PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 99 



tance of a few days, be repeated with advantage. 

 The weeds will now reappear, when the triangular 

 harrow, accommodated to the width of the inter- 

 vals, must be employed. This, drawn by a single 

 horse, will do its work expeditiously and well. The 

 plough called the cultivator, with a double mould- 

 board, follows the harrow,* and is itself followed 

 by the hand-hoe, which alone can perform well the 

 last and great operation of hilling^ the corn. The 

 first effect of this is to enable the grain to form new- 

 joints near the surface of the earth, whence will 

 issue lateral roots, fitted to receive an additional 

 quantity of aliment necessary or proper for the 

 plant.]: Care rrtust, however, be taken to flatten 

 these little mounds of earth, so as to make them 

 better recipients of water. 



Corn is sometimes cultivated with a view only to 

 the forage it may yield ; in which case it is gener- 

 ally sown broadcast, at the rate of ten bushels to 

 the acre, and cut green, while its saccharine quali- 

 ties most abound. We are told by Bosc, that in the 

 volcanic soil of Vicenteri, in Italy, corn managed 

 in this way gives four crops in the year. As a dry 

 forage, it is a great resource in warm climates, 

 where natural meadows are rare, and artificial near- 

 ly unknown. In the eastern parts of Virginia, it 

 furnishes the principal stock of horse fodder, and 

 in our northern latitudes is a useful supplement to 

 clover, timothy, and red-top hay. 



The produce of corn is much affected by weath- 



* The implement now termed cultivator, or horse-hoe, is of 

 recent introduction among us. We have it of various patterns, 

 and it is coming into extensive use in the culture of hoed or 

 drilled crops, in place of the plough. J. B. 



f Hilling corn is becoming an exploded practice, as being 

 rather prejudicial to the crop than otherwise. J. B. 



$ Bonnet was the first to make this observation ; but, if the 

 reader wishes to see a full illustration of it, we refer him to the 

 Memoir of M. Varennes de Fenillis, who has proved that the 

 crop is increased M3th merely by hilling. 



