corn, whose sanguine wishes upon the subject of its introduction as a field crop into England, led him farther than most people have been inclined to accompany him. A cotemporary writer remarks that, “Cobbett was corn-mad at one time. He saw too soon by twenty years, and depended on cultivation, rather than importation. He wrote about Indian corn, planted Indian corn, raised Indian corn, ate Indian corn, made paper of Indian corn husks, and printed a book from the Indian corn paper.” There is to be seen in this work a very minute and interesting account of the various manipulations which must be attended to by the maize-grower before his grain is ready for sale, as well as very particular directions for turning the produce to the best and most profitable account in domestic economy.
The most important feature, perhaps, in the history of maize, is its late introduction from the United States into Great Britain and Ireland, as a cheap and nutritious article of human food. For this partriotic and philanthropic act, these two nations are highly indebted to the simultaneous exertions of our friend and countrymen, Henry Coleman, Esquire, who has been engaged for several years in making an agricultural tour in Europe, and Dr. John S. Bartlett, late of the British army, the latter of whom, addressed a letter on the subject, in May, 1842, to Lord Ashburton, in which he arrives at the following deductions:—
1st. That the labouring classes and the poor of Great Britain require a cheaper article of food than wheaten bread.
2nd. That although wheat contains a larger portion of gluten or the nutritive ingredient, bulk is necessary, not only to satisfy the craving of hunger, but to promote digestion by the “stimulus of distension,” which bulk alone can give.
3rd. That the craving of hunger being removed or alleviated by the quantity taken, the mind is more at ease; the mental irritability consequent upon hunger is assuaged, and man goes to his labour with cheer-
