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rains in summer would wash all the earth 

 away : for, although the Indian corn re- 

 quires light land and a hot sun to make it 

 produce, it also requires a sufficient quantity 

 of moisture, like all other plants, or it would 

 turn yellow and die away. It has long been 

 an established method in America to raise 

 hills, six feet asunder, by drawing the earth 

 together in a heap, to the size of a large ant- 

 hill — [I never saw ant-hills in America, 

 notwithstanding ants are somewhat nume- 

 rous there] — for the two Indian corn plants 

 to grow on, which I think is the best 

 method to raise Indian corn ; but it leaves 

 the land in a most unpleasant state for any 

 other crop, as it is well known the deeper 

 the soil the longer it will retain its moisture, 

 as there is no other use in deep ploughing. 

 Although those hills are supposed by 

 many to cast off the rain, I am of a different 

 opinion ; for the hill which Indian corn 

 grows on is made hollow like a basin in 

 the middle, where the corn stands, and the 

 shovelful of dung laid in that hill, where 



