SHIPPING INDIAN CORN TO EUROPE, ETC. 
13 
thus treated, will continue to bear good crops 
for a long time, without the addition of manures. 
We mention this as illustrating a principle, but 
not as sanctioning the practice of omitting the 
use of manures ; for it scarcely admits of a 
question, that the application of manures, both 
mineral and prutrescent, are to a certain extent, 
the cheapest method of effecting the minute divi- 
sion of the soil, so essential to the free circula- 
tion of the air, and consequently, to the growth 
of plants. In addition to this great advantage, 
they contain the appropriate food of plants, 
which must necessarily augment their growth. 
A barren soil is incapable of deriving much 
benefit from the circulation of air within or 
through it. Such are the almost purely sili- 
cious (sands or gravels), and the barren clays. 
They are lacking in the proper materials or the 
nice adjustment of their elements, which is es- 
sential to their seizing upon and hoarding up 
the food of plants, so profusely brought to them 
by the atmosphere. The effect of atmospheric 
circulation is further shown, by the rapid growth 
of potted plants. These having a porous, fertile 
soil to revel in, thoroughly ventilated by a hole 
in the bottom of the pot, through which the air 
circulates freely, and in consequence of which 
an incredible amount of moisture and fertilizing 
atmospheric gasses are condensed, grow with a 
rapidity and produce results which are unat- 
tainable by plants under any circumstances less 
favorable. The yield in flowers and fruits, from 
small shrubs and plants, under these favorable 
circumstances, is quite astonishing, as is shown 
by the great quantity of pet japonicas, jess- 
mines, geraniums and roses ; and the oranges, 
lemons and even figs that are gathered within 
a single season from one small and unpretend- 
ing stalk. On disentering their roots, they will 
be found to have crossed each other in every 
direction, and almost to have usurped the entire 
space allotted them, to the exclusion of no small 
portion of the earth. 
As a further illustration of this principle, we 
instance the fact, that many of the small under- 
drains have been found nearly or quite choked 
up by the roots of perennial plants, that have 
for years been allowed to grow near them, the 
roots in some instances, having run for a distance 
of 15 or 20 feet through the drain, seeking no 
less the benefit of the air than the moisture which 
they have there found. One of our most intel- 
ligent friends is so impressed with the impor- 
tance of atmospheric circulation through the 
soil, that he has just arranged extensive tile brick 
tunnels beneath his grapery to secure it. The 
application of the foregoing principles will be 
considered in our next and subsequent numbers. 
Sweet Indian Meal, Hommont or Sa?,ip, may 
always be had as easily as the musty, sour or 
insipid. Select a richly-flavored seed ; give it a 
full growth by good cultivation, on a good soil, 
well manured ; let it ripen thoroughly on the 
stalk ; husk and store it on the cob, in a well-aired 
granary, and there let it remain till wanted for 
use. Then shell and grind it — not too fine — 
between sharp flinty stones, set so far apart that 
they cannot rub; then separate the hulls by 
sifting, if meal, or by washing, if hommony ; boil 
for two hours in clear, soft water, with salt to 
season to the taste. With rich milk, or dressed 
with butter and sugar, or syrup (not molasses), 
such a dish is as worthy to grace the President's 
table, as that of any of his fellow farmers in the 
United States. 
SHIPPING- INDIAN CORN TO EUROPE. 
Great complaint has no doubt been justly 
made of the meal and corn imported into Eng- 
land and elsewhere from this country. This 
grain is more liable to heat, mould or sour, than 
any other ; and there has been a characteristic 
American haste, waste and carelessness, in 
almost every operation in sending it forward to 
a market. 
Carlyle, in a recent number of Frazier's 
Magazine, after abusing, in his own thorough 
Saxon, through every mood and tense, such 
specimens of this grain and meal as had been 
sent there on sale, concludes his tirade by 
the following blunt specimen of dawning truth 
and its hearty avowal : — 
" Well, three days ago I received, direct from 
the barn of an American friend, as it was stowed 
there last autumn, a small barrel of Indian corn 
in the natural state ; large ears or cobs of corn 
merely stript of its loose leaves. On each ear, 
which is of obelisk shape, about the size of a 
large thick , truncated carrot, there are, perhaps, 
about five hundred grains arranged in close order 
in their eight columns ; the color gold yellow, or, 
in some cases, with a flecker of blood-red. 
These grains need to be rubbed off, and ground 
by some rational miller, whose mill-stones are 
hard enough for the work ; that is all the secret 
of preparing them. And here comes the im- 
portant point. This grain I now, for the first 
time, find is sweet, among the sweetest; with an 
excellent rich taste, something like that of nuts ; 
indeed, it seems to me, probably from novelty in 
part, decidedly sweeter than wheat or any other 
grain I have ever tasted. So that it would ap- 
pear that all our experiments hitherto on Indian 
meal have been vitiated to the heart by a deadly 
original sin, or fundamental falsity to start with ; 
as if experimenting on Westphalia ham, all the 
ham hitherto presented us for trial had been in 
a rancid state. The difference between ham and 
rancid-ham, M. Soyer well knows, is consider- 
able! This is the difference, however, this 
highly considerable one, we have encountered 
hitherto in all our experiences of Indian meal. 
Ground by a reasonable miller, who grinds only 
it, and not his millstones along with it, this grain, 
I can already promise, will make cleanly, whole- 
some, and palatable eating ; and be fit for the 
cook's art under all manner of conditions ; ready 
to combine with whatever judicious condiment, 
and reward well whatever wise treatment he 
applies to it; and, indeed, on the whole, I should 
say, a more promising article could not well be 
submitted to him if his art is really a useful 
one. 
" Jfractical English enterprise, independent of 
benevolence, might now find, and will by and 
