Corn Belt

“ A few of our men, (I mean of our regiment,) went over the creek upon business that usually employed us, that is, in search of something to eat. There was a field of indian corn at a short distance from the creek, with several cocks of hay about half way from the creek to the cornfield; the men purposed to get some of the corn, or any thing else that was eatable. When they got up with the haycocks, they were fired upon by about an equal number of the British, from the cornfield ”

“ It was at this place, that the rebels first made their appearance, and commenced picking up the stragglers in the rear. Seeing all of our men jumping over the fences on the right, I followed suit, and found myself in a corn field. Nearly all were in the adjoining wheat field further on, so I directed my steps thither. Every one knows the disadvantage of going through a wet corn field, and how the mud clinging to the feet, impedes every moment. ”

“ In July official reports showed that for three days the cavalry of General Wheeler received thirteen pounds of corn per horse. The regular ration was ten pounds of corn and ten pounds of hay. As against the amount experience had shown essential for maintaining strength and vigor, the Confederate horsemen saw the beasts that they loved even as their own lives cut to three and one-third pounds of corn, just one-third of what nature demanded, outside of rough provender, such as hay or oats. The horse could live, but that was all. ”

“ Innumerable difficulties had attended Lord Cornwallis and his army in his march from Guilford to Wilmington; but in his judgment, the march was absolutely necessary. Such was the situation and distress of the troops and so great were the sufferings of the sick and wounded that he had no option left after they had decamped from the field of battle and moved to Cross Creek. The army was obliged to pass a long way through a perfect desert where there were neither provisions for their subsistence nor water sufficient to carry the mills, even could they have procured a supply of corn. ”

“ A belt.
“Brethren, if you are in earnest to be reconciled to us, you will keep your young men from attacking our country and killing and carrying captive our back inhabitants; And will likewise give orders, that your people may be kept at a distance from Fort Duquesne; that they may not be hurt by our warriors, who are sent by our king to chastise the French, and not to hurt you. Consider the commanding officer of that army treads heavy, and would be very sorry to hurt any of his Indian brethren.” A large belt. ”

“ The art of husbandry, three centuries ago, appears to have been little practised in this county; the grounds, says Carew, “lay all in common, or only divided by stiche meale, and their bread corn very little; their labour horses were only shod before, and the people devoting themselves entirely to tin, their neighbours in Devonshire and Somersetshire hired their pastures at a rent, and stored them with the cattle they brought from their own homes, and made their profit of the Cornish by cattle fed at their own doors. ”

“ I am told that many shot and shell passed over the heads of our soldiers during the action.
"A mile from our central position at the cemetery, was a field of wheat, and near it a large tract, on which corn had been growing. The wheat was trampled by the hurrying feet of the dense masses of infantry, as they changed their positions during the battle. In the cornfield artillery had been stationed, and moved about as often as the enemy obtained its range. Hardly a hill of corn is left in its pristine luxuriance. ”

“ The character of the Belt itself is also varied, for while at the north end the road winds through shady groves of native bush, at the south end it leads along the grassy heights, so that the Queen's Drive may lay claim to many and diverse beauties. ”

“ The main Corinth road runs along the eastern fence, whilst the field itself, about three hundred yards wide by about five hundred yards long, extended far to the right into the low land of Phillips's Creek, so densely wooded as to be impassable to troops or artillery. On the eastern side of the field the woods were more open. The enemy could be seen at all times in and about the house and the ridge beyond, and our pickets could not show themselves on our side of the field without attracting a shot. ”

“ In many parts of the county on the coast, where there is an opportunity of procuring sea sand for manuring the land, great quantities of corn have been grown, particularly in the western and eastern districts. It is usual after a crop of wheat, to sow the ground with barley, after which, turnips or potatoes; but the general course of crops in Cornwall, is considered extremely reprehensible by the author of the Agricultural Survey of the county, owing to the wretched, exhausted, and foul appearance of the grounds laid down with grass seeds. ”

