98 INDIAN CORN. 



fact this question of fluctuating weather, of early or 

 late season, is after all the only real difficulty in the 

 case, and the one on which all the others depend. 

 The other contingencies are made so by this. They 

 are variable, but all of them are determinate. If, 

 therefore, the question of soil, of latitude, and all the 

 other variable elements could be separated from the 

 vicissitudes of temperature, the time for planting corn, 

 so far as relates to them, might be reduced to fixed 

 rules. 



It is true that latitudes vary, and each differ- 

 ent degree requires a different period for planting. 

 Yet every farmer knows that his latitude is a fixed, 

 assignable figure, and that it always remains the 

 same. It differs from that of other men, but for him it 

 is unchanging. The same is true in regard to soils. 

 A sandy loam may require a period for planting dif- 

 ferent from that which would suit a tenacious clay. 

 But the farmer who has a sandy loam one year, will 

 not find it changed into clay the year following. 

 Though soils differ for different individuals, yet for 

 each man they remain the same. So also in regard 

 to all the other circumstances affecting the ques- 

 tion. 



Could we, then, reduce the inconstancy of the weath- 

 er to a condition of like certainty, or bring it within 

 determinate limits, it would be quite possible to assign 

 a precise day of the month for each kind of soil, for 

 every variety of corn, and for every degree of latitude, 

 which might be adopted in planting with perfect 

 safety. We might lay down an accurate time-table 



