Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-08-14
Old Times.

pluming tassels waving in the morn
ing breeze, and smell the perfume OF
the tassel and silk, it gives me feel
ing OF gratitude to the Giver of all
good, for having sent such delightful
and refreshing rains upon what few
weeks ago seemed like crops perishing
for want of rain. Now we have the
promise of an abundant corn crop, and
how many stop to think Of the magni-
tude and Importance of good crop OF
corn-of the loss or gain to a nation,
according to the good or badness of the
cropn There is no crop grown on the
farm that can begin to take the place
of corn, as crop for food, or as an ar
ticle of commerce, and then there is no
crop that can be used in so many ways,
as an article of food. 1t is being preyed
upon from the time it is put in the
ground until 1t has gone through all
cred in the crib and finally consumed.
Who does not love good ear of corn,
roasted over good bed of GOALS of fire
especially after good nights coon
hunt-the fire built against an old log,
and the corn taken from the nearest
| field? And who does not love a good
| dish of succotash, made of corn cut
| from the cob, cooked with about one
third the quautity of good butter-beans
shelIed and cooked together-an In
dian dish. I have often thought the
Indians, in the early times of this
country's settlement by white men,
must have had grand, good old time
at their annual corn feasts. How anx-
ious they must have felt as they watch
ed the corn in all its stages of growth
until the tassel and silk appeared, and
how they watched the skies to see If
the rains would come to bring out the
grains on the cob. How vast differ
ence a good shower of rain makes in
the finishing up of the crop!-all the
difference in the world.
Hominy! Do the readers know how
homiDy is made? And do You have
any idea what vast quantities Of corn
are annually made into that one article
OF food? In old times of this country
the early settlers thought the table was
not well furnished if there was no big
bowl of hominy on the table, with a
good bowl of honey or maple syrup to
put on it.
oh
stick out to fill up with mush and milk,
or mush and honey, or butter and
molasses! When [ was q boy | used
to hear the neighbors laugh about my
fall and broke two of his ribs. When
the doctor came he ordered my grand
mother to make a big kettle of mush
and feed him with mush and milk, and
it cured him up.
Baked Indian pudding--oh, isn't it
just one of the incest dishes for des-
seft: SO satisfying, SO delicious, either
hot or cold. Boiled English pudding.
with suet, rasins, or currants, mixed
all through the mess, all put in good
strong bag and boiled in the big pot,
with corned beef and salt pork, until
well done. When taken out of the bag
Oh a large platter, and good slice cut
off the end, put in plate with sweet
ened cream, and-go away!
Corn batter cakes. What is better
at breakfast than good pile of corn
batter cakes, we'll Drowned, with good
blt of nice beefs teak cooked to turn,
with gravy to put on the cakes?
Corn pone, baked in our old Dutch
oven, the pone cut in big wedges, with
a good slice Of bacon, ham and fried
eggs, coffte-Oh, its enough to make
one want to hug the cook! How com
forta Bile it makes us feel right under
our jackets?
Dodgers! All covered with print of
the delicate fingers that patted the
dough into its proper shape. AS We
break off a piece as it is passed around
the table, we contemplate those finger
marks and feel we would like to take
those fingers in our grasp and look the
owner in her eyes once more. Dodgers!
They, with a good cup of milk, are
food fit for angels to eat.
And with what interest we watch |
the corn, from the time the seed is put
into the ground until is is fairly up:
that the moles or the squirrels, or quails
do not pull it up. How we, with a
good horse and cultivator, learn to
watch the tender shoots as we pass
each hill and turn the fresh earth to
the tender corn, and as it grows and |
grows, with what interest we watch |
it each day, until it is in the full ear.
And til the harvest! There was al |
ways something in gathering a good |
field of corn that made me have good |
feeling that no other kind of harvest
gave me. All, there is SO much to
corn. 1t is food for men; it is food for
all kinds of animals; 1t makes fat
horses, fat hogs, fat beef, fat chickens
and plenty of eggs. Yes; and as the
wise men said, il makes our sides burst |
with fatness. How many, many days
have walked around our eornfields in |
with my old Betsey, to |
kill the squirrels that were destroying |
the roasting-ears,au and how many nights
have [, with a good coon-dog, hunted |
the coons that would come in the fields |