90 



KiTCHEN-GARDEN PLAiNTS. 



[chap. 



141. CIV^ES. — A little sort of OnioUy which, is perennial : it 

 may be propagated from seed ; but the easiest way is by parting 

 the roots, which are bunches of little bulbs like those of crocuses 

 or snow-drops. The greens only. of this plant are used; and a 

 very small patch is sufficient for any garden. Five or six clumps 

 in the herb-bed would be sufficient. 



142. CORIANDER is an annual plant that some persons use 

 in soups and salads. It is sowed early in April. The seed is also 

 used as a medicine. A yard or two square of it will be sufficient. 



143. CORN (Indian). — Infinite is the variety of the sorts of 

 Indian corn, and great is the difference in the degrees of heat suf- 

 ficient to bring the different sorts to perfection. Several of the 

 sorts will seldom ripen well with the heat which they get in the 

 state of New York, requiring that of Carolina or Virginia, at least. 

 Other sorts will ripen perfectly well as far north as Boston ; and 

 there is a dwarf sort which will ripen equally well on land 500 

 miles to the north of the last-mentioned place. Whether this be 

 the same sort as that which I cultivate, I do not exactly know ; but 

 mine never fails to come to perfection in England, be the summer 

 what it may. This is a very fine garden vegetable. The ear is 

 stripped off the stalk just at the time when the grains are full of 

 milk. The ears are then boiled for about twenty minutes : they 

 are brought to table whole ; each person takes an ear, rubs over 

 it a little butter, and sprinkles it with a little salt, and bites the 

 grains from the stalk to which they are attached, and which in 

 America is called the cob. In the Indian corn countries, every 

 creature likes Indian corn better than any other vegetable, not ex- 

 cepting even the fine fruits of those countries. When dead ripe, 

 the grains are hard as any grain can be ; and upon this grain, with- 

 out any grinding, horses are fed, oxen are fatted, hogs are fatted, 

 and poultry made perfectly fat by eating the grain whole tossed 

 down to them in the yard. The finest turkeys in the whole world 

 are fatted in this way, without the least possible trouble. Nothing 

 can be easier to raise. The corn is planted along little drills about 

 three or four feet apart, the grains at four inches apart in the drill, 

 any when during the first fortnight in May. When it is out of the 

 ground about two inches, the ground should be nicely moved all 

 over, and particularly near to the plants. When the plants attain 

 to the height of a foot, the ground should be dug between them, 

 and a little earth should be put up about the stems. When the 



