90 



Jin Essay on Indian Corn. 



Vol. IL 



September and should be budded in August. 

 The peach, apricot and nectarine about the 

 20th of vSeptember, and should be budded 

 between the 1st and middle of that mouth. 

 It may, however, be done later, and if occa- 

 sion require, after the bark begins to fasten, 

 b)' rubbing it with a smooth knife handle or 

 other substance, and thereby loosening it, 

 but this is not safe. The shoots intended 

 to be taken are to be selected in the same 

 manner as for grafting, and should be as 

 fresh from the tree as circumstances will ad- 

 mit, and kept in the shade and moist, not 

 saturated, and the work performed in cloudy 

 weather, in the shade, or in the morning or 

 evening. 



MANNER OF BUDDING AND HEADING THE STOCKS. 



This may be done by making incisions in 

 the stock like a cross f or a T, then raising 

 the corners and inserting the bud; the fol- 

 lowing is the most simple, easy, and suc- 

 cessful method : Having provided suitable 

 shoots from which to take the buds, cut off 

 the leaves a little above the buds ; furnish 

 yourself with some soft woollen yarn and a 

 sharp penknife ; fix upon a smooth part of 

 the side of the stock ; make a horizontal cut 

 across the bark to the wood ; then from this 

 cut make two slits downwards, parallel to 

 and apart from each other, the width of the 

 bud with its bark when severed from its 

 shoot; then with the point of your knife 

 raise the bark next the horizontal cut between 

 the slits, and peel it down their whole 

 length, clear from the wood ; make a slit in 

 the bark peeled down. Next prepare the 

 bud ; place your knife about half an inch 

 above the bud, and cut down through the 

 bark into the surface of the wood, and so 

 along under the bud, and out about half an 

 inch below it, taking out as little of the 

 wood as may be ; then turn down the 

 loosened bark, insert the bud over the wood 

 so as to cover it; then close the bark over 

 it, leaving the bud to project up through the 

 middle slit; break off about twenty inches 

 of the yarn and place the middle over the 

 bark, and just below the bud, binding it 

 round the stock to the back side of it, then 

 cross it and wind the thread around the stock 

 over the bark, above and below the bud, not 

 over it until it is all closed up, not so tight 

 as to prevent the sap from communicating; 

 then tie a knot and the work is completed. 



If it be spring and the buds taken from 

 scions preserved as for grafting, insert the 

 bud with the wood ; in summer or fall the 

 wood may be separated from the bud. But 

 if on separating the wood there appears a 

 small hole on the under sipe, opposite the 

 bud, the bud will not sprout and is rendered 

 useless. It is therefore preferable to insert 



the buds on single stems and upright 

 branches on the north or shady side of the 

 stocks, and on the branches; insert them on 

 the upper side to shed water and make a 

 perfect growth. In about three weeks the 

 bandage might be taken off by cutting across 

 the yarn, on the side of the stock opposite 

 the bud. When the buds begin to shoot, the 

 stock must be headed down, in spring budd- 

 ing, at or shortly after the time the bandages 

 are taken off; for autumn budding, not un- 

 til the next spring. This is performed by 

 cutting off the stock about four inches above 

 the bud, sloping upwards from the side op- 

 posite the bud. After the bud has grown 

 five or six inches, tie a string around the 

 stock a little above the shoot, and bring the 

 ends on the outside and there tie them to- 

 g-ether, so as to keep the shoot in a perpen- 

 dicular position, and brace it against the 

 wind, which may otherwise blow it off. The 

 shoots which put out from the stock should 

 be cut or rubbed off occasionally. 



After one season's growth of the bud, the 

 stump left above the bud should be cut down 

 close to the shoot and sloping from it, and a 

 little composition put over it. 

 To be concluded. 



An £ssay on Indian Corn, 



Delivered by Peter A. Broivne, Esq., L. L. 

 D., before the Cabinet of Natural Science 

 of Chester county, Pa. 



Continued. 



4. Was the Indian corn known to the 

 aborigines of any portion of this hemisphere, 

 and of those portions in the order in which they 

 were first visited? 



Hispaniola was one of the first of the 

 West India Islands known to Europeans : it 

 was discovered in 1492, by the Spaniards, 

 before they had seen the continent; and 

 therefore I shall commence with the Spanish 

 West Indies. That the Indian corn was 

 found in these Islands is proved by the fol- 

 lowing : 



The Spanish word for Corn, used as a 

 generic tc-rra, and also for '• wheat," accord- 

 ing to Delphini, is '■'■ trigo,^'' which is derived 

 from the Latin " triticum."* But the Span- 

 iards use the word " mays," which they define 

 to be " West India corn.'''' 



Again. In Jos : de Acosti's Natural His- 

 tory of the West Indies, lib. 4, ch. 16, p. 236, 

 speaking of the mays, he calls it " Indian 

 wheat, to make bread of He says that it 

 was the only grain found in the West Indies 

 by the Europeans: — that it grows upon a 

 lono- reed with large grains, and sometimes 



* Whicii j3 rendered, " wheat" and " barley," 



