No. 12. 



Indian. Corn. 



371 



The Mediterranean wheat has succeeded 

 the best with me for the last few years. 

 I would recommend July or August plow- 

 ing — wheat to be sowed by the first of Sep- 

 tember, pure clean seed in all cases, of the 

 best quality, fully ripe before cutting for 

 seed. Cheat and cockle will grow if sowed, 

 if none is sowed little will be reaped ; none 

 after your land is clear of such filth. 



The loss farmers sustain in consequence 

 of the filth sowed in wheat is enormous. 

 Many contend "wheat will turn to cheat;" 

 this may be so, yet I do not believe it — as 

 well might corn turn to cheat, or oats to 

 wheat. It is a law of nature " that like 

 will produce like;" every thing contains its 

 seed v/ithin itself. If it was not so where 

 would we be; and what interminable con- 

 fusion would such changes produced I say 

 sow clean seed, and no other; at all times of 

 the best quality, and you will soon have your 

 land clear of cheat, cockle and many other 

 injurious seeds that are a pest to the coun- 

 try, and which ought to become extinct. But 

 they never will, unless you teach farmers 

 their true interests. The way to wealth is 

 as plain as the way to the corn field, if we 

 only exercise common sense, and use intelli- 

 gent industry aright. Our country is une- 

 qualled ; though prices are low, large good 

 crops make up for them! The farmers 

 ought to take your paper,* generally, and 

 learn that their true interests consist in a 

 well informed and well governed communi- 

 ty. Yours, &c., 



Henry Cazier. 



New Castle Co., Del., June 4th, 1845. 



Indian Corn. 



" The colours of Indian corn depend on 

 that of the epidermis, or hull, or of the oil ; 

 the latter, when yellow, showing its colour 

 through a transparent epidermis, while, if 

 the hull is coloured and opaque, the grain 

 presents the same colour. It appears that 



till it seemed useless to do it more. Late in the 

 Fifth month the ground was marked out between 

 the rows, and again planted as if it had not been 

 previously done, under the apprehension that the for- 

 mer plantings were so thoroughly cut down that they 

 would produce little or nothing. The old rows howe- 

 ver were left to take their chance— they subsequently 

 took a start, and the double set of rows produced one 

 of the heaviest crops of corn we ever raised. — Ed. 



* We shall not he suspected of dissenting from this 

 opinion of our correspondent. In endorsing it how- 

 ever, as we do most heartily and thoroughly, an expres 

 sion may be given to the wish that every farmer in 

 Delaware would show his acquiescence in it, by for- 

 warding his name as a subscriber to the Farmers' 

 Cabinet. He can hardly lay out a dollar better.— Ed 



the superiority of one kind of corn, as the 

 Baden and Canada, over another, as the 

 Tuscarora, is surprisingly manifest; one is 

 filled with oil, the other has no trace of it, 

 hence the superiority of the former, and the 

 yellow of most kinds, for fattening animals. 

 People of weak digestion should not eat the 

 meal of the yellow kind, containing so much 

 oil, because it is more difficult to digest. The 

 yellow colour of the Golden Sioux, an eight 

 rowed corn, is duo to the colour of the oil. 

 Brown corn has a darker colour, dependent 

 on the combined colours of the oil and epi- 

 dermis. Red and blue corn owe their lively 

 hues to the colours of the epidermis, and not 

 to the oil. In the Rhode Island White Flint, 

 — a favourite corn in that State — the oil is 

 transparent and colourless, and the epider- 

 mis is likewise free from colour, and is near- 

 ly transparent; hence the meal is white, and 

 the quantity of oil being large, it is less lia- 

 ble to ferment, and become sour, than some 

 other varieties, as the Tuscarora, and is in 

 very good repute." 



We extract the above from Dr. Jackson's 

 communication on analysis of grains, pub- 

 lished in the Commissioner of Patents' Re- 

 port. We have corrected it in one particu- 

 lar, where he speaks of the Golden Sioux 

 being a twelve rowed corn, whereas it is 

 only eight ; it is the Button that is twelve 

 rowed. There is an explanation of the 

 cause of some corn popping, which probably 

 is known to very few. "The oil in the 

 horny portions of the grain is contained in 

 little six-sided cells, in the form of minute 

 drops, visible in a thin section, under a good 

 microscope. When a grain of corn is heated 

 to a temperature sufficient to decompose the 

 oil, a sudden explosion takes place, and every 

 cell is ruptured by the expansion of gaseous 

 matters arising from the decomposition of 

 the oil, and the grain is ruptured at the 

 weakest point in the arch, and is completely 

 evoluted and folded back. Now, on examin- 

 ing the cells again, they will be found lace- 

 rated, and swollen much out of shape. If 

 an attempt is made to pop Tuscarora corn, 

 it will be found never to succeed; hence, 

 the curious phenomenon, so familiar to every 

 child, though seldom, if ever, understood by 

 its parents, is to be attributed entirely to the 

 decomposition of oil, and the formation of 

 carburetted hydrogen gas, such as is some- 

 times used in lighting large cities." It 

 seems by this that the most popping corn 

 contains the most oil, therefore what is 

 called pop corn, or that com which pops the 

 most, must be, according to this statement, 

 the best for fattening animals. Mr. Ells- 

 worth says : " The culture of the grape for 

 the table is increasing, and promises to be a 



