140 INDIAN CORN. 



One man, by this invention, would do the work of a 

 man and horse, and do it more accurately, and with 

 less destruction ; nor need it be any more laborious, 

 with a well-made instrument, and in well-prepared 

 ground, than the twofold operation of driving the 

 horse and properly managing the implement he draws. 



The useless habit of piling up the earth in cone- 

 shaped hills around the stalks of corn, which was 

 at one time almost universal, is now generally dis- 

 approved and wisely abandoned. It was formerly 

 supposed to aid the stalk in resisting the effect of 

 severe gales, but experience has proved this to be a 

 mistaken notion. There was also an imagined ad- 

 vantage in drawing up the earth around the roots ; 

 but here again experience has developed the sounder 

 philosophy of allowing the roots to find the earth, as 

 they require it, by their own spontaneous movement. 

 This they will be sure to do; and they will find the 

 manure also, provided both manure and soil have 

 been sufficiently pulverized and blended. 



The editor of the Cultivator, as quoted by Emer- 

 son, in his Encyclopaedia, has given the following opin- 

 ion, as to the practice of hilling corn, and also as to 

 the use of the plough in after-culture : 



" All or nearly all the accounts we have published 

 of great products of Indian corn, agree in two partic- 

 ulars, viz. : in not using the plough in the after-culture, 

 and in not earthing, or but slightly, the hills. These 

 results go to demonstrate that the entire roots are 

 essential to the vigor of the crop, and that roots, to 

 enable them to perform their function as Nature de- 



