504 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



the North, in this matter. I may add that those 

 individuals of my acquaintance who have exper- 

 imented upon the two sorts of Indian corn, have 

 concluded that the Southerners are right. 



The superior sweetness and tenderness of the 

 ■white ears of corn, when they are in the milk and 

 are boiled for the table, are apparent to all. But 

 the community have been very slow in finding 

 out this fact, and even at the present day, some 

 persons may be found, not apparently deficient 

 in common sense, who slill cultivate the yellow 

 corn for table use as a green vegetable. 



As far as my judgment respecting the quality 

 of fruits and esculent roots can be formed from 

 their color, it will be found that the nearer the 

 color approaches to white, the more sweet and 

 delicate the flavor. Of beets, turnips, cherries, 

 currants, peaches and grapes, the sweetest are 

 white, or nearly colorless. It is a matter of very 

 common observation that of all the different 

 kinds of potatoes, those with yellow meats are 

 more liable to be rank and disagreeably flavored, 

 and are coarser grained, than the other sorts. The 

 best of all varieties are those with white meat or 

 pulp ; a tinge cf red or blue is not, however, so 

 bad a symptom as a tinge of yellow. It is not al- 

 ways wise to attempt an explanation of these 

 things ; but if I were obliged to guess the why 

 and wherefore of this fact, I should say that the 

 materials which produce sugar in a white beet or 

 a white currant, are used up in producing the 

 coloring matter in the red ones. It is also highly 

 probable that the coloring matter of vegetables 

 possesses a flavor peculiar to itself, and not al- 

 ways agreeable. It is evident that the coloring 

 matter of the yeilow-meated potato is acid, a;nd 

 the purple coloiing matter of the grape is aro- 

 matic. 1 have no doubt that if a white variety of 

 the tomato could be produced from the common 

 stock, it would be found greatly to surpass the 

 red and yellow kinds in delicacy and sweetness. 



The color of good butter, which is commonly 

 of a bright yellow, may be considered an excep- 

 tion to the facts stated in these remarks. I would 

 not be understood, however, to say that my re- 

 marks are applicable to all substances. Butter 

 which is prepared in winter, when the cows are 

 fed chiefly on dry food, is usually light colored, 

 and it is inferior to the bright yellow butter of 

 June. But when the |difierence in the color of 

 butter proceeds f;om the peculiar nature of the 

 cows, the yellow kind is no better than the white. 

 A cow whose flesh contains light colored tat or 

 suet, aiwajs produces milk that yields light col- 

 ored butter, and when the light color arises from 

 this cause, it is no evidence of inferitirity. 



There is another matter which has been opened 

 for discussion in your paper. I allude to a re- 

 mark of your venerable correspondent, S. P. Ba- 

 ker. I would not treat his remarks or his opin- 

 ions otherwise than with respect ; but cannot 

 avoid speaking of the mistake which he has com- 

 mitted, when he referred to what he chooses to 

 call "male and female ears of corn." As his ob- 

 servation has been copied into several papers 

 without comment, it is possible that all persons 

 connected with the press are not aware that there 

 is no distii'.ction of sex in the seeds of corn or 

 any other plants. In the vegetable kingdom sex- 

 ual distinctions exist only in the flowers, and in 

 some cases in the plants of the dioecious order. 



one of which bears the fertile, and the other the 

 barren flowers. In Indian corn {zea mays) the 

 silk in combination with the ear represents the 

 female flower, and the plume or tassel the male. 

 The seeds or kernels are the embryo offspring, 

 and are neither male nor female. The ears, if it 

 be proper to rank them with either sex, after the 

 flower or silk has decayed, must certainly be all 

 females, holding their offspring (the seeds) in 

 their embrace. I cannot say that among farmers 

 there may not be certain ears of corn which are 

 figuratively called male and female ; but no real 

 sexual distinctions exist except in the flowers. 



Wilson Flagg. 



FEED FOB HOBSE3. 



The London Omnibus Company, says an ex- 

 change, have recently made a report on the feed- 

 ing of horses, which discloses some interesting 

 facts. It seems that the company uses no less 

 than GOOO horses ; 3000 of this number have for 

 their feed bruised oats and cut hay and straw, 

 and the other 3000 get whole oats and hay. The 

 allowance accorded to the first was — bruised oats, 

 IG 11)8 ; cut hay, 7-i lbs. ; cut straw, 2 J lbs. The 

 allowance accorded to the second — unbruised 

 oats, 19 lbs.; uncut haj% 13 lbs. The bruised 

 oats, cut hay and cut straw amounted to 26 lbs., 

 and the unbruised oats, &c., to 32 lbs. The 

 horse which had bruised oats, with cut hay and 

 straw, consumed 26 lbs. per day, and it appears 

 that it could do the same work as well, and was 

 kept in as good condition, as the horse which re- 

 ceived 32 lbs. per day. Here was a saving of 6 

 lbs. a day on the feeding of each horse receiving 

 bruised oats, cut hay and cut straw. The advan- 

 tage of bruised oats and cut hay over unbruised 

 oats and uncut hay is estimated at five cents per 

 day on each horse, amounting to $300 per day 

 for the company's GOOO horses. It is by no means 

 an unimportant result with which this experi- 

 ment has supplied us. To the farmer who ex- 

 pends a large sum in the support of horse power, 

 there are tno points this experiment clearly es- 

 tablishes, which in practice must be profitable; 

 first, the saving of food to the amount of 6 lbs. 

 a day ; and, secondly, no loss of horse power 

 arising from that saving. 



Universal Benevolence of Women. — The 

 celebrated traveller, Ledyard, paid the following 

 hfindsome tribute to the female sex : "I have ob- 

 served," he sa\s, "that women in all countries 

 are civil, obliging, tender, and humane. I never 

 addressed myself, to them in the language of de- 

 cency and friendship, without receiving a decent 

 and friendly an.swer. V/ith man it has often been 

 otherwise. In war.dering over the barren pU'.ins 

 of inhospitable Denmark ; rude and churlish 

 Finland; unprincip ed Russia; and the wide- 

 spread regions of tiie wandering Tartar ; if hun- 

 gry, dry, wet, cold, or sick, the women have ever 

 been friendly, and uniformly so; and to add to 

 this virtue, (so worthy the appellation of benevo- 

 jlence,) these actions have been performed in so 

 free a!id kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank 

 the sweetest draught, and if hungry ate the coars- 

 est morst'I with a dobble relis-h." 



