CORN CALE. 



the Connecticut, 1200 or 1300 acres ; the pro- 

 duct, in brush and seed, worth $1,000,000. 



Manufacture of brooms. Individuals tie up 

 brooms with wire or twine. The expense is 

 greater for materials and labour when wire is 

 used. 



The turned broom handles cost, as delivered, 

 only one dollar a hundred one cent each. The 

 expense of other materials and labour in making 

 a broom is 6 cents, or on the whole about 7 cents. 

 In a good broom a pound and a half of brush 

 is employed, which at the present price of 5 

 cents, would be 7 cents, so that a broom made 

 with wire costs now about 14 cents. A ma- 

 nufacturer recently went to Boston, and could 

 get an offer of only 12 cents, or $12 per hun- 

 dred, for his brooms ; at which rate he could 

 not afford to sell them and chose to retain them. 

 Brooms are made with brush weighing | of a 

 pound, 1 pound, 1 J pound, and 1$ pound. The 

 brush is whitened by the manufacturer. It is 

 placed in a large tight box, and bleached by the 

 fumes of sulphur; but this process is said to 

 weaken the brush. Who would think of whiten- 

 ing broom brush, for beauty ? Thus it is that 

 fashion descends into the vale of life, and to the 

 humblest of concerns. Why should not the 

 housemaid wield a beautiful broom, with white 

 brush and variously interlaced wire, and po- 

 lished and variously coloured handle 1 



Miscellaneous. A few remarks will be added, 

 some of which were omitted in their proper 

 places. If the stalks are cut before the seed 

 is ripe, they are better, stronger, more durable, 

 than if cut after the seed is ripe. In this case, 

 the farmer would lose the value of the seed. 

 He of course will not submit to this loss, un- 

 less it is made up to him by the increased 

 price of the brush. 



The seed is used for feeding horses, cattle, 

 and swine. It is ground and mixed with In- 

 dian meal, and is regarded as excellent food 

 it weighs forty pounds a bushel. 



Mr. Shipman of Hadley is the greatest ma- 

 nufacturer of brooms in the valley of the 'Con- 

 necticut. If he employs, on an average, ten 

 hands, and each hand makes 25 brooms per 

 day, the number made in a year would be 

 78^000. It is said he has made 100,000. 



The brush, when it is put in the barn, should 

 be placed on a scaffold, so as to be exposed to 

 a circulation of the air, that it may dry and 

 not mould. For all the purposes of use, a 

 broom made with twine is equal to one made 

 with wire ; and a man can make several more 

 of them in a day. 



Mr. Shipman uses 300 or 400 Ibs. of large 

 twine, at 20 to 30 cents a pound, and 2,000 Ibs. 

 of small twine, at 31 cents. Perhaps he ma- 

 nufactures only | part of the brooms manu- 

 factured in Hadley. 



At the price of 20 cents, the price of brooms 

 a few years ago, the broom manufacture of 

 Hadley would thus amount to $160,000. 



It is probable that the extended cultivation 

 of the broom-corn will reduce the profits on 

 this product to the average profits of good 

 fanning. 



CORN CALE. A provincial name for char- 

 lock. 



CORN-CROWFOOT (Ranunculus arrenri*) 

 45 



CORN LAWS. 



A weed very common among corn. Root 

 fibrous. It has an upright stalk ; the leaves are 

 of a pale, shining green, and cut into long, nar- 

 row, acute segments. The lemon-coloured 

 flowers are much smaller and paler than those 

 of the crowfoot which is found in pasture- 

 grounds, and the seed-vessels are very remark- 

 able, being covered all over with prickles. It 

 is very acrid and dangerous to cattle, though 

 they are said to eat it greedily. M. Brugnon, 

 who has given a particular account of its quali- 

 ties, relates, that three ounces of the juice killed 

 a dog in four minutes. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. 

 iii. p. 53.) See CROWFOOT. 



CORN-CUTTING MACHINES. Machines 

 for cutting wheat and other grains by horse 

 power, of which none have hitherto been pro- 

 duced in England whose merits have insured 

 their adoption by the farmer. Of the several 

 English patents obtained, that called Smith's 

 Reaping Machine, is perhaps the most approved. 

 For a minute description of this, with drawings, 

 see Encyc. Britunnira, vol. 2, part 1. See Mow- 

 150 AND REAPIXR MACHIVK. 



CORNEL TREE. See DOGWOOD. 



COR.NKT. In larru'ry, a name sometimes 

 given to the instrument used in venesection, 

 called a fleam. 



CORN, INDIAN. See MAIZK. 



CORN LAWS. The regulation of the sup- 

 ply, and consequently, the value of corn in 

 different countries in Europe, has been an ob- 

 ject of legislation from a very remote period ; 

 a public interference, varying, however, in de- 

 gree, from that of protective taxation, to that 

 which was intended to be prohibitory. Of the 

 fir^t kind are the modern English corn laws; 

 of the last are the present local regulations of 

 Paris, by which bread is sold always at the 

 same price, both in bountiful seasons or in 

 those of scarcity. It would occupy too much 

 space to follow these, generally necessary in- 

 terferences with the sale of corn, which have 

 occurred from the days of the Athenians (who 

 depended upon Thrace for their daily bread), or 

 from the popular broils about bread, which 

 were long a source of disorder to Rome, even 

 in its splendour. In England, there are traces 

 of a corn law nearly six centuries since. By 

 the statute Judidum Pillorie, 51 Hen. 3 (1266), 

 it is directed that the municipal authorities of 

 certain towns should inquire of the price of 

 corn. By the 34 Ed. 3, c. 20 (1360), the ex- 

 portation of corn was prohibited; but in 1430, 

 by the 15 H. 6, c. 2, it was allowed. In 1463, 

 however, by the 3 Ed. 4, c. 2, the necessity 

 (which was declared in the preamble) arose 

 of preventing " the labourers and occupiers of 

 land from being grievously endamaged by 

 bringing corn out of other lands when com 

 of the growing of this realm is at a low price." 

 It then declares that wheat shall not be import- 

 ed, unless wheat be sold at the place of import 

 for 6s. 8d. per quarter. In 1532, by the 25 H 

 8, c. 2, it was enacted that the exportation of 

 corn should cease, and the price be regulated 

 by the lords of the council, the preamble of the 

 bill very sensibly remarking, that "dearth, 

 scarcity, good and cheap and plenty of, &c., 

 victuals necessary for man's sustenance hap- 

 peneth, riseth, and chanceth of so many and 

 2 G 2 353 



