ASA T. NEWHALL'S ADDRESS. 363 



the field, with a long sigh, says, " I wish thee well, but I can- 

 not help thee," and returned home. It would be better, in 

 many instances, to plough in the crop with the weeds, than to 

 permit them to ripen, and shed their seed for a future crop. 



As long ago as eighteen hundred twenty-one, premiums were 

 offered for mixed crops of Indian corn, potatoes and bush beans ; 

 or any two of them to make a mixed crop, planted in alternate 

 rows or hills. But one premium, I believe, has been claimed, 

 which was for a crop of corn and potatoes planted in alternate 

 rows ; the experiment made at that time, by measurement of 

 land and produce, showed that the mixed crop yielded some 

 nineteen per cent, more, than that which was planted separate- 

 ly. The corn and potatoes planted in this way are mutual 

 helps to each other ; the potatoes shading the roots of the corn 

 and protecting it from the effects of drought, and the corn, in 

 the months of July and August, screening the potatoes from 

 the rays of the sun. The crops planted in this way, adding 

 the value of potatoes in corn, yielding from eighty to one hun- 

 dred bushels per acre,* 



It has generally been thought by farmers, that the ripest corn 

 and potatoes were the best for seed. But so far as my obser- 

 vation goes, corn gathered soon after it is out of the milk, and 

 is but partially glazed, will vegetate and come up, about two 

 days earlier than that which is fully ripened in the field ; and 

 as the most critical time for the growing plant is while it lies 

 buried in the earth, the sooner it is up, the less danger in case 

 of storms and wet weather. 



Potatoes, to raise for seed, should be planted late in the sea- 

 son, that their growth may be checked by the frost before they 



*Since this address was delivered, I have found in Ihe memoirs of the Philadelphia Society 

 for promoting agriculture, a communication from John Lorrain, Esq., stating experiments 

 made by him on mixed crops of Indian corn and potatoes. He says, "he has frequently 

 planted Indian corn in single rows, eight feet asunder, and dropped single corn two feet dis- 

 tant from each other, in rows so as to stand in single plants ; when the corn was ridged, 

 potatoes were planted in the clearing out furrows which were filled with rotted dung, and 

 closed by two furrows, backed over the potatoes by the plough. I liave had repeatedly forty 

 to fifty bushels of shelled corn, and one hundred to one hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes 

 to the acre. In weight, the crop always exceeded the best corn cultivated in the common 

 way. This mode was suggested to me by Gen. Washington, who told me he had great 

 success in it." 



