fS CLIMATE, SEASONS, &-C. Part I» 



rye, barley and oats, which we confound 

 under the name of corn^ they conlbt'Dd 

 under the name of grain. The Indian 

 Corn, in its ripe seed state, consists of 

 an ear, which is in the shape of a spruce- 

 fir apple. The grains, each of which is 

 about the bulk of the largest marrowfat 

 pea, are placed all round a stalk, which 

 goes up the middle, and this little stalk, 

 to which the seeds adhere, is called the 

 Corn Coh. Some of these ears (of which 

 from 1 to 4 grow upon a plant) are more 

 than a foot long ; and I have seen many, 

 each of which weighed more than eigh- 

 teen ounces^ avoirdupois weight. They are 

 long or short, heavy or light, according 

 to the land and the culture. I was at a 

 Tavern, in the village of North Hemp- 

 stead, last fall (of 1817) where I had 

 just read, in the Courier, English news- 

 paper, of a Noble Lord, who had been 

 sent on his travels to France at tenyears 

 of age, and who, from his high-blooded 

 ignorance of vulgar things, I suppose, 

 had swallowed a whole car of corn., which, 

 as the news-paper told us, had well-nigh 

 choaked the Noble Lord. The Landlord 

 bad just been showing me some of his 

 fine ears of Corn ; and I took the paper 

 out of my pocket, and read the para- 

 graph : "What!" said he, "swallow a 

 "^ whole ear of corn at once! No wonder 

 " that they have swallowed- up poor Old" 

 "John Bull's substance." After a hearty 

 laugh, we explained to him, that it must 

 have been wheat or barleii. Then he 

 said, and very justly, that the lord must 

 have been a much greater fool than a 

 hog is. The plant of the Indian Corn^ 



