The period of
maturation varies, apparently, very considerably; but it is
questionable whether this variation is real, and independent of
climate. In the Northern States of America, Indian corn ripens in a
shorter period of time than it does in the South, owing, possibly, to
the greater length of the summer day in those latitudes.

In selecting varieties, some experienced and judicious farmers prefer
that which yields the greater number of ears, without regard to their
size, or number of rows. Others prefer that which furnishes one or two
larger ears, having from twelve to twenty-four rows. In the Northern
States of America the yellow corn bears the highest price in the
market, and is considered the most prolific and best suited to feed
cattle and hogs. For bread, the white Button is preferred at the
North, and the white ground seed is used for that purpose in other
quarters. Preference, however, is most frequently given to white flint
corn, which is unquestionably the heaviest, and contains the greatest
proportion of farina.

In Mississippi many varieties are grown, principally those known as
flint and bastard flint. The gourd-seed varieties are very
objectionable in that climate, principally on account of their
softness rendering them unfit for bread, and open to the attacks of
insects in the field and the crib. They require a grain, _white_,
_hard_, and rather flinty--_white_ because of its great consumption in
bread and hommony, in the preparation of both of which their cooks
greatly excel. When meal is ground for bread, the mill is set rather
wide, that the flinty part of the grain may not be cut up too fine,
this being sifted out for "small hommony;" the farinaceous part of the
grain is left for bread. This hommony is a beautiful and delicious
dish. On most plantations the negroes have it for supper, with
molasses or buttermilk. A _hard flinty_ grain is necessary to head the
weevil, with which not only the cribs but the heads of corn in the
field are infested. These are the _Calandra oryzae_, the true rice
weevil, distinguished from his European cousin by the two reddish
spots on each _elytra_ or wing-cover, and known in America as the
"black weevil;" also a little brown insect, not a true weevil, but a
_Sylvanus_. This sylvanus, and another of the same genus, most
probably the _S. surinamensis_, attack the corn in the field before it
becomes hard, causing serious damage--but nothing to equal that
occasioned by