FORTY-DAY MAIZE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 7, 22 February 1851, Page 7

FORTY-DAY MAIZE.

(From the Otago News.)

We have been favoured with the following extracts from Mr. Keene's work on the Fortyday Maize by the Messrs. Carter, who have succeeded in introducing it into Otago.

" I cannot," says Mr. Keene, " offer a more convincing proof that this new maize will ripen concurrently with the ordinary crops in England, than the fact that the common haricot or French bean, sown at the same time with it, has its seed still unripe when this maize is lit to gather. The expenses of gathering are comparatively trifling, and the gathering; in of the ripe maize is the main part of the affair. " As cheap as the potatoe, and five times more nutritious, it affords to the labouring- man solid, nourishing- support under hard toil. Once accustomed to it, he will find it preferable to any vegetable, and the daily appearance on the table

of a working man of a good hot loaf of maize bread, which may be had at the cost of fourpence, and will furnish the basis of a good substantial meal for as many persons, will be found to be greatly conducive to family harmony.'. " Maine bread may be eaten in a variety of ways ; hot, with tea or coffee at breakfast, warmed or toasted, with butter or meat, sugared or salted, or under baked meat as a substitute for. Yorkshire pudding ; or under a slice of bacon, or fried with bacon, or as porridge with milk. In short, it may be eaten in a much greater variety of modes of cooking than bread. Children quickly get fond of it, and prefer it to bread. It keeps their blood fresh, and does not, like whealen bread, produce costiveness, so injurious to tender frames. No children are so healthy as those nourished on it, and we know mountain villages of ruddy-faced, hardy youngsters whose principal diet is maize bread. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that it is recommended for family use to replace bread. It is meant that, like vegetables, it should be in the house with it; Another advantage is, that the maize loaf may be kept hot all day in the oven of the kitchen range, merely leaving the door open to moderate the heat. A sustained gentle heat does not injure, but improves it, and the whole batch is often-left in the oven to cool with it, taking out only a loaf at a time as wanted.

" No other preparation o£ maize is so suitable —no preparation of maize so wholesome and satisfying, as the baked bread of Forty-day Maize flour, all others are comparatively unsatisfying, and frequently unwholesome. The writer has had maize bread at his table for years past: he can certify to its being wholesome and substantial food. Hisserrants would consider it a great deprivation if they had it not, and peasant farmers, unable to afford to their families a daily meal of meat, would absolutely refuse bread as too dry a food, and if deprived of maize by any failure in the crop, would, at equal price, prefer purchasing maize to vvheaten bread. In short, the writer remembers a year of scarcity when maize was much above the price of wheat: mothers of poor families were seen begging maize bread for their children, affirming that wheaten bread.would not satisfy them.

"Every farmer will find it advantageous and satisfying to have maize bread in his house, and at the table. It Avill save a great deal of the time now employecVin the preparation of other less satisfying food for his labourers, and the writer affirms that at the market price at which maize grown in England could be sold on an average, the bread may be made at the farmhouse, or by the labourer's wives, at the cost of one halfpenny per Ib. There are thousands of acres in the south of France of good soil, but much less in heart than the arable lands of England, and on which maize is grown two years following, and then maize is succeeded by a crop of wheat, which is again followed by two years of maize, with crop of incarnate clover, turnips, and often flax ; and the ground is, and has been, from time immemorial, under this rotation. Maize is certainly a much less exhausting crop than wheat, for though it is acknowledged that wheat could- not be grown two years running but at a loss, maize generally follows maize with advantage as a preparation for wheat. j " The thinnings of the crop, and the cuttings from the stalk heads, necessary in the proper, culture of the plant, furnish the best kind of green food for horned cattle ; in short, they will leave any other for it. An acre will yield sis quarters of corn, and ten cwt. of dry cuttings and leaf fodder. Poultry fed on maize acquires a high-flavoured flesh like the pheasant. The eggs also are of superior colour and flavour. " The hams are in high repute when the pigs are fed on maize : but to have the corn sound and wholesome for human food, it should be grown in the country where it is consumed, kept in the cob and' be shelled out only as wanted to be used, or sent to the mill. " All who know how important it is to have the right sort of seed, may be satisfied that it is useless, and a loss of time, to attempt togrow from the maize generally, imported—a largo giant sort, which requires a burning climate, and takes double the time to come to maturity that is required for the Forty day Maize." Mr. Keene farms an estate in.the Pyrenees, where the average temperature is very little. higher than in England. *