138 INDIAH CORN. 



accumulation of many years. Hence the farmer's only 

 certain and final delivery from them is in the constant 

 and complete extinction of them every season, before 

 they go to seed, for a series of years, until the last 

 lingering germ is developed and destroyed. 



It is thought by some that a certain amount of 

 root-pruning is no disadvantage to corn, but rather a 

 benefit ; and that, consequently, the plough cannot be 

 too much or too often used in after-culture. ISTow it 

 is not, perhaps, impossible that root-pruning may be, 

 to some extent, an advantage, though the weight of 

 opinion is clearly against it ; but, supposing it to be 

 in some degree necessary, this scarcely justifies the 

 excessive use of the plough after germination has com- 

 menced. If root-pruning be at all, or under any cir- 

 cumstances, salutary, it can only be so within certain 

 limits, and when performed with judgment and care. 

 But the action of the plough is necessarily violent and 

 indiscriminate, rending with fatal energy whatever 

 resists its progress. The very qualities that give to 

 it its greatest value, would in this case impart the 

 greatest mischief. When rightly used, it is an instru- 

 ment powerful for good. But when driven among 

 the rows of young and tender corn, in the capacity of 

 root-pruner, it becomes an agent of destruction. 



The horse-hoe and the cultivator are less objec- 

 tionable than the plough ; but after the corn is well up 

 and under good headway, with its roots ramifying the 

 soil in every direction, even these implements are 

 more or less perilous, and should be employed with 

 the utmost caution. Even while the sprouting grain 



