On Corn. | 49 
Pa 
sonable price, or to oversee them if procured, I have 
committed my fields to other hands on lease. But were 
agriculture my line of regular employment, I should 
take the course I did in 1796, for the greater part of 
my corn land. 3 
May I be permitted to suggest the great utility of 
wood ashes, in raising Indian corn? What my family 
do not want for domestic use, I generally apply as ma- 
nure for Indian corn, by putting a handfull round each 
hill, after the first hoeing.—(We hoe four times.) I 
have observed the effects repeatedly, until I am satisfied 
that upon almost every kind of land one bushel of ashes 
will produce an additional bushel of Indian corn.—I 
have tried wood ashes and gypsum upon corn in the same 
field, and the field thought to be friendly to gypsum; 
the ashes have been less expensive and quite as pro- 
ductive.—I once sowed four acres of very poor land, 
with three bushels of flaxseed.—Upon two acres I 
strewed eight bushels of ashes. ‘The ground which had 
the ashes produced 100 pounds of flax more than the 
other. While on the ground, the eye perceived but a 
slight difference in the two different parts of the field. 
But I found the harl much better. ‘This I attributed to 
the ashes in killing the insects which prey on the roots 
of flax, after it has attained its size, and before it has 
procured its coat. Speaking of wood ashes, I will men- 
tion another experiment.—I turned up an acre of sward, 
and planted it with Indian corn. I applied after the first 
hocing about ten bushels of ashes (which is a profuse 
wud unusual allowance :) but before the field was ashed, 
my labourers had nearly exhausted the ashes—I direct- 
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