John Winthrop, Jr., on Indian Corn
- 1 online resource : multiple file formats
- Produced from The New England Quarterly, Volume X, Number 1, March, 1937, p. 121-133 .
- Produced from The New England Quarterly, Volume X, Number 1, March, 1937, p. 121-133 .
Release date is 2026-05-09
Steve Mattern Steve Mattern
John Winthrop, Jr., on Indian Corn by John Winthrop is a historical agricultural essay written in the late 17th century, here accompanied by a modern scholarly introduction. It explores the cultivation, preparation, and everyday uses of maize in New England and neighboring colonies, addressing both native practices and colonial adaptations.
An introductory note situates the piece within Restoration-era efforts to improve agriculture and the Royal Society’s curiosity about new crops. The essay then describes maize’s appearance, varieties, and protective husks; planting seasons and spacing; weeding and hilling; and improved methods using the plough. It highlights fertilizing with fish and dung, companion-planting beans and squashes, and secondary uses of stalks for fodder and basketry. The work surveys native foods such as boiled grain, parched meal carried on journeys, and “sweet corn” harvested green and dried, as well as colonial breads, mixed-grain loaves, and especially “sampe” (coarsely broken kernels simmered like rice) praised for its digestibility and health benefits. It concludes with detailed instructions for brewing beer from maize—either by baking bread first or by a specialized malting method that sprouts the grain under soil—observing that the bread-based brew proved most practical and reliable. (This is an automatically generated summary.)