the earth, corn meal is capable of supplying more of the absolute want of the adult human system than any other single substance."

In addition to the amount of corn consumed in the various forms and modes of preparing it, both in the green and ripe state as above described, there are also other forms, not perhaps so generally considered, in which it is extensively, though unconsciously, consumed by every class of the people, not only of this, but of other countries. The beef, butter, and cheese, the pork and lard, the poultry and mutton, which make up so large a share of the products of our agriculture, are each composed, in a larger or less degree, of this all-pervading cereal.

When the citizen of a foreign country sits down to a dinner of American beef or pork, the dish before him is the contribution of an American cornfield, representing, perhaps, the golden Sioux of New England, or the stately Gourd-seed of Illinois. The wealthy resident of the metropolis, whose fastidious palate has not, perhaps, been educated up to the latest improvement in corn bread, dilates with complacency over his favorite spare-rib, or tender-loin, without reflecting that the perfection of its flavor is derived from

Indian corn.

There are probably few of the consumers of beef, pork, and mutton, who consider the influence exerted by the maize crop on these staples, and fewer still who are fully aware how much higher they would be in price, as well as inferior in quality, if that crop were

suddenly annihilated, or even if it were seriously damaged for a single season.

2. CORN AS FOOD FOR DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

Every description of live stock that is usually kept upon the farm may be fed with economy and advantage upon the grain or the stover of maize, or upon both combined, provided these are given with judgment, and not to the exclusion of other feed. For poultry and swine, the grain itself is well adapted. All other kinds of stock will eat with avidity both the stalk and the grain, and will thrive upon them, if they are properly prepared and blended in suitable proportions with other provender.

Corn meal is sometimes fed to cattle without due regard to regularity, and in quantities inconsiderate and unreasonable. The effect of such feeding is not only to injure the animal, but to bring undeserved odium upon the grain. Indian meal is a concentrated feed, and like guano among fertilizers, depends for its highest usefulness and value upon being judiciously blended with the right material, and in the right proportions.

It is a good general rule in feeding, and equally applicable to all kinds of grain, as well as to roots and hay, to confine no class of animals to any one or two articles of food. Variety is conducive to health, and the more carefully the husbandman acts upon this principle, the better his stock will thrive.

FOR POULTRY.-In feeding fowls and most kinds of poultry the rice corn and other small varieties are found to be well adapted and are now generally preferred. Corn-meal and boiled potatoes, mixed together with hot water, are said to be an excellent preparation for feeding to poultry through the winter. To this some add a proportion of oat-meal, and commend the combination very highly, as promotive of health, and increasing the product of eggs. When fowls are to be fattened for the table, they should be shut up for several weeks and fed, four or five times a day, with corn meal and ground barley or oats, mixed together in the proportion of two to one, with warm water and lard. For fattening turkeys, there is no feed like Indian meal, and few if any modes of using corn with more profit. His especial weakness, says a writer in the Agriculturist, is Indian corn, and his eye twinkles with delight at the sight of this golden grain. His flesh tells the story of his keeping. For the last six weeks of his life he should be plied with corn as the standard diet. There is no cheating the A lean bird is not the thing for forty cents a pound. Be honest, give him a plump cornfed fowl, and sleep with a thriving pocket and a good conscience, though the crib grows lean.

consumer.

FOR HORSES,-Indian corn, in connection with other feed, is well adapted, and if not given in excessive proportion, is attended with advantage to the animal, as well as profit to the owner. In the livery stables of large towns, and among stage proprietors, the addition of corn meal to the daily feed of the

horse is quite generally practised. The proportions usually given are about sixteen to twenty pounds of ground corn and oats daily, with eight or ten pounds of chaffed hay, the ratio of corn to oats being generally about two to one, though this depends very much on the relative prices of these grains. Among farmers this practice may be, and often is, modified with advantage, the chaffed stover of corn being more or less blended with the hay, or substituted for it.

Some men are accustomed to regard oats as the peculiar and essential feed of the horse, without which he can scarcely exist, and with which he needs. little besides. It is undoubtedly true, that this grain is well suited, and congenial to the nature of the horse, and no other is perhaps more. so. But this will scarcely justify the practice of making oats his exclusive feed, nor of limiting his diet to oats and hay. According to principles of physiology, as well as on evidence derived from experience, the horse, like every other animal, requires variety in his food, and cannot without it maintain a condition of perfect health and vigor.

VALUE OF CORN FOR CATTLE.-In the management and feeding of neat cattle, there are several classes of them to be considered; namely, young stock, milch cows, working cattle, and beeves. For each of these, Indian corn is found useful, and if the object is to produce the highest degree of thrift in the animal at the least expense to the owner, and to support the largest amount of stock on a given extent of ground, then Indian corn becomes not only useful, but indis

pensable. Every part of the plant, including the leaf, stalk, husk, and cob, as well as the grain, may be turned to an advantageous account.

For young stock, and for cows, when milk rather than butter is the object, the stover alone, if well cured, finely chaffed, and soaked a few hours before feeding, is sufficient to keep them in good condition; though for the purpose of variety, it is usual and profitable to connect with this a proportion of cut hay, or pulped roots, or both. But for working cattle, for cows when butter or cheese is the object, and for beef-cattle at all times, the grain is essential to the best results, and should be combined with other kinds of feed in larger or less proportions, according to circumstances.

For this purpose, there is perhaps no better preparation of corn-fodder than that already described on a previous page, namely, the addition of corn and cob meal to the stover finely chaffed. This combination includes the entire product of the corn, and when thoroughly scalded or steamed before using, whether given for the purpose of butter or beef, or for the general improvement and vigor of the animal, is found to be exceedingly well adapted to the intended object.

It was shown, in a former chapter, that when the farmer raises one hundred bushels of corn per acre, the total product of the crop, in the form of this fodder, is fifteen thousand pounds, and is equal, in nutritive value, to twenty thousand pounds of hay.

Now it has been found in practice, that cattle re