CHAPTER V. 



TRANSPLANTING INDIAN CORN. 



213. I WAS always of opinion, that this would be the best mode, 

 under certain circumstances, of dealing with this crop. The 

 spring, in this part of America, and further to the North, is but 

 short. It is nearly winter till it is summer. The labours of the 

 year are, at this season, very much crowded. To plant the grains 

 of the Indian Corn over a whole field requires previous ploughing, 

 harrowing, marking, and manuring. The consequence is, that, 

 as there are so many other things to do, something is but too often 

 badly done. 



214. Now, if this work of Corn planting could be postponed to 

 the 25th of June (for this Island) instead of being performed on, 

 or about the I5th of May, how well the ground might be prepared 

 by the 25th of June ! This can be done only by transplanting the 

 plants of the Corn. I was resolved to try this ; and so confident 

 was I that it would succeed, that I had made some part of my 

 preparations for six acres. 



215. I sowed the seed at about three inches apart, in beds, on 

 the zoth of May. The plants stood in the beds (about 15 perches 

 of ground) till the first of July. They were now two feet and a 

 half high : and I was ready to begin planting out. The weather 

 had been dry in the extreme. Not a drop of rain for nearly a 

 month. My land was poor, but clean ; and I ought to have 

 proceeded to do the job at once. My principal man had heard 

 BO much in ridicule of the project, that he was constantly begging 

 and praying me not to persevere. &quot; Every body said it was 

 &quot; impossible for the Corn to live ! &quot; However, I began. . I 

 ploughed a part of the field into four-feet ridges, and, one evening, 

 set on, thus : I put a good quantity of earth-ashes in the deep 

 furrow between the ridges, then turned back the earth over them, 

 and then planted the Corn on the ridge, at a foot apart. We 

 pulled up the plants without ceremony, cut off their roots to half an 

 inch long, cut off their leaves about eight inches down from their 

 points,, and, with a long setting stick, stuck them about seven 

 inches into the ground down amongst the fresh mould and ashes. 



216. This was on the ist of July in the evening ; and, not willing 

 to be laughed at too much, 1 thought I would pause two or three 



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