No. 8. 



Onions- — Jin Essay on Indian Corn. 



123 



flavored, with none of that rank, strong taste 

 so common to onions raised from sets. One 

 of the beds was measured, by which the aver- 

 age produce was over fifty bushels on the 

 whole ground, which would exceed four hun- 

 dred bushels to the aero. 



Although the produce equalled Wethers- 

 field in amount, I was somewhat disappointed 

 on finding several bushels of them not of a 

 merchantable kind ; they had thick necks, 

 sort of evergreens; they would neither die 

 nor dry, commonly called scullions by gar- 

 deners. 



I see it stated, I think in the American 

 Gardener, that no crop is more difficult to 

 accommodate, with a suitable soil, than the 

 onion, in consequence of its disposition to be- 

 have in the manner I have stated. The 

 ground this experiment was tried upon, is 

 rather a stiff" clay, but very much softened 

 with lime and manure, yet I presume it is 

 not exactly the kind of soil they like. I in- 

 tend, next season,* to select a more sandy 

 location, for I am rather pleased with the 

 partial success of the operation. - 



The onion does not seem to want as much 

 manure as other root crops, particularly the 

 potatoe and ruta baga turnep ; they require, 

 it is true, considerably more labor, but the 

 value of the crop would, upon an average, 

 be double, and more, if the difficulty I have 

 mentioned could be surmounted. 



I suppose that two and a half or three 

 acres of onions could be raised by hiring one 

 additional hand through the summer season ; 

 besides it is sometimes profitable to increase 

 the varieties of labor on a farm, when work- 

 men are employed to perform it. In mowing 

 time and harvest, we frequently have spells 

 of wet damp weather, and a field of roots not 

 only gives employment to all hands during 

 such intervals, but pays the expense of an 

 additional hand through the summer, by 

 which the severe operation of gathering hay 

 and grain is very much reduced. 



Subscriber. 



Wilmington, lllh mo. 8tl), 1837. 



N. B. Since rpaiiin? Observer's complaint in his last 

 essay upon " hollow hnrn," I have concluded to put my 

 article by for a season. 



Observer says some one has told bim I intended to "beat 

 him out." and that 1 have expressed myself in this kind 

 of lanffuaiie, which appears to have lired him and made 

 him weary of the subject I can assure all whom it 

 may concirn. that I have used no such words, nor ever 

 intended to convey to any one such meaning. I said the 

 inconsistency of Observer must eventually defeat all his 

 arguments ; but even if T had been so silly as to use a 

 threat or bravo, instead of reasoning fairly, is there any 

 thing in it that ought to make a man abandon the field 

 who fell conscious of his power to maintain it from his 

 own positions? I am ready at any time to show that 

 Observer's arguments are erroneous upon the subject of 

 " hollow horn." as well as upon the " action of the 

 absorbant vessels." 



Business makes a man aa well as tries a 

 man. 



An Essay on Indian Corn, 



Delivered by Peter A. Browne, JEsq., L. L. 

 D., before the Cabinet of Natural ^Science 

 of Chester county. Fa. 



Continued. 



"Peter Kalm, professor of economy in the 

 University of Aobo, in Swedish Finland, and 

 member of the Swedish "Royal Academy of 

 Science, traveled in America in 1748 and 

 '49, and in a work which he afterwards pub- 

 lished, speaking of the Indians of North 

 America, he says : " Their food is very differ- 

 ent from that of the inhabitants of other parts 

 of the world. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, and 

 rice, were quite unknown to them. JMaize^ 

 some kind of beans and mellons, made up al- 

 most the whole of Indian gardening." — 2d 

 vol. p. 95. 



" At first the Swedes settlement at New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania were obliged to buy 

 maize of the Indians for sowing and eating," 

 —p. 111. 



" The Indians had their little plantations 

 of maize in many places, before the Swedes 

 came into this country." — p. 114. 



" Before the Europeans came into this coun- 

 try, the Indians planted maize, beans and 

 gourds." — p. 192. 



Peter Kalm was a pupil of Linseus, and a 

 good Botanist, and therefore his evidence is 

 very creditable upon this subject. He died 

 in 1778, sixteen years after Linasus published 

 his second, and twenty-five years after he 

 published his first edition of Species PJanta- 

 rum. 



" In a work entitled "The British empire 

 in America, containing the history of the dis- 

 covery, settlement, progress of the state of 

 the British colonies in the continent and 

 islands of America," 2nd ed. London, 1741, 

 vol. 1, p. 184, — the author says, speaking of 

 New England, " Oats, barley, peas, beans, 

 and all other sorts of advantageous grains, are 

 cultivated and flourish here ; but the Indian 

 corn is most planted. There was no other 

 corn in this country before the English came 

 hither." I .shall here insert the account of it 

 given to the Royal Society, by Mr. Winthrop, 

 who was a member. " The natives called it 

 Wiachin, and in some southern parts of 

 America it is known by the name of maiisor 

 maize. The ear is a span long, composed of 

 eight rows of grain, or more, according to the 

 goodness of the ground ; about 30 grains in 

 a row. It is of various colors, as red, white, 

 yellow, blue, olive, greenish, black, speckled, 

 striped, and sometimes in the same field and 

 in the same ear. The stalk grows six or 

 eight feet high ; that of New England is not 

 quite so tall as Virginia, and at Canada it is 

 shorter than in New England," &c. 



At page 185, he says, " The Indians thresh 



