EARLY PLANTING. 273 



now grow in drills. I do not cut the potato as much as I 

 used to. I can plant small potatoes for two or three y ears 

 very well, by cutting off the seed-end, and throwing away. 

 Medium-sized ripe potatoes I consider the best to plant. 



The middle part of an ear of corn will ripen earlier than 

 the tip. It will not sprout much below sixty degrees. All 

 seed should be covered evenly. I have had considerable 

 trouble from bad covering. 



I have sometimes been rather " risky," so to speak, in 

 planting early ; but, if I can get the crop into market a few 

 days earlier, the difference in price well pays for the risk. 

 For example, I have sold from one piece, pease at three 

 dollars a bushel, that four days later would have brought 

 only seventy-five cents, as indeed more from the same vines 

 did. At another time, I sold beans for a dollar and seventy- 

 five cents per bushel, and within a single week could get 

 only a dollar for the same crop from the same piece. I 

 take two crops from all the land I can ; and, if I have plenty 

 of manure in the ground, this can be done with quite a 

 number of kinds very well, — with beets, parsnips, and some 

 other roots. I sow spinach between the rows, pease, early 

 potatoes, and lettuce, followed by late cabbages, turnips, 

 squash, &c. I market every thing from the field that I can. 

 This saves harvesting, storage, shrinkage, and usually I get 

 as good a price. 



Some crops, like beets, will get too large for market, if left 

 growing late. When at the proper size, I pull, dig a hole in 

 the ground, and cover them with earth until time to store 

 for winter. After getting vegetables into the cellar, I keep 

 them as cool as I can until freezing weather, especially 

 cabbages. Corn I always cut up, and stook. Think it is 

 better. In taking care of crops, after planting, I keep all 

 weeds down, if I can, as I cannot afford to buy manure to 

 raise them. I cultivate all coarse crops, and hoe well. 

 Hoeing is a trade, I find, with most men very poorly learned, 

 especially for root-crops. One of my foremen said, that, after 

 a shower, he moved one of the workmen's hoes back four 

 rows, and the man began hoeing right along, not noticing any 

 difference. I hire the best help I can find, and pay them 

 the highest wages. I pay a man good wages if he is a good 

 hand: if not, I pay him off. Let a man know that his money 



