CEKTArNTTY OF THE CKOP. 



INDIAN corn is usually accounted a certain crop, 

 and in comparison with many others it undoubtedly 

 is so. When seasonably planted, with due attention 

 to the selection of seed, and tolerable care in the after 

 culture, it has scarcely ever been known to result in 

 failure. There are, of course, exceptional cases, arising 

 from providential or human causes, such as unseason- 

 able frost, absolute sterility of soil, utter neglect of the 

 crop, etc. Apart from such instances as these, there 

 is no seed which the husbandman commits to the 

 earth with more certainty of securing some return for 

 his labor. 



Yet the difference between a moderate crop and a 

 large yield is a very material point for the farmer to 

 consider, though he too often overlooks it. Here is, 

 in fact, the point where certainty ends and contingency 

 begins. While he feels reasonably sure of a moderate 

 yield, he is in danger of neglecting the means that 

 would make him almost equally sure of a much greater 

 one. The interval between thirty or forty bushels 

 per acre and one hundred and fifty is very considera- 



