Change of Seed unnecessary. 15 



ten or twelve of those which please me best, as to co- 

 lour, shape, &c. and plant them at least 100 yards from 

 where any others bloom at the time they do ; this, I in- 

 formed him, was the best method I knew of to improve 

 any kind of vegetables, varjing the process agreeably 

 to their nature ; I asked him if he thought I should be 

 benefited by exchanging with him ? his answer was, he 

 believed I was the best gardener. 



In or about the year 1772, a friend sent me a few 

 grains of a small kind of Indian com, the grains of M'hich 

 were not larger than goose shot, he informed me by a 

 note that they were originally from Guinea, and pro- 

 duced from eight to ten ears on a stock. Those grains 

 I planted, and found the production to answer the de- 

 scription, but the ears were small, and few of them ri- 

 pened before frost. I saved some of the lai^gest and 

 eai'liest, and planted them between rows of the larger 

 and earlier kinds of com, which produced a mixture to 

 advantage ; then I saved seed from stalks that produced 

 the greatest number of the largest eai's, and first ripe^ 

 which I planted the ensuing season, and M^as not a little 

 gratified to find its production preferable, both in quan- 

 tity and quality, to that of any corn I had ever planted. 

 This kind of corn I have continued to plant ever since, 

 ^electing that designed for seed, in the manner I would 

 wish others to try, viz. — When the first ears are ripe 

 enough for seed, gather a sufficient quantity for early 

 corn, or for replanting, and at tlie time you wish yout 

 com to ripen' generally, gather a sufficient quantity for 

 planting the next year, having particular cai'e to take it 

 from stalks that are lai'ge at boltom, of a regular taper^ 

 not over tall, the ears set low, and contaming the great- 



