PLANTING. 133 



~No man can tell what his own particular soil is 

 capable of, or can be made capable of, until he has 

 proved it. The cultivator who has always pursued 

 one invariable method, without trying or examining 

 any other, can never be sure that his own method is 

 the best, or that it is anywhere near the best, or that 

 it is even comparatively a good one. He may have 

 been unconsciously planting his corn for years upon 

 a wrong principle, which a few simple experiments 

 would have long since corrected. It is quite possi- 

 ble that he has been losing some ten or fifteen bushels 

 of corn per acre annually, for years, only for the want 

 of a little more knowledge, which might have been 

 acquired with a little more trouble. 



In order to determine this point, let him submit 

 his method to a rigorous investigation. Let him com- 

 pare it with other methods, in various and repeated 

 trials. Let him put himself in communication with 

 Nature, and in a series of careful and patient manip- 

 ulations, he will be able to draw out from the bosom 

 of the earth a generous revelation of the laws that 

 regulate her hidden treasures. By a system of ex- 

 periments well framed and faithfully carried through, 

 he will be able to pour a flood of light into his 

 soil that will disclose unsuspected mines of cereal 

 wealth. 



In regard to the other details of planting, they are 

 few and simple. Great precision is necessary in mark- 

 ing out the rows, to have them as regular and straight 

 as possible, in order to facilitate the after-culture. It 



