The most interesting article in the last Number of the _Westminster
Review_, is a paper on Cobbett's Corn, headed with the title of Mr.
Cobbett's Treatise on the cultivation of the plant. The reviewer has there
interwoven some choice extracts from Mr. Cobbett's book, which together
with the connecting observations, we have abridged to suit our columns:--
The value of Indian Corn has never been disputed: it could not, by men who
had ever seen the corn of America, or the maize of the more southern
districts of France. Its introduction into England has not been speculated
upon; for it was supposed there was an _in limine_ objection, that in our
climate it would not ripen. In the more northern part of France, for the
same reason, its cultivation is not known, and in the map prefixed to
Arthur Young's Travels in France and other countries, may be seen a line
drawn across the country, which line he considered was the limit of the
maize country. Neither has this experiment till now been tried, for
Cobbett's corn is a different variety of Indian or American, from that
cultivated either in the new or old world. It appears that it is a
dwarfish species, and one which will not only ripen in this country, but
produce results of fertility beyond that calculated upon in the United
States in the most prosperous seasons. It was an accident which threw it
into Mr. Cobbett's hands: his son brought some seeds from plants growing
in a gentleman's garden in the French province of Artois, and it was only
at his son's repeated entreaty that he was prevailed upon to try its
effects. And even this entreaty from a son might not have prevailed, had
not the influence of a sleepless night from the heat of summer, led to a
conversation to be followed by results so important.
"In the month of June, 1827," says Mr. Cobbett, "my son and I slept one
night in the same room in the garden-house at Barn-elm. The night was very
hot, and neither his bed nor mine was cool enough to permit us to get to
sleep, in a case like which, people generally get to talking; and I, in a
mood, half between restlessness and laziness, asked him, whether Mr.
Walker had planted his corn. He said he had; and that led him off into a
train of arguing, the object of which was, to maintain his former opinion
relative to the great benefits that would attend the cultivation of this
crop. He entered into a calculation of the distances, the space of ground
required by each plant, the number of plants upon an acre, the number of
ears upon a plant, the quantity of seed upon an ear, ending in a statement
of the amount of the crop per acre. He then dwelt upon the quantity and
value of the fodder, upon the facility of cultivation, upon the small
quantity of seed required for an acre; and, finally, upon the preparation
which the growing of the crop would make for a succeeding crop of wheat.
"I do confess, that I was very hard to be convinced; I became interested
to be sure, and I resolved to give the thing a trial immediately, if
possible, or rather to set about it immediately; but, I confess, that if
the thing had been urged upon me by almost any other person, I should not
have done it. 'Well, then,' said I, 'William, we will give your little
corn a trial, for it is not too late yet.' But now a difficulty that
appeared to be insuperable arose; namely, that the seed was all gone! The
seed was all planted in Sussex. As soon as I reflected on this, I became
really eager to make the experiment; so true it is, that we seldom know
the full value of what we have had, till we have lost it. I recollected,
however, that I had rather recently seen an ear or two of this corn in
some seed-drawers that I had in the garden-house, not being quite sure,
however, that they were of the true sort; and now I, who had so long
turned from the subject rather with indifference, could not go to sleep
for my doubts, my hopes, and fears, about these two bits of ears of corn.
We had no light, or I should have got up to go and hunt the boxes, which I
did as soon as day-light appeared, and there, to my great joy, I found two
bits of ears of corn, which from the size and shape of the cobb, I knew to
be of the true sort. This was upon the 8th of June in the morning."
Indian corn is a kind of corn tree, so that it would be exempt from the
sneer of the Tartars who despise the men that live on "the top of a weed."
The top of Indian Corn supplies the place of hay or of straw for fodder:
it is the flower of the plant, and bears the farina like the wheat-ear,
but the grains are deposited in the ears which come out of the stalk lower
down. These ears are enveloped in their leaves which are called the husk.
The number of ears varies in different plants, three is the common number.
Seven are a curiosity. One stalk in Mr. Cobbett's field bore seven ears,
and Mr. Cobbett, jun. sent it as a present to the king's gardener at Kew,
comparing it to that "one stalk mentioned in Pharaoh's dream of the seven
years of plenty." For it must not be forgotten that Mr. Cobbett maintains
that Indian corn is the true corn of scripture, and defends this opinion
by many plausible arguments. We have no room to discuss them, and shall
only observe in contravention, that Indian corn is not now known in
Palestine or Syria, and that it is dangerous to raise a verbal discussion
founded upon a translation. His argument is, however, well worth the
attention of all our biblical readers. In America the Indian corn alone
monopolizes the name of corn: all other corn is called grain: so important
is the cultivation of it there, that it puzzles the Yankees exceedingly to
know how the old country can get on without corn; and so identified is the
great roll of grain, with the name of an ear of corn, that when Mr.
