ro-])iiS for Tioenttj Duliars. Tin' payment in every cast* to 



iiiiulf in advanrc, 

 ' QCl'-'^f'^'"^V <""' sitb-tcriiitions^ by a rptrulatioit of tkr Post J\faster 

 nernlyiKaif ill all ca.'ic.-i be remitted by Uit Post Jlaafir^ ferx oj 



rry-AII ^'Mitk-m-'n who hnve heretofore artt'd as A^i-nts arf 

 rfiVVeflt:(l t(i »:iintinn(' their Agency. 0\ii sub-^ti-tij.-r^ who 

 (imr under the new l -rms, will ph'ase notify us of thu names 

 Iri'.'ulv on our Ixiok.--. 





CONCORD, N. H., JANUARY 31, 1846. 



Indian Corn. 



Count Riiiiiforil in Diie oT liis cssnys pnys the 

 f:rnuil inliiiir to ilii? siilicle of I.^uian Cor.x, as 

 " llie c.lieuiic^-it anil iiio.-t iioiii i^ljiij^' food knouii." 

 Tlic Uiii)ule<l^'e of ils value lie uiMloiihleilly 

 •;aim.'(l ulniii a cliilil (Voiii tlie extended uses 

 wliicli were iiif.de of it liy llie first Kettieis of this 

 eoiiiiliy. Our mothers and ;;r,iiidiiiolheis luiev. 

 Iiou to make a more lieallhlnl anil |)alatal>le use 

 of corn, rye ami liai'ley meal than the present 

 raKldonahle age; of Genesee or AUmii floiii' under 

 'he vailous implements of cook-stove to};grery 



itii a pi'ofnsioo of hnlter, efigs and salaeralns 

 lid ail the nick-nacks which foreij;ii Inxni'y has 

 itrodijci'd. 



Comit Kiimford, as he shows in his ndmiralile 

 !ssay on Indian corn li-oiu which we extract be- 

 !ow, made himself v\ ell acipiainted wiili the man- 

 ner in V. hicli the " liest o' cliicls" in the last cen- 

 tiii'y knew iiow to lii'e in New Eiiiiland. How 

 adininihly has he pictured the uses lo which the 

 ivorite ^rain of every farmer in the New Eiil'- 

 land ritales was put tifty years ayi) and more! 

