220 INDIAN CORN. 



process, his answers are not vague and hesitating, but 

 prompt and definite. He has worked out his ~best 

 method with hand and brain, and realizes that he is 

 master of the situation. We will now suppose him 

 to describe, as follows, his plan of operations for the 

 year to come, as deduced from his experience in the 

 year past : 



" In preparing the ground for my next year's corn 

 crop," is his language, " I shall commence in the fall 

 by ploughing to the depth of ten inches, following the 

 surface-plough with the subsoiler as deeply as it can 

 be made to go. That ten inches is the right depth 

 for my soil I have clearly proved, and the utility of 

 subsoiling was shown last season by its increasing the 

 yield more than thirty per cent. 



" After the ground is thus ploughed, I shall apply 

 a moderate top-dressing, fifty bushels to the acre, of lime 

 and unleached ashes mixed in equal proportions. 

 After having brought my land to this stage of prepa- 

 ration in the fall, I shall then resign it for the winter 

 season to those ever-useful and unfailing friends of 

 the husbandman, the frost and rain, the storm, the 

 sunshine, and the brooding snow. "While the farmer 

 wears away the hours of winter in recreation or re- 

 pose, these friendly agents will do his work with tire- 

 less industry, subduing and meliorating the soil with 

 a magic effect ' beyond the reach of art,' and their 

 useful work will be all the better done, and the more 

 effectual, in consequence of the aid previously ren- 

 dered by the plough and the subsoiler. 



" In the spring, before planting, I shall again ap- 



