102 
EOTAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
flavour, while they still fulfil the special conditions required in 
earliness. More than this, these ears were grown from seeds ac- 
climated by three varied seasons in the Chaonel Islands, and are 
even immediately sprung from seeds of plants grown in the damp 
and sunless season of 1869, which plants were prostrated to the 
earth when at their fullest and most critical season of growth, on 
September the 12th, under the weight of a hurricane of 55 lbs. pres- 
sure per square foot. The perfectly ripened specimens exhibited 
attest the vitality of maize when treated with common care. 
Eemarks on the different kinds will best be made as each is 
examined. A few observations must now be made on the 
Uses of Maize. — It would be without interest here to speak of 
the numerous purposes to which this most valuable plant is put 
when in a dried state in tropical regions. The drought of past 
seasons shows the need of adding to our resources, if possible, 
whatever green fodder can be grown. There are certain kinds of 
maize better adapted by their growth than others to fulfil this 
object, being hardy and luxuriant, and at the same time abounding 
in saccharine juices, so that animals will devour them speedily. 
Even the stalks, when hard, can be utilized by slicing them, so 
that there is really no waste. Mention having been made of 
these varieties in the French scientific journals, a pressing request 
was sent here for a large quantity of seed for Brittany, there to 
be cut down and used as forage during the drought. 
Culture. — The seeds should be sown in common raisin-boxes 
during April, early in the month in the south, and later in the 
north of England. In the Channel Islands they were sown in 
boxes very early in April, and planted out three weeks after. 
These boxes should be placed in a cool vinery, orchard- bouse, 
or pit, and the plants hardened ofiF before planting. This would 
be best in May, earlier or later according to season or locality, 
which a short experience would decide. The risk of the young 
plants is common to other vegetables, that of suffering from 
spring frosts. A little protection would obviate all this. But 
this season, Mr. Dancer, of Chiswick, we are told, sowed a quan- 
tity of maize in the open ground in March ; it was cut down by 
the frost, sprung up again from the root, and yielded a heavy 
crop. 
By the end of July our maize-plants were already seven feet 
high, and were then secured from high winds by stout stakes at 
intervals, and thin cords stretched between them, to which the 
