540 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



For fhe New England Farmer. 



EGYPTIAlSr COKIf. 



Gentlemen : — In your rogardecl issue of the 

 13th, I notice your remarks headed "Egyptian 

 Corn," concluding as follows, viz : "We refer to 

 this matter to show the results of one experiment 

 with the Egyptian corn, and to ask our friends 

 v/ho "enclosed one dollar in stamps or currency to 

 Mr. Crandall, and who have grown the Egyptian 

 corn, to inform us what success attended the ex- 

 periment." 



I would state, in answer, that nevp.r seeing your 

 advertising columns filled with gullibilities, and 

 disgusting insertions, I felt a confidence in re- 

 sponding to the notice of Mr. Crandall as con- 

 tained in your issue of May last, and at once, on 

 reading the same, I remitted the one dollar indi- 

 cated to the party, accompanied by stamps for 

 the appropriate return. Soon after, I received by 

 mail an envelope containing about two teaspoon- 

 fuls of the so called "Egyptian seed corn," with a 

 few words of direction, (printed upon a mere scrap 

 of paper,) and naught further ! At once I placed 

 the corn in the hands of the gentleman with whom 

 I reside, (one of your subscribers,) a most intel- 

 ligent and practical farmer. He prepared some 

 ground forthwith for the reception of the seed, in 

 the very best portion of his farm and manured the 

 same well. Planted four kernels of the corn in each 

 hill, making in all about twenty hills. This plant- 

 ing took place about June 1st, last past, and the 

 hills were well hoed and cared for. The result of 

 all was a very slow coming forth of the corn at all. 

 At last it poked its lazy and attenuated develop- 

 ment upward, but gave never an indication of 

 product for a long time. Finally some ears ap- 

 peared, but "few and far between," I assure you. 

 The last past week the result was harvested, yield- 

 ing from the entire twenty (perhaps thirty,) hills, 

 a short half bushel of ears of the so called "Egyp- 

 tian corn," part red and part white, looking as sick- 

 ly as if it had left home too early. From these we 

 were enabled to secure about twenty-five ears only 

 worth looking at, and with the balance we insult- 

 ed our hogs by tossing it to them, and a poor mess 

 they had of it, too, you may well imagine. For 

 it was but a short half bushel of stunted, worthless 

 corn that was the rendering, from the all prom- 

 ising Crandall seed of Egypt ! The stalks are 

 coarse, wiry, with a sort of saw edge, and reject- 

 ed by our cattle, — as they are ever accustomed to 

 a better feed, not being of Egyptian descent, and 

 not in any sense familiar with the "leeks and 

 onions" of that region. 



A sample of the best ears I could find in all, I 

 send you by express, and you are at liberty to 

 use the same, or aught from my letter, as you 

 may choose. I must only, however, remark in 

 this reply to your request, that I think there must 

 have been two omissions in the grouping of the 

 "Plagues of Egypt," as given to us in the ancient 

 Mosaic records ! The first of these I deem to have 

 been this "Egyptian Corn," (if such it be,) and 

 the second the ancestry of this intending bene- 

 factor of mankind, Mr. Crandall, if he came from 

 "those diggings." 



Be assured, Mr. Editor, that Mr. Crandall hum- 

 bugged your readers most essentially,who sent him 

 their money for his worthless trash. However, 

 this is but the second lime I have been deluded 



by such puify advertisements, and in future shall 

 ever deem them as unprofitable, and let them pass. 

 At present, please regard me but as him of whom 

 it was said, "Fool and his money soon parted." 



Yet parted not for any "corn" 



That-s worthy a flescriplion — 

 But for a corn — lookoil so forlorn, 



They christened it Egyptian. 



Should you wish any further information as to 

 this very rare cereal, the gentleman with whom I 

 reside, (Mr. John Williams,) will cheerfully af- 

 ford you the same, and give you the result of its 

 fattening qualities on his swine, who were favored 

 with a homoeopathic taste of the same. 



Edward Brinley. 



Oalc Hill, Oct. 15, 1860, 



For the Nctv England Farmer. 



"WHAT WE FIISTD I]M AW EKTG-IiISH 

 NEWSPAPER. 



BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



How much a single number of a well conducted 

 newspaper tells us of the condition of the countrj' 

 where it is published ! I am led to this reflection 

 by reading the "Mark Lane Express and Agricul- 

 tural Journal," a paper published weekly in Lon- 

 don. How significant is every paragraph of the 

 differences between Old England and New Eng- 

 land. The number of Sept. 24, 1860, is before us. 

 Let us look a moment at its contents. Here is a 

 little table showing the quantities of "corn" im- 

 ported into eleven ports in England and Scotland 

 for the week ending Sept. 12th. We must bear 

 in mind that corn in England does not mean In- 

 dian corn, but all kinds of grain. The amount for 

 the week is 222,416 quarters, which multiplied 

 by 8 gives the number of bushels 1,779,328 ! 

 nearly two million bushels of grain brought into 

 those ports in a single week, equal to about 324 

 thousand bushels per day. This is truly sur- 

 prising, and we should at once conclude that this 

 must have been an extraordinary week. If, how- 

 ever, we turn to Caird's recent letters on Prairie 

 Farming, we shall find at page 9 the following : 

 "During the last year, (1858,) we have imported 

 into this country at the rate of nearly one million 

 quarters (8 million bushels) of grain each month. 

 We have thus, in addition to our home crop, con- 

 sumed each day the produce of ten thousand acres 

 of foreign land." Now ten thousand acres of 

 wheat, at 25 bushels per acre, would give 250,- 

 000 bushels, a little short of the daily quantity re- 

 ported in the Mark Lane Express for the single 

 week. Great Britain, then, it seems, consumes all 

 her own grain, and requires a little farm of some 

 three and a half million acres, all in heavy grain, 

 equal to 25 bushels of wheat per acre, to keep her 

 population supplied with food ! 



No wonder the interests of agriculture attract 

 attention in England, No wonder that her lords 

 and ladies, as well as her agricultural population 