 The Alassachuselts or the New Hampshire family 

 who then liiiled in their cro|> of Jiidian r.orn — 

 whether i; was the product of one acre or live 

 or leii acres — would he set down as more unfor- 

 timaie than the merchant who now liiils for his 

 hundred ihousaiid. No man would do that more 

 deserviiif; of reproach than neglect to plant and 

 hoe his cm n-liehl in due season : the hin or flour 

 ■M the upper roof of the house well filled, or 



ill (rovered with golden ears of yellow corn 

 was luokt d upon as evidence of the man's best 

 weallh and iiiiln>try. In an ancient house built 

 of mostly while oak limbers, nearly a hundred 

 \i:iis ago, nearest the residence of the laleComit 

 Unmford, now owned in part by the editor of the 

 \ i:-ilor, is an exten.-ive hall maile purposely for 

 pieserving the Indian corn raise<l by one of the 

 <ild wealthy owners of tin; " Eleven Lots," capa- 

 lili; of pieserving several limidred bushels. This 

 hall was ma ie rai-prool, and completely jirolec- 

 lii! against all exterior depridation, the entrance 

 being only ibrough the " ganel high," cme part 

 o! which was parted into bed-rooms t<)r the im- 

 merons lamily which had iii;en multiplied and 

 continneil in high health by this most excellent 

 corn-leediiiL', and the oilier part with llie iiogs- 

 lieads and barrels of wheal, rye, barley, beans, 

 peas, &c. Count Rumford's meliiod of making 

 bread from the Indian corn meal — his graphic 

 description of tjic process of making Hasty Pud- 



ding and the excellence of iIm; article when first 

 made in all ils most luscious modes of prepara- 

 tion as well as in ils after-iisi; — his minute and 

 particular mode id' preparing and cooking the 

 line old Indian dinner pudding, (always eaten be- 

 fore till! meat) — prove how well he had watched 

 when a child tlie process, perhaps of his own 

 motlier, who we may well sufipose was of those 

 nice New England descendants of the puritans, 

 the pattern of economy and iiealness, who well 

 knew huvv lo make every article of the lionse- 

 holil consumption |.'alatable as the highest and 

 richest coiidimeiits which the present commerce 

 of the world can gather. What farmer's son of 

 New England who is fifty years old iloes not 

 look hack with longing for the good-living wliiidi 

 his mother or bis grandmother knew bow lo 

 furnish from the productions of the liirm of which 

 Indian corn was a main ingredient — not only the 

 rich rye and Indian lireail, but the rich buttered 

 ov cream toast made of this bread, with which 

 the finer flour cakes of the morning, now in use, 

 are not worthy to be compared. 'I'ake again the 

 pure Indian cake baked upon the kitchen hearth, 

 also dipped in the rich simmered hiittiu' and 

 cream. Take again the porridge of milk; with 

 its main body of water to save the scarcer article, 

 thickened with this rich corn meal,— eaten wiih 

 s|)ooii and dish each adapted to the size of some 

 half a dozen lo a dozen nrchihs: or lake, in 

 high winler when all the dairy cows are dry, ihe 

 com and bean porridue made from llie rich juices 

 of the "boiled pot" of fattest beef and pork, 

 with the bulled kernels swelled lo four times 

 their original dimensions; or take, in the abun- 

 dance of milk, a richer dish than maccnroiii or 

 vermicella, in the same hulled, distended, cooked 

 corn, clean and neat as every thing used lo be 

 prepared by the molhei's and wives of that gen- 

 eration who fought for Independence, with the 

 rich cow's milk and cream stirred in. These are 

 only a circnmslance to which the one great article 

 was pill in the uses of domestic economy and 

 good living which were far better understood 

 and practiced by our ancestors than they are by 

 us who consider ourselves as being of a more 

 fiishionable and delicate generation. 



Tlie lessons Count flumford received in his 

 childhood weie not lost on him. We do not 

 believe wn can do a more acceptable service, or 

 better gratily the elder farmers who read onr 

 Visitor than by extraciing a portion of the essay 

 of llumford which he has de\oied lo Indian 

 corn : 



Indlitn Corn : excellent lircnd made from it. Hastij- 

 pvddins; — ils eriruordiiiriry increase from the right 

 conlnrt of nieitl witli water. Indiiin dinner pnil- 

 dings — how best made and cooked — its exlraordi- 

 nari/ increase of weight beyond the solids of wliieh 

 it is composed. J\"o waste in the fragments left 

 under a first preparntiGn. 



"I camiol help increasing the length of this 

 essay mncli beyond the bounds I originally as- 

 signed to it, in ordi'r to have an opporimiity of 

 recommending a kind of food which I bidieve to 

 be lieyond ctniiparison the most /lourisbing, 

 clieapest. and most wholesome that can be pro- 

 cured tiir I'eediiig the poor. This is Indian Corn, 

 a most valuable production ; which grows almost 

 in all climates, and ihongli it does not succeed 

 remarkably , well in Great Britain, and some parts 

 of (Jennany, yet it may easily be had in great 

 ahnndance, from other countries ; and coinmonly 

 al a very low rate. 



"The common people in the northern parts of 

 Italy live almost eniirely upon it: and Ihrongli- 

 oTii the whole conlineni of' America, it makes a 

 principal arlicle of food. In Italy it is called 

 Polenta, where il is prepared or cooked in a va- 

 riety of ways, and forms the basis of a number 

 of very noinisliing dishes. The most common 

 way however of using it in that country is to 



grind into meal, and with water lo make it into 

 a thick kind of pudding, like what is called in 

 this country a hasly-pnddmg, which is eaten wiili 

 various kinds of sauce, and sometims without 

 sauce. 



