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ready formed saccharine matter of the barley malt appears to have the singular property of speedily converting the fecula of unmalted corn into a kind of soluble matter which has the fermentative properties of sugar. If malt and rice flour, diluted so as to have a pasty consistence, be mixed and mashed together, and then left during three or four hours, the mixture will present the appearance of a liquid which is slightly saccharine to the taste, and having a sediment at the bottom of the vessel, which found, on examination, to be composed of only the husks of barley and rice. M. Dubrunfaut used for the purpose rice from which the husk had not been removed previous to its being crushed, and which in this state is known by the name of paddy, properly paddee.

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The practice has obtained very much, during the last few years, of importing this paddee, in preference to shelled rice, its cost being lower in foreign markets, and the importers avoiding a very large proportion of the customs' duty chargeable on that already prepared for use. Some very effective machinery has been set up for the purpose of removing the husk and cuticle, and these operations are per formed full as perfectly, and with less breaking of the grains than follows the employment of the ruder methods usually pursued in the countries of production; the loss, by waste, is also found to be less on the transport of paddee than of shelled rice.

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MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN-Zea Mays.-Of this plant only one species is known, but there are several varieties which are thought to owe their distinctive character to the accidental modifications of climate, soil, and culture, rather than to any original vari

ance. The plant consists of a strong, reedy, jointed stalk, provided with large alternate leaves, almost like flags, springing from every joint. The top produces a bunch of male flowers, of various colours, which is called the tassel. Each plant bears, likewise, one or more spikes or ears, seldom so few as one, and rarely more than four or five, the most usual number being three: as many as seven have been seen occasionally on one stalk. These ears proceed from the stalk at various distances from the ground, and are closely enveloped by several thin leaves, forming a sheath, which is called the husk. The ears consist of a cylindrical substance, of the nature of pith, which is called the cobb, over the entire surface of which the seeds are ranged, and fixed in eight or more straight rows, each row having generally as many as thirty or more seeds. The eyes or germs of the seeds are in nearly radial lines from the centre of the cylinder; from these eyes proceed individual filaments of a silky appearance, and of a bright green colour; the aggregate of these hang out from the point of the husk, in a thick cluster, and in this state are called the silk. It is the office of these filaments, which are the stig mata, to receive the farina, which drops from the flowers on the top, or tassel, and without which the ears would produce no seed,—a fact which has been established by cutting off the top previous to the developement of its flowers, when the ears proved wholly barren. So soon as their office has been thus performed, both the tassel and the silk dry up, and put on a withered appearance.

The grains of maize are of different colours, the prevailing hue being yellow, of various shades, sometimes approaching to white, and at other times deepening to red. Some are of a deep chocolate colour, others greenish or olive-coloured, and even

the same ears will sometimes contain grains of different colours.

Unlike the cereal grains which have been already described, naturalists are at no loss in determining the native region of maize, which is confidently held to be America, the Indians throughout that continent having been found engaged in its cultivation at the period when the New World was first discovered.

This grain is of scarcely less importance than rice, for the sustenance of man. It forms a principal food of the rapidly increasing inhabitants of the United States of America; it constitutes almost the entire support of the Mexicans; and is consumed in Africa to an extent nearly, if not quite, equal to the consumption of rice in the same quarter.

The merits of Indian corn have been very differently estimated; and while some persons have invested it with a value equal, if not superior, to that possessed by the rest of the cerealia, other persons have, on the contrary, placed it at the lowest station among the family, scarcely, indeed, allowing it worthy to take its place in the group. Without meaning in any way to involve the reader in this controversy, it is yet necessary to set fairly before him the facts connected with the question, and he may then be enabled to form a correct judgment on the matter. . Maize is said to contain no gluten, and little, if any, ready-formed saccharine matter, whence it has been asserted to have but a very small nutritive power; on the other hand, it is seen that domestic animals which are fed with it very speedily become fat, their flesh being at the same time remarkably firm. Horses which consume this corn are enabled to perform their full portion of labour, are exceedingly hardy, and require but little care; and the common people of countries where Indian corn forms the

ordinary food, are for the most part strong and hardy races. The produce of maize, on a given extent of cultivation, is greater than that of any other grain; and the proportional return for the quantity of seed committed to the ground is equally advantageous.

No argument can be founded either way upon the liking or disliking of individuals. Man is in this, as well as in most other respects, very much the creature of habit; and preferences, both national and individual, are often shown by him, in regard to articles of food, which would be wholly incompre hensible upon any other ground. We need not go beyond the bounds of Europe for abundant proofs of this fact, if indeed such are not offered by our own personal observation. It falls within the knowledge of the writer, that a gentleman who in his boyish days had been nurtured in a village on the coast, in a remote part of Scotland, acquired such a fondness for some weed thrown up by the sea, and which through the poverty of the inhabitants was made to form part of their sustenance, that in after-life, and when he had returned from a protracted resi dence abroad, he procured a supply of his favourite weed to be regularly sent to him in London, and ate as the greatest delicacy that upon which the members of his family could only look with disgust.

Of all the cerealia, maize is the least subject to disease. Blight, mildew, or rust, are unknown to it. It is never liable to be beaten down by rain, or by the most violent storms of wind; and in climates and seasons which are favourable to its growth and maturity, the only enemies which the maize farmer has to dread are insects in the early stages, and birds in the later periods of its cultivation.

AMERICAN INDIAN CORN is the largest known variety of maize. It is found growing wild in many of the West-Indian islands, as well as

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