BOOK III. C H AV. VIIT. y6s 



verifti land ; and, confidering the rich juices of the ftalk, and great- 

 nefs of yielding, it undoubtedly requires as good and flrong a foil 

 as the fugar-cane: for this reafon, thofe planters are much blamed 

 who cultivate it on the banks between their young canes ; for, 

 the ufe of thefc banks being to be drawn down, and apply nourifh- 

 ment to the canes in the courfe of their growth, they are too much 

 exhaufted by the maize, which feems to abforb and extract nutri- 

 ment from the fame vegetable principles as the fugar-cane ; and it 

 muft confequently rob them of great part of that food of which 

 they are in want, efpecially in the poorer, well-worked lands ; 

 though the objedlon is fo far from lying againfl rich, frefii foils, 

 that it may be very ferviceable in fuchf and afiifl to drain away that 

 fuperfluity of the vegetative principles which throws up too rank 

 and luxuriant a cane. 



This opinion is ftrengthened by a common obfervatlon, that the 

 maize-corn will not thrive well in foils where the fugar-cane will 

 not thrive. But I have feen fine corn produced in a very poor, ex- 

 haufted piece of ground, by laying manure with every feed, or 

 grain. And in North-America, near the fea-coaft, the Indians ufed 

 to put two or three dead fifties under or adjacent to each corn-hill ; 

 and by this means gained double the crop they would otherwife 

 have got. The Englifti there learned the fame huftjandry, near 

 the fiftiing-ftages, where they could procure the heads and garbage 

 of cod-fifli, in abundance, at no charge but the fetching. 



In that continent, the feed is regularly planted after the plough ; 

 and the ears, when gathered, are threflied with a flail; but, as this 

 method breaks and bruifes them, a better way has been recom- 

 mended ; which is, to rub the ears hard againft the edge of a flat 

 piece of iron; this feparates the grains from the hufk without 

 hurting them. The huflis, as well as the ftalks, are good fodder 

 for cattle. In Jamaica, the Negroes rub one ear againft another ; 

 and the callofity of their hands, added to this method, anfwers the 

 purpofe of iron. When this corn has been well-dried in the fun, 

 it will keep feveral years, if the weevil does not attack it ; but it is 

 remarked, that this infeft is more apt to fall upon it while it is left 

 in the ear, than when the grain is feparated, the fweet juice of the 

 llalk, perhaps, attrading them more than the corn itfelf. When it 



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