72 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



three to four pounds heavier per bushel, sold at 6Q cents, the 

 yellow flat corn, also selling for about three cents a bushel more 

 than the white flat, which is sold but little at Philadelpliia, and 

 for an occasional shipment to southern ports. 



The white corns are said to produce 

 more and ripen earlier than the yellow. 

 The white makes much handsomer meal 

 for cooking purposes, and is also free from 

 the strong taste of the yellow, though 

 those from Pennsylvania north, who have 

 been accustomed to the yellow, like that 

 taste. White corn is much cultivated in 

 Rhode Island, and generally commands a 

 higher price for breadstuffs than the yellow. 

 The Sioux or yellow gourd seed, eiglit- 

 rowed, the Button, the smutty white, and 

 the Canada, are mostly cultivated in the 

 other eastern States. 



For table corn, the best are the early 

 golden Sioux, Canadian, early Tuscarora, 

 the sweet ; and the late sorts, white hominy, 

 and Button, when green. For field corn, 

 there are numerous varieties. The favor- 

 FiG. 7. ites in the middle States are the yellow 



gourd seed, and the Virginia white gourd seed of twenty-four to 

 thirty-six rows. The red, blue and purple corns are not used 

 for field planting ; they are sometimes enamelled, even their 

 leaves ; the leaves and stalk of the purple are of that color, or 

 between it and green ; and some corn has red stalks and leaves, 

 but with more or less green. Jet black corn is found in Mexico. 

 The color of Indian corn usually depends on that of the epider- 

 mis or hull, and sometimes on that of the oil, or of the combined 

 particles of which the corn is composed when the hull is trans- 

 parent, as the golden Sioux is yellow from the oil, and the 

 Rhode Island white flint is white from its starch and oil seen 

 through its hull ; but if the hull is opaque, the grain presents 

 the same color, as in the red, blue, and black varieties. 



A late writer, in some remarks on the subject, says : What 

 is yet wanted is to determine whether it would be more profita- 

 ble in our climate to cultivate the early varieties of Indian corn, 



