HOW TO OBTAIN A LAEGE YIELD OF CORN. 217 



corn to be mechanically followed in every case from 

 beginning to end, laying down in detail each particu- 

 lar step to be taken without discretion, proposing in 

 connection with this a specific manure to be used on 

 all occasions, and claiming that the infallible result 

 would be a marvellous and unheard-of yield, would 

 doubtless prove attractive, and probably be hailed as 

 a useful work. But the author of such a book would 

 justly be pronounced a charlatan, and would deserve 

 their contempt. 



There are, probably, very few farmers in the coun- 

 try who do not know that there is not, and cannot be 

 any patent, labor-saving process for turning out two 

 or three hundred bushels of corn from an acre. The 

 mistake of these men lies in expecting too much. 

 They would have the results without complying with 

 the conditions. They do not seem to remember that 

 large yields of corn, as of other crops, have never yet 

 been stereotyped, to be mechanically reproduced at 

 will ; nor do they, on the other hand, spring from 

 accident or neglect. They are the prizes which in- 

 dustry, intelligence, and skill carry away in the face 

 of contingencies, and in spite of obstacles. 



If there were indeed a new, easy, and infallible 

 method of raising corn, with all the elements of un- 

 certainty left out, promising large yields with little 

 labor and less thought, and imposing no tax upon 

 either muscle or brain, we should then see all the 

 world turning farmers, and all the farmers growing 

 rapidly rich. 



But, happily, the class of men who indulge these 

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