Home1771 Edition

CORN

Volume 2 · 557 words · 1771 Edition

in country affairs, the grain or seeds of plants, separated from the spica, or ear, and used for making bread.

There are several species of corn, such as wheat, rye and barley, millet and rice, oats, maize and lentils, peas, and a number of other kinds, each of which has its usefulness and propriety. Corn is very different from fruits, with respect to the manner of its preservation; and is capable of being preserved in public granaries, for pressing occasions, and of being kept for several centuries.

The first method is to let it remain in the spike; the only expedient for conveying it to the islands and provinces of America. The inhabitants of those countries save it in the ear, and raise it to maturity by that precaution: but this method of preserving it, is attended with several inconveniences among us; corn is apt to rot or sprout, if any the least moisture is in the heap; the rats likewise infest it, and our want of straw also obliges us to separate the grain from the ear. The second is to turn and winnow it frequently; or to pour it through a trough or mill-hopper, from one floor to another; being thus moved and aired every fifteen days; for the first six months, it will require less labour for the future, if lodged in a dry place: but if, through neglect, mites should be allowed to slide into the heap, they will soon reduce the corn to a heap of dust; this must be avoided by moving the corn anew, and rubbing the places adjacent with oils and herbs, whose strong odour may chase them away; for which garlic and dwarf-elder are very effectual: they may likewise be exposed to the open sun, which immediately kills them. When the corn has been preserved from all impurities for the space of two years, and has exhaled all its fires, it may be kept for fifty or even a hundred years, by lodging it in pits, covered with strong planks, closely joined together: but the safer way is to cover the heap with quick-lime, which should be dissolved by sprinkling it over with a small quantity of water; this causes the grains to shoot to the depth of two or three fingers, and incloes them with an incrustation, through which neither air nor insects can penetrate.

Corn not exceeding the under-mentioned prices have the following bounties per quarter, viz.

| Price per qr. | Bounty per qr. | |---------------|---------------| | l. s. | s. d. | | Wheat | 2 8 | 5 0 | | Rye | 1 12 | 3 6 | | Barley and Malt | 1 4 | 2 6 | | Oat-meal | 0 15 | 2 6 |

In France corn of the growth of the kingdom is reckoned a contraband commodity.

**Corn-mill**, a water-engine for grinding of corn. See Mechanics.

**Corn**, in medicine and surgery, a hard tubercle like a flat wart, growing in several parts of the feet, especially upon the joints of the toes. See Medicine.

**Cornachine-powder**, the same with what is sometimes called the earl of Warwick's powder, and *pulvis de tribus*. It is prepared thus: Take four ounces of scammony; calcined hartshorn prepared, three ounces; grind them together into a powder. It is given as a purge.