Foreign Notices : — North America. 483 



obliged to sell their land, or find out some other way of paying. They 

 applied to the Emperor Alexander for permission to establish a Society for 

 lending money on land, which was granted. A person who borrows can 

 receive one-fourth of the value of his estate, for which he pays during the 

 space of twenty-eight years interest 6 per cent. ; and 2 per cent, goes 

 towards paying off the capital, and 4 per cent, is the interest, so that, at 

 the end of twenty-eight years, both capital and interest are paid off. For 

 greater security, every estate is liable, not only for its own debt, but for 

 the debts of the whole. The government have a great many estates in their 

 own hands, which they have begun to sell to the highest bidder. In order 

 to facilitate their sale, they have taken from this Society as much money 

 as it will lend them, and the person buying does not require a great sum of 

 ready money, because he pays it off in twenty-eight years. An indus- 

 trious farmer with 2000/. might become a large landed proprietor. — J. L. 

 Warsaw, May 13. 1830. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



The Osage Apple and Madura, aurantiaca. — Sir, On the 20th of last 

 month I sent you a second osage apple [duly received], and I will send you 

 trees, a male and female *, next November, Deo volente. The fruit does 

 ripen in this State. The tree is immensely valuable in its native region. 

 It is so tough and elastic that the Indians make then - bows of it, and it also 

 affords a fine yellow dye. 



Sweet Maize or Sweet Corn. — I send you also two ears of Indian corn, 

 of the kind called " sweet corn," from its superior sweetness to all the 

 other varieties of that inestimable grain, the magnum Dei donum to the 

 United States, and to all climates in which it will ripen. I do not know 

 whether this variety is the same as that cultivated by Mr. Cobbett (p. 60.). 

 Although the grains appear shrivelled when dry, they are plump when 

 ripe, and brilliantly white= In this climate (Pennsylvania), if planted 

 about the 10th of May, the corn will be fit to eat in the middle of July : in 

 the southern States, at an earlier date. The proper state in which to eat it 

 is when the milk flows or spurts out thick, upon pressing the grains with the 

 thumb nail. The best way to enjoy it, is to boil the ears with the husks 

 on, and, when brought to table, to cover the ears with butter, adding a 

 little salt, and to eat the grains off the cob. Over-refined people think 

 this is a vulgar mode, and shave off the grains from the cob ; but in so 

 doing they lose much of their sweetness. This variety of Indian corn was 

 found by the officers attached to the army or expedition of General Sulli- 

 van, in the year 1779, which was sent against the Indians, in the Gennessee 

 country, and brought to Connecticut, whence it has proceeded south. The 

 " nubbins," when about the size of the middle finger, are sometimes pickled 

 in vinegar, and constitute an ornamental article, and pleasant condiment. 

 Other varieties of corn are used in the same way. I also send an ear of 

 blood-red corn, called " chicken corn," and a large variegated ear. We 

 have also different kinds of yellow corn. — J. M, Philadelphia, Ja- 

 nuary 13. 1830. 



We have sent the ears to Mr. Charlwood's, seedsman, Great Russell 

 Street, Covent Garden, who will distribute them to whoever calls, and 

 undertakes that the intended grower shall send us an account of his suc- 



* We are much obliged to our much valued and most sincerely esteemed 

 correspondent ; but we already have a female, on which we intend, this 

 summer, to bud a male. Can he send us any seeds of a tree or a plant, no 

 matter of how common a sort, from Mount Vernon or Monticello ? These 

 would remind us of two of what we consider the greatest men that ever 

 lived, or, speaking relatively to age and country, probably ever can or will 

 live. — Cond. 



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