142 



GENESEE FARMER. 



JUNE. 



Indian Meal in Great Britain. 



The Philiulelphia Uiiitod .States Gazette spec- 

 ulates in tliis wise on the introduction of Indian 

 corn among the English and Irish people : 



Well, when some thousand bushels ol' this In- 

 dian Corn reach the store houses of England, 

 and are thence distributed into the meal-tubs and 

 kneading-troughs of the laborers, and the swell- 

 ing heap shows a double quantit)"-, for the same 

 cost, of ordinary Hour or meal, who shall tell 

 them of its use ? Who shall say to the house- 

 wife, " thus shalt thou mix the material, and so 

 shalt thou mould the loaf." Who shall enter in- 

 to the little laboratory of the workingman's house, 

 and lecture the practical chemist upon the affini- 

 ties of salt and lard, hot water and Indian meal, 

 and who will tell her how long she must submit 

 her combination to the action of fire, that it may 

 be for the comlbrt of her household ? Alas, she 

 would be as ignorant of all the arts, parts, and 

 processes of that work, as were the uninitiated 

 of the Eleusyman mysteries. 



Some time after the introduction of tea into 

 iVf assachusetts, a citizen from Cape Cod came up 

 to Boston, to trade off his fish. The merchant 

 persuaded him to take a pound of tea among oth- 

 er articles of household requirements. "I've 

 heard of the article," said the Cape Cod man, 

 '•but how is it to be cooked ?" 



"It must be boiled," said the merchant, "and 

 is always used when company comes." 



The tea was taken home, and it was resolved 

 to be hospitable. Company was invited to spend 

 the day. At dinner, a fine piece of boiled beef, 

 and another of good fat pork, with an accompa- 

 niment of potatoes and carrots, graced the table. 

 " And now," said the host, as he looked in tri- 

 umph first to his wife, and then to his guest, 

 whom he served bountifully with the viands be- 

 fore them, " help Mrs. Basset to something from 

 that dish." 



The pewter spoon was thrust into a dish of 

 well boiled tea leaves, from which the water had 

 been carefully strained, and each, from the archi- 

 trichlinous down to the youngest guest, was 

 served with a quantity of the Chinese weed, real 

 green souchong. 



" Taste of that," said the worthy host, "it is 

 tea, such as the quality in Boston and Plymouth 

 make such a fuss about. 



Each mumbled a little of the herbage, and 

 carefully rinsed it down with cider, but none 

 ventured to criticise the new addition to the din- 

 ner table. 



" Will you have some more, my dear ?" said 

 the good lady to her husljand. 



" Not a leaf more — that plateful cost four and 

 six-pence, and if it were not for the name of tea, 

 I would as lief have turnip tops for my greens as 

 that stuff. It is monstrous hard chewing and not 

 over palateable after all." 



And so, or even worse, it may be in England, 

 with the corn meal of this country. It may be 

 made up into form, or mixed in dilution, until 

 poverty itself will grow sick of the ingredients- 

 Would it not be well, as soon as the adoption 

 of Sir Robert Peel's plan shall be known, to send 

 messengers on a mission of love and profit, to 

 England, to instruct housekeepers in tlie use of 

 Indian corn ? The New England Envoy Ex- 

 traordinary shall teach the people how to build 

 the "lofty loaf of brown bread" — how to mingle 

 the milk, the molasses, and the meal, (luscious 

 alliteration) and to compose the "baked pud- 

 ding." The messenger from Maryland would 

 instruct in the formation of " pones," and he of 

 Virginia lecture upon the composition and baking 

 of " hoe-cakes," and South Carolina instruct in 

 the fabrication and use of "Johnny Cakes." 



And thus the poor, and meagre tribe, that had 

 shrivelled up on oat meal gruel, or been drench- 

 ed by sour ilour and poisoned ale, will grow rug- 

 ged, red, and rampant upon the blood-warming 

 and flesh giving meal of maize. There, the 

 mountain brown loaf of New England would 

 make the crazy table of the weaver groan by its 

 weight, though it were ever so " light ;" here 

 the "pone" and "johnny-cake" would give grace 

 to the tea equipage of the poor woman, while 

 her children would grow ruddy upon hasty pud- 

 ding and milk. Hasty pudding! 



" Oh how I blush 

 To hear the Pennsylvanians call iimush."' 



The Wife of thf. Christian. — Chateaubri- 

 and, in his eloquent Mork entitled "Genie du 

 Christianisme," has this beautiful picture of the 

 wife of a Christian. 



" The wife of a Christian is not a simple mor- 

 tal ; she is a mysterious, extraordinary, angelic 

 being; the flesh of the flesh, the blood of the 

 blood of the husband. Man in uniting himself 

 to her regains a part of his substance ; his soul 

 as well as his body are incomplete without his 

 wife ; he has strength, she has beauty ; he com- 

 bats the enemies of his country and labors in the 

 fields ; but he does not understand the details of 

 domestic life ; his companion i)repares the repast, 

 and her smiles sweeten existence. He has his 

 crosses, and the partner of his couch is there to 

 soften them ; his days may be sad and troubled, 

 but in the chaste arms of his wife he finds com- 

 fort and repose. Without woman, man would 

 be rude, gross, and solitary. Woman spreads 

 around him the flowers of existence, as the creep- 

 ers of the forest decorate the majestic oak with 

 their odcrifbrous garlands. Finally, the christian 

 pair live united, and in death are not separable ; 

 in the dust they lie side by side, and their souls 

 are re-united beyond the limits of the tomb." 



To MAKE HARD WATER SOFT add tO 1 blTckct 



of water, warmed, one ounce of carbonate of 

 soda, which renders it soft as rain water. 