Cobbett once read an account to an American farmer, of a young English
lord lying dangerously ill from having swallowed an ear of corn; the man
started up and exclaimed, a whole ear of corn! no wonder that poor John
Bull is in such a miserable state, when his lords have got swallows like
that.
The Indian corn being a large plant requires both air and space: it is
consequently raised in hills far apart, after the manner of our hop plants;
and reckons upon a deep ploughing between the hills after it is partly
grown up for a supply of health and vigour. This great distance between
the hills, sometimes placed four feet apart one way, and five feet apart
another way, and the height of the plant with its lofty top and its
lateral ears form a far different picture than that presented by an
English corn field. Cobbett's or the dwarf corn is, however, only four
feet high: he planted his in rows three feet apart, which distance he is
inclined to think is too small. "Three feet do not give room for good,
true, and tolerably deep ploughing: and that is the main thing in the
cultivation of corn, which indeed will not thrive well, if the ground be
not deeply moved, and very near to the plants to which they are growing.
You will see in America a field of corn late in June, perhaps, which has
not been ploughed, looking to-day sickly and sallow. Look at it only in
four days' time, if ploughed the day after you saw it, and its colour is
totally changed. Five feet are accordingly recommended as the distance
between the rows, and six inches only between the plants."
A great advantage of Indian or Cobbett's corn is, that it occupies the
ground for little more than half the year: it is planted in May or June,
and ripens in November. Unlike common corn or grain, where there is
generally a superabundance of blades, every plant of Indian corn is of
importance: it cannot be spared; and as the sweetness of the early growth
renders it a tempting prey to birds, insects, and rabbits, it becomes
necessary to guard against their encroachments with the most lively care.
Weeds are to be instantly put down on their first appearance, or corn is
not to be expected; "the poor corn-plant, if left to itself, will soon be
like Gulliver when bound down by the Lilliputians." The hoe is the
instrument to be used on this occasion, and then the plough; the latter
operation is repeated twice; two double ploughings are the death of weeds,
and the life of the plants; the first takes place when the corn is from
six to eight inches high, and the second, about the middle of July, or
earlier, when the plants are about a foot and a half high, or from that to
two feet. "Let no one," says Cobbett, "be afraid of their tearing about
the roots of the plants, when they are at this advanced age and height;"
and in encouraging them to pursue the work resolutely and fearlessly, he
tells them of the way in which the Yankee farmer manages the matter, and
digresses, as he loves to digress, into a picture of manners, or an old
recollection.
"Ninety-nine of my readers out of a hundred, and I dare say, nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand, will shudder at the thought of tearing
about in this manner; thinking that breaking-off, tearing-off, cutting-off
the roots of such large plants, just as they are coming into bloom, must
be a sort of work of destruction. Let them read the book of Mr. Tull; or
let them go and see my friends the Yankees, who generally drive the thing
off to the last moment, especially if they be young enough to have a
'frolic' stand between them and the ploughing of the corn; or if the wife
want the horses to go ten or twenty miles to have a gossip with a
neighbour over a comfortable cup of tea; but they, to do them justice, do
not forget the beef steaks, or the barbecued fowls, on these occasions;
that is to say, a fowl caught up in the yard, scalded in a minute, cleaned
the next, and splitted down the back, and clapped upon the _gridiron_
(favourite implement of mine,) and then upon the table, along with the hot
cakes, the preserved peaches, and the comfortable cup of tea. If a wife
want the horses for this purpose, or for any other, and should continue
too long a time in a visiting or frolicing humour, the poor corn gives
signs of the consequence, by becoming yellow, and sharp-pointed at the
blade. By and by, however, the Yankee comes with his plough; and it would
frighten an English farmer out of his senses to see how he goes on,
swearing at the horses, and tearing about the ground, and tumbling it up
against the plants; but, at any rate, moving it all pretty deeply, somehow
or other. I have seen them do this when the tassel was nearly at its full
height, and when the silk was appearing from the ears. One rule is
invariable; that is, that if the corn be not ploughed at all there will be
no crop; there will be tassel, and the semblance of ears; but (upon
ordinary land, at least,) there will be no crop at all."
(_To be concluded in our next._)
* * * * *