IND 



IN D 



21 



seeA corn before the time of har- 

 vest, being the ears that iirst ripen. 

 But I think it would be better to 

 mark them, and let them remain on 

 the stalks, till they become sapless. 

 Whenever they are taken in, they 

 should be hung up by the husks, in 

 a dry place, secure from early frost ; 

 and they will be so hardened as to 

 be in no danger of injury from the 

 frost in winter. 



I would not advise the farmer to 

 plant constantly his own seed -, but 

 once in two or three years, to ex- 

 change seed with somebody at the 

 distance of a few miles. Change of 

 seed is doubtless a matter of im- 

 portance in most kinds of vegeta- 

 bles ; though it has not yet beeti so 

 plainly discovered in this as in some 

 others. But let the farmer beware 

 of taking his seed from too great a 

 distance. If he should bring it, for 

 instance, a hundred miles from the 

 southward, his corn would fail of 

 ripening ; if as far from the north, 

 he must expect a lighter crop ; and 

 in case of drought, the latter will 

 be more apt to sutfer, as it has been 

 proved by experiment. A farmer 

 in the county of Bristol, took seed 

 from the county of Cumberland. 

 It came on well at ftrst. But the 

 summer being pretty hot and dry, 

 it parched up, and produced next 

 to nothing, though the seed he had 

 taken from his own field turned out 

 very well. 



If the farmer cannot convenient- 

 ly obtain new seed ; or if he be 

 loth to part with a sort that has ser- 

 ved him well, and choose rather to 

 use it than seed he has not tried ; 

 let him, at least, shift seed from 

 one field to another, and especial- 

 28 



ly from one kind of soil to an- 

 other. 



And in the choosing of seed, some 

 regard should be had to the state of 

 the soil on wtiich it is intended to 

 grow. If it be poor, or wanting iu 

 warmth, the yellow sort with eight 

 rows will be most suitable, as it ri- 

 pens early. A better soil should 

 have a larger kind of seed, that the 

 crop may be greater, as it undoubt- 

 edly will. 



If twenty loads of good manure 

 can be afforded for an acre, it 

 should be spread on the land and 

 ploughed in : Ifno more than half 

 of that quantity, it will be best to 

 put it in holes. In the former case, 

 the corn usually comes up better, 

 suflfL'rs less by drought, and worms ; 

 and the land is left in better order 

 after the crop. In the latter case, 

 the plants are more assisted in their 

 growth, in proportion to the quan- 

 tity of manure. If the manure be 

 new dung, burying it under the fur- 

 rows is by far the better niethod. 

 None but old dimg should be put 

 in the holes. 



Let the ground be cut into exact 

 squares, by shoal fiirrows made with 

 a horse plough, from three to four 

 feet apart, according to the large- 

 ness or smallness of the sort of corn 

 to be planted. This furrowing is 

 easily done with one horse, and is 

 by no means lost labour,as the more 

 the ground is stirred, the more lux- 

 uriantly the corri will grow. If dung 

 is to be put in the angles where the 

 furrows cross each other, the fiir- 

 rowing should be the deeper, that 

 the dung may not lie too light. 



The right time of seedirig the 

 ground may be from the first to tlie 



