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Cultivation of Indian Corn in Europe. 



Vol. XL 



he saw women and children taking off the 

 tops and blades; on all other points he is 

 entirely silent. James Paul Cobbelt, no 

 doubt a son of the notorious William Cob- 

 bett, visited the same country in 1824, and 

 although a lawyer, he tells us more than 

 either of the farmers. No doubt his resi- 

 dence in this country, and his father's tui- 

 tion, had led him to form a habit of obser- 

 vation on matters of rural economy. He 

 says that he first saw corn in the province 

 of Maine, a part of France, not by any 

 means its most Southern, but in latitude 47° 

 or 48° North. It was reported to him that 

 it grew well, though from the quantity pro- 

 duced an acre, thirty-one bushels, we should 

 infer the contrary; unless the PVench farm- 

 ers have very peculiar ideas as to "growing 

 well," or are contented with a small yield 

 " The people here use it only in the fatting 

 of pigs, for which purpose it is considered.'as 

 it is in America, to be the best of all food. 

 It is planted on ridges, which are about five 

 feet apart; two rows of corn on every ridge. 

 The plants are from a foot to eighteen inches 

 apart in the row, and the rows about the 

 same distance from each other." 



This is all he has to say, and we infer 

 that from its being so highly appreciated as 

 food for pigs, it is not used as food by the 

 nobler animal, man. As we go further 

 south, it begins to grow in importance, but 

 before we reach Italy, we shall find it uni- 

 versally used by the hardy mountaineers of 

 the Tyrol, a race of men remarkable for 

 their physical strength and high courage, 

 and as they live almost exclusively on it, we 

 may ascribe those noble personal attributes 

 to the power it has of increasing muscular 

 strength,-and giving energy to the charac- 

 ter. The French, who only give it to pigs, 

 felt its power when they attempted to pass 

 these mountains in some of Bonaparte's va 

 Tious invasions. The Tyrolese crushed his 

 troops by thousands in their narrow passes. 

 The late battle of Buena Vista, is another 

 •evidence of what it can do; nearly every 

 man in Taylor's army was a corn-fed West- 

 ern man, and no other men on earth could 

 have withstood the physical weight and 

 strength of five to one. The writer, to 

 whom we have alluded as travelling in the 

 Tyrol, Mr. Inglis, had sufficient taste and 

 sensibility to leave large towns and their sO' 

 ciety, and strike at once into the recesses of 

 the mountains. He travelled, as all men 

 should, who wish to see a country, as a pe- 

 destrian. This gave him the opportunity of 

 seeing those who are emphatically the peo 

 pie, of visiting the retired village, and the 

 peasant's cottage ; and the sketch he draws 

 of a Tyrolese peasant's household, gives an 



idea of comfort and happiness, and hardy in- 

 dependence, that can but increase our esteem 

 for the character of those mountaineers. He 

 admits that the growth and use of Indian 

 corn, form the sources of this prosperity. On 

 crossing these mountains a storm drove him 

 to seek shelter in a house by the way-side. 

 " It was, as I supposed, the house of a pea- 

 sant; a proprietor of the middle kind, not 

 rich, but with enough for the wants and 

 comforts of a family." As dinner was ready, 

 he took his seat with the family. The party 

 consisted of six persons, but the dinner, which 

 is of more importance, "consisted of soup of 

 Indian corn and milk, a piece of boiled bacon, 

 about five pounds weight, a salad, bread two 

 thirds Indian corn and one third wheat, but- 

 ter, and wine of Botzen." Certainly a very 

 substantial repast. After dinner the proprie- 

 tor and his family went over his little fields 

 with the stranger. The whole land owned 

 by this peasant was about four acres ; one 

 third was devoted to Indian corn ; " of the 

 remaining two acres and two-thirds, about 

 half an acre was in wheat, another half acre 

 in barley, a quarter of an acre in flax, an 

 acre and little more in grass and wood, and 

 about a quarter of an acre in garden, which 

 contained cabbage, potatoes, salad, and a 

 few cherry trees. The Indian corn was all 

 required in the establishment — about one- 

 half for the family, and the other for winter 

 provision for the cow." The wheat and bar- 

 ley were sold, and produced more than suffi- 

 cient to purchase cofl^ee, sugar, wine, such 

 implements as were wanted, and clothmg for 

 the family. They had also formed a surplus 

 in money. The flax was spun and wove and 

 used in the family. The grass served as 

 summer pasture for the cows; the wood sup- 

 plied firing. The ground was cultivated by 

 the owner and his son, and was remarkably 

 clean and in excellent order. No cheese 

 was made — the soup consuming all the milk. 

 There was no stock but the cow, two pigs, 

 a litter of young ones, and several hens. All 

 this seems to us a beautiful picture of indus- 

 try and content, and of wealth too, if we 

 consider their few wants. The whole is 

 due to the crop of Indian corn, that is used 

 three times a day, as a soup; and forms, too, 

 much the larger part of their bread. But 

 we will descend from the mountains to the 

 richer and more glowing climate of Italy; 

 we shall find there that this grain is by far 

 the most important article in the agriculture 

 of that finefcountry. The richest and best 

 cultivated land is in Piedmont, the climate 

 too, probably the most delightful in Europe. 

 It sustains a very large population, chiefly 

 by being divided into small farms of about 

 sixty acres; though few or none of these are 