"In the northern parts of North America, the 

 common household bread thron;;hout the country 

 is composed of one part of Indian meal and one 

 part of rye meal ; and I much donbt whether a 

 Uiore wholesome or nourishing kind of bread 

 can be made. 



" Kice is universally allowed to he very nom- 

 isliing, — much more so even than wheat; but 

 there is a circmnstani;e well known to all those 

 who are accjnainleil with the details of feeding 

 the negro slave in the sum hem states of North 

 America, and in the We.-t Indies, thai wimld 

 seem to prove, in a very decisive and sali^lactcny 

 manner, that Indian corn is even more nourishing 

 than rice. In those countries, where rice and 

 Indian corn nve both produced in great abun- 

 dance, the negroes have freijueiitly had their op- 

 tion lietween these two kinds of liiod ; and have 

 invariably preferred the lattiM'. The reasons they 

 give for this |ireference they express in strong, 

 though not very delicate terms. Tliey say that 

 "■Rice turns to water in their bellies, and runs 

 ofl^";" — hut " Indian corn, slays with them and makes 

 strong to icorA"." 



"The nutritive quality which Indian com pos- 

 sesses, in a most eminent degree, w hen employed 

 for fattening bogs and poultry, and for giving 

 strength lo working oxen, has long been univer- 

 sally known and acknowledged in every put of 

 North America; and nobody in that country 

 thinks of employing any other grain lijr those 

 purposes. 



"All these liicts prove lo a deinonsiration. that 

 Indian corn possesses very extraordinary nutri- 

 tive povvers ; and it is well known that there is 

 no species of grain that can be had so cheap, or 

 in so great ahnndance: — it is therefore will 

 worthy the atteiitinii of those who are engaged 

 in providing cheap and wholesome food liir ihe 

 poor; — or in taking measures for warding off the 

 evils which commonly attend a general scarcity 

 of provisions, to consider in time, bow this use- 

 ful article of fiiod may be procured in lar^'C 

 quantities, and how the introduction of it into 

 common use can most easily be effected. 



" In regard lo the manner ol' using Indian corn 

 there are a vast variety ol'diflijrent w;iys in which 

 it may he prepared, or cooked in order lo its use 

 as ((lod. One simple and obvious way of using il is 

 to mix it with wheat, rye, or barley meal, in making 

 bread, but when it is used fiir making hre;iil, and 

 particularly when it is mixed wiih wheat fiour, it 

 will greatly improve the quality of the bread, if llie 

 Indian meal, (the coarser part of Ihe bran being 

 first separated from it by sifting,) he previously 

 mixed with waler, and boiled liir a considerable 

 length of lime, two or three hours for in.'itance, over 

 a slow fire, before the other meal or flour is aiided 

 to il. This boiling, which, if the proper (piantiiy 

 of water is employed, will bring the mass lo the 

 consistency of a thin pinlding, will effectually re- 

 move a ceilaiu disagreeable raw taste in the Indian 

 corn, which simple baking will not entirely take 

 away : and the vvhi'at fiour being mixed with this 

 pudding after it has been taken liom the fire and 

 cooled, and the whole well kneeded together, 

 may be made lo rise, and be formed into loaves, 

 ami baked into bread, with the same ficility, that 

 bread is made of wheat flour alone, or of any 

 mixtures of any kind of meal. 



" When the Indian meal is previously prepared 

 by boiling, in the manner here described, a most 

 excellent, and very [lalalable kind of bread, not 

 inferior lo wheaten bread, m;iy he made of equal 

 parts of ibis meal, and of ccmimon wheat flour. 



" In regard to the most advantageous method 

 of using Indian com as food, I would siron;;ly 

 recommend, pailiculatly when it is em|.loyed for 



