CORN AND BEANS, ETC. 339 



suffer far more than if left to fight it out them- 

 selves. If you can thoroughly soak your beds 

 and keep them moist, watering always in the 

 evening, they will do splendidly. But if you 

 water in the morning, or while the sun shines, 

 the plants will be scalded and the fruit injured ; 

 and if the ground is left to dry out thoroughly 

 after an artificial watering, still greater harm 

 will be done. My difficulties and losses in try- 

 ing to water a large area are thus plainly indi- 

 cated, even though I had the water drawn in a 

 barrel by a horse. Still, as I have stated, I 

 raised fifty-seven bushels of fruit on five-eighths 

 of an acre, but am satisfied that the same num- 

 ber of plants, kept in rows and mulched, would 

 have yielded over seventy bushels, and at less 

 cost and culture. 



On the 3 1st of May three quarts were picked 

 What though they were sour, as the first ripen- 

 ing always are ? They were big and red, with 



