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.