“ Notwithstanding the salubrity of the climate of Cornwall, the harvests in general, are much later than in midland counties; but owing to the great improvements which have been made of late years in agriculture, the corn which it produces, is equal, if not superior, to any other. ”

“ Did the safety of the frontier demand the services of every adult militiaman, the boys and women could themselves raise corn, and furnish ample supplies of bread. Did an autumnal intermittent confine the whole family, or the entire population to the sick bed, this certain concomitant of the clearing and cultivating the new soil, mercifully withholds its paroxysms till the crop of corn is made. ”

“ Belts are of wool, red in color, and broad, but not long. Over their shoulders the women wear, particularly in cool weather, a red and blue striped cotton shawl or wrap. The red worn—whether in belts, wraps, or hair-strings—is all of one shade, a dull crimson-red. As night fell, dozens of little bonfires were lighted in the plaza, made from cobwork piles of fat-pine. People were already gathering from other pueblos for market, and many of them slept through the night in the open market-place. ”

“ A man who would do that would steal a hot stove or write a libellous joke about me.” The judge was a rare joker and the young man whom he apostrophised for fun didn’t know a jack from a load of hay.
Parker, Martinsburg, Argyle, Petrolia, the “Cross Belt,” Karns City, Angelica, Millerstown, St. Joe, Buena Vista, Modoc and Greece City had passed in review. The “belt” extended fifteen miles and the Butler field acknowledged no rival. ”

“ As I figured it, out of a hundred chances we had no more than one of getting into the fort, and there remained ninety and nine in favor of our falling victims to Brant's crew.
We had but just set out when I observed that Sergeant Corney had left behind him every superfluous article of clothing, and all accoutrements save the knife in his belt, whereupon I asked the reason for thus laying himself bare to the enemy.
"You lads have each a rifle, which are all the weapons we need, for it can avail us nothing to make a fight. ”

“ See that bunch of box-elders? Me an' her camped there as we druv in.... Never cut 'em down.... Spoil an acre of good corn land, too; to say nothin' o' the time wasted cultivatin' 'round 'em.... Well, a man's a fool about some things!"
It was a picture of fulsome plenty and riotous fertility. Straight as the stretched cord by which they had been dropped ran the soldierly rows of corn, a mile along, their dark blades outstretched in the unwavering prairie wind, as if pointing us on to something noteworthy or mysterious beyond. ”

“ Leaving the nut-tree, which is a real ornament to the town, we pass by a spring of water running into a large trough, in which many a country lad has been drenched for daring to enter the town on the 29th of May without the leaf or branch of oak in his hat.— (R. Hunt, F.R.S., Drolls, &c., Old Cornwall.)
The wrestlers of Cornwall and their wrestling-matches are still famous, and in the May of 1868 4,000 assembled one day on Marazion Green, and 3,000 the next, to see one. The wrestlers of this county have a peculiar grip, called by them “the Cornish-hug.” ”

“ In the market-house is a very interesting granite corn measure.
It will not be out of place to notice here the “lord’s measures” found in great numbers about Cornwall. They are small basins cut in granite or in some volcanic free stone, usually with lobes or ears outside. At S. Enodoc, near the “Rock Inn” on the Padstow estuary, a quantity of them have been collected, and are ranged beside the churchyard path. ”

“ A mile away they came to a cornfield, and in the field there was a thicket. Here they found a hiding-place, and, as wet as they were, they partook of a repast of green corn, and lying down on the grass, they slept soundly until the sun 271 was up. Waiting some time in a sunny place until their clothing had partly dried, the brothers started on their weary way. All day they travelled without being molested. In the evening, while travelling along a country road, they met a man leading two horses, one of which was saddled. ”

“ The women work in the field as well as the men, they being used to it. They will not believe us when we tell them that our women do not work in the field. When an acre of ground yields twelve bushels of corn it is thought to be a fine crop. ”

