116 INDIAN CORN. 



of these same agents for its availability and nutri- 

 tive effect. Of all the fertilizing elements con- 

 tained in the earth, or added to it, there is not one 

 that can produce its proper and legitimate result in 

 supplying food to the growing plants without the pres- 

 ence and influence of either air, or water, or of both 

 combined. 



These facts are well understood, and clearly indi- 

 cate the necessity of facilitating, by every possible 

 means, the access of descending rains and of atmos- 

 pheric influence to the roots of growing corn. But in 

 order to accomplish this, the earth must be brought 

 to a proper condition before the grain is planted. 

 The soil must be made mellow and porous, by 

 deep and searching processes of pulverization often 

 repeated. 



It cannot, then, be too frequently or forcibly sug- 

 gested to the agriculturist that, the more he contrib- 

 utes to break up, crush, grind, triturate, and subdivide 

 the particles of the soil, before planting, so much more 

 does he cooperate with Nature, and assist her generous 

 efforts to return him a liberal yield. 



In thus dwelling, with some repetition, upon what 

 is deemed an important subject, we may perhaps weary 

 the patience, or provoke the severity, of some critical 

 reader ; yet such is the consequence of this principle, 

 and such the extent of its influence, that if we could 

 thereby impress it more effectively on the minds of our 

 cultivators, we would not hesitate to employ yet a 

 dozen more terms to express the same idea, did the 



