MAIZE. 279 



best suited to feed cattle and hogs. For bread, the white Button 

 is preferred at the North, and the white ground seed is used for 

 that purpose in other quarters. Preference, however, is most fre- 

 quently given to white flint corn, which is unquestionably the 

 heaviest, and contains the greatest proportion of farina. 



In Mississippi many varieties are grown, principally those known 

 as flint and bastard flint. The gourd-seed varieties are very ob- 

 jectionable in that climate, principally on account of their soft- 

 ness rendering them unfit for bread, and open to the attacks of 

 insects in the field and the crib. They require a grain, white, hard, 

 and rather flinty white because of its great consumption in bread 

 and hommony, in the preparation of both of which their cooks 

 greatly excel. When meal is ground for bread, the mill is set 

 rather wide, that the flinty part of the grain may not be cut up too 

 fine, this being sifted out for " small hommony ;" the farinaceous 

 part of the grain is left for bread. This hommony is a beautiful 

 and delicious dish. On most plantations the negroes have it for 

 supper, with molasses or butter-milk. A hard flinty grain is ne- 

 cessary to head the weevil, with which not only the cribs but the 

 heads of corn in the field are infested. These are the Calandra 

 oryzce, the true rice weevil, distinguished from his European cousin 

 by the two reddish spots on each elytra or wing-cover, and known 

 in America as the "black weevil;" also a little brown insect, not a 

 true weevil, but a Sylvanus. This sylvanus, and another of the 

 same genus, most probably the S. surinamensis, attack the corn in 

 the field before it becomes hard, causing serious damage but no- 

 thing to equal that occasioned by the black weevil. 



I know of no generally successful method of staying or even 

 checking the injury caused by the insects, though much might be 

 written in the way of suggestion. 



In Michigan, the dent variety in dry seasons produces the best 

 crops on sandy loam, as its roots run deeper than the common eight- 

 rowed yellow or white. In moist seasons the latter varieties 

 usually do well. They are grown most generally in the Northern 

 part of the State, while in the Southern section the Ohio dent is 

 principally raised. The shuck and blade are much used as fodder 

 for cattle, in the early part of winter. 



Indian corn is very liable to change of character from soil and 

 climate, growing smaller the farther North it is raised. Tbe mixing 

 of the eight-rowed yellow with the Ohio dent has, so far as my ex- 

 perience goes, been beneficial in increasing the yield. Sandy loam, 

 or clay, is considered the soil best adapted to corn. It is usually 

 planted in May, and harvested in September. The blade is not taken 

 off there as at the South ; some farmers cut up their corn when 

 ripe, put it into shocks, and husk it late in the fall ; others cut the 

 stalks, bind them in sheaves, and stack them for winter in the 

 fields, or put them away in barns or sheds ; while others husk the 

 corn 011 the hill without cutting the stalks, and late in the fall turn 

 their cattle into the field to eat the fodder. Of these different 

 modes the preference is usually given to cutting the stalks and 



