222 



IND 



J ND 



white beans ! No wonder that plen- 

 ty of the necessaries of hfe are as 

 sure to follow large crops of corn 

 as effect succeeds cause in any de- 

 partment of physics !" 



The writer combats the general 

 opinion that corn is an exhausting 

 crop, queries whether it is more so 

 than potatoes, and observes that 

 " Experience demonstrates that tlie 

 larger the crop of corn, the better 

 the succeeding crop ; this was as- 

 serted by Dr. Eliot, the father of 

 New-England husbandry, in his 

 Essays on Field Husbandry, pub- 

 lished in 1747 ; at which period it 

 appears that oats usually succeed- 

 ed corn, and possibly, in some dis- 

 tricts, such a murderous course has 

 continued ; and it is probable that 

 Corn, after supporting its allies,ihe 

 pumpkins, ihe beans and the turnips, 

 from the provisions charged to its 

 account, has to answer for the de- 

 teriorating effects of oats; the most 

 inimical to grass of any plant that 

 can be named. Moreover, it will 

 be recollected that formerly, the 

 rich alluvial bottoms or intervals, 

 were planted with corn, without a 

 particle of manure, for a number of 

 years in succession, till the product 

 was considerably reduced ; — would 

 potatoes, or any root crop, with such 

 management have continued more 

 productive ? and hence has not the 

 reputation of corn materially suf- 

 fered ? 



" We will next inquire what re- 

 turn does corn make to the soil ? 

 1 cannot answer so well, as by quo- 

 ting from Arator.* " Indian corn 



* A series of Agricultural essays entitled 

 Arator by Col. John Taylor, of Carolina 

 County, Virginia, This work, though adapt- 



may be correctly called meal, mea- 

 dow and manure ; it produces more 

 food for man, beast and the earth, 

 than any other farinaceous plant. 

 If the food it produces for the two 

 first was wasted, and men and 

 beasts should thence become poor 

 and perish, ought their poverty or 

 death to be ascribed to the plant 

 which produced the food, or to 

 those who wasted it ? Is Indian 

 corn justly changeable with the im- 

 poverishment of the earth, if the 

 food it provides for that is not ap- 

 plied ? 



" Let us compare it with wheat. 

 Suppose that the same land will 

 produce as much grain of the one 

 as of the other, which in its use 

 will make equal returns to the 

 earth. Here the equality ends, if 

 indeed it exists even in this point. 

 The corn stalks infinitely exceed 

 the wheat straw in bulk, weight, 

 and a capacity for making food for 

 the earth. If any attentive man 

 who converts both his stalks and 

 straw into manure, will compare 

 the product in April, when he may 

 distinguish one from the other, he 

 will find in the former a vast su- 

 periority in quantity. The Eng- 

 lish farmers consider wheat straw 

 as their most abundant resource 

 for manure, and corn stalks are far 

 more abundant ; corn therefore is 

 a less impoverishing, because a 

 more compensating crop to the 

 earth, credited only for its stalks 

 than any in England. In compar- 

 ing crops to ascertain their relative 



ed to the agriculture of that, and the adjoin- 

 ing states, will be found to contain valuable 

 practical information to the New-England 

 Farmer. 