“ We now come to the cases in which the corn-spirit is represented either by a stranger passing the harvest-field (as in the Lityerses tale) , or by a visitor entering it for the first time. All over Germany it is customary for the reapers or threshers to lay hold of passing strangers and bind them with a rope made of corn-stalks, till they pay a forfeit; and when the farmer himself or one of his guests enters the field or the threshing-floor for the first time, he is treated in the same way. Sometimes the rope is only tied round his arm or his feet or his neck. ”

“ Sometimes they of the infantry looked down at a fair little meadow which spread at their feet. Its long, green grass was rippling gently in a breeze. Beyond it was the grey form of a house half torn to pieces by shells and by the busy axes of soldiers who had pursued firewood. The line of an old fence was now dimly marked by long weeds and by an occasional post. A shell had blown the well-house to fragments. Little lines of grey smoke ribboning upward from some embers indicated the place where had stood the barn. ”

“ Worgan says, “a pure Cornish sheep is now a rare animal; nor from its properties, need their total extinction be lamented.”
With respect to Horses, few are kept in Cornwall for ostentation, or to live in idleness or luxury. The gentleman’s horse is often put to the cart or plough. The farm horses are well adapted to the hilly surface of 11this county, being a hardy and active sort. Most of the farmers keep up their stock by breeding a colt or two annually; but one-eighth of the horses for saddle and draught are supposed to be brought into the county by eastern dealers. ”

“ These resolutions were passed unanimously. Men not knowing the course of procedure in the business meetings of the League, have expressed astonishment that so much unanimity prevailed, and that Manchester should be the head quarters of the movement from its commencement until its termination. The singleness of the object tended to the first. It was simply to obtain the repeal of the Corn Laws to have no Corn Law, as the title of the various associations declared. ”

“ But these things can only be studied in leisured intimacy from a slow-going boat passing in the spring-time, when the blackthorn frosts the hedges and starry-eyed primroses grow to monstrous size. The train which flashes us across the bridge reveals none of them!
In the first glimpse of our first Cornish "town" we catch sight of a steep winding street, which serves as full introduction, for in many a Cornish town shall we see the same again! And then, even as the train runs in the cuttings of Cornish soil, we realize almost at once the key-note of Cornwall—the extraordinary richness of growth. ”

“ In the mean time invitations pour in upon the eloquent lecturer from the large towns in our neighbourhood, and he has been pressingly requested not to omit the agricultural towns in Norfolk, where the opinion is fast spreading, that the Corn Laws are injurious rather than beneficial to the farmers, the farm-labourers, and all with whom they expend their money. ”

“ Sir Lowry Cole authorized in 1833 any field-cornet, or deputy field-cornet, to whom a boor may complain, to send a party of soldiers on the track and recover the cattle. These persons are often of the most indifferent class of society. It is the interest of these men, as much as that of the boors, to make inroads into the country of the Griquas, Bushmen, or Caffres, and sweep off droves of cattle. ”

“ The Rebel riflemen can lie in the trench, and fire through the space between the logs upon the Union troops if they attempt to advance upon the works. You look down this outer slope. It is twenty rods to the bottom, and it is covered with fallen trees. You think it almost impossible to climb over such a hedge and such obstructions. You see a cleared field at the base of the hill, and a farm-house beyond the field, on the Fort Henry road, which is General Grant’s head-quarters. [Pg 97] The whole country is broken into hills, knolls, and ridges. ”

“ One La Corne, "a recklessly sanguinary partisan" (military gentleman of the Trenck, INDIGO-Trenck species) , nestles himself (winter, 1749-50) on that Missiquash River, head of the Bay of Fundy; in the Village of Chignecto, which is admittedly English ground, though inhabited by French. La Corne compels, or admits, the Inhabitants to swear allegiance to France again; and to make themselves useful in fortifying, not to say in drilling,—with an eye to military work. Hearing of which, Colonel Cornwallis and incipient Halifax are much at a loss. ”