218 INDIAN CORN. 



absurd expectations are few in number. The great 

 majority of American agriculturists are men of sense 

 and reason. When they aim at large returns, they 

 expect to make corresponding exertion. When they 

 inquire how they are to obtain a large yield, they do 

 not imagine they can dispense with the needed effort. 

 What they wish to know is, how to secure a large 

 product with reasonable eifort, and at the same time 

 make the yield a profitable one. This is the inquiry 

 continually and everywhere raised by intelligent 

 farmers. 



Although a general answer to this inquiry is to be 

 found on other pages of the present work, yet, in view 

 of the importance of the subject, and for the sake of a 

 more full illustration, we will endeavor to present an 

 answer, if possible, more definite, clear, and distinct. 



In every stage of corn culture, from the first to the 

 last, there is some one method that is better than any 

 other. In the preparation of the ground there are 

 many different ways of proceeding, but there is only 

 one best way. For enriching the soil there is a nu- 

 merous catalogue of manures, and various modes of 

 applying them ; but some one, or a few of them, are 

 better than all the rest. The same is true in regard 

 to steeping the seed. Also in the distribution of the 

 grains at planting, as well as in the depth of covering 

 them, there is for each a diversity of plans ; but there 

 is one that will give the largest yield. In like man- 

 ner, the after-culture also has its own superior process 

 that is more productive than any other. 



When all these preferable modes are ascertained 



