On Corn and Potatoes. 385 
a little instruction and a trivial expense, thinned them 
to my entire satisfaction, as soon as they were out of 
the way of grubs and crows: and I expected to escape 
re-planting this year by dropping six grains where only 
two were designed to stand, and keeping a boy in the 
field to drive off crows: the seed ears were selected and 
a little shelled off each end of the cob, reserving the 
remainder for planting. I have since been informed by 
an observing farmer that the hearts of two or three 
grains from each ear designed for planting should be ex- 
amined with a sharp knife, and if they are found to ad- 
here closely to the flint on each side, and are otherwise 
sound and healthy, the ear from which they were taken 
may be relied on: perhaps this precaution in addition to 
an unusual quantity of seed might go far toward ensur- 
ing a sufficiency of plants if crows are kept off. 
Potatoes cannot be grown extensively except for cat- 
tle, and it has been asserted by many who are well in- 
formed, that they will not pay for cultivating, if expend- 
ed in this way ; they are also a troublesome and perish- 
able crop, and come off too late for the corn to derive 
any advantage from turning the ground they occupied 
to it, consequently the space left between corn grown 
in this way, cannot be so extensively useful until plants, 
are selected for this purpose, that will combine the des- 
truction of weeds, an early harvest, with a capability of 
withstanding a sufficient manuring for wheat, and grass 
seeds to follow, and that are not perishable, and do not 
require huckstering to get them off; and there are plants 
which it is believed will answer all those purposes, but 
I do not learn that they have been grown in this way, 
and perhaps some of those would better accord with 
ie 
