1846.] Cultivation of Indian Corn. 91 



the ground should be kept clean from weeds, and loose and mel- 

 low, to admit air and moisture — clean from weeds, unless we are 

 willing they should share the benefit of all our labors. Let the 

 horse and cultivator go twice in a row each way, previous to each 

 hoeing. A plow should never be used among corn ; nor the hills 

 raised above the uniform surface of the field. But let the hoe dig 

 deeply, and mellow and loosen the earth, where the cultivator 

 cannot reach. It is a very important matter with all hoed crops, 

 to keep the ground light and clean; and this can be done by go- 

 ing over the ground often, and not without. 



The method generally pursued in harvesting the crop, is to cut 

 it up by the root as soon as most of the ears are glazed, putting 

 from 7 to 9 rows of corn into one row of stooks, or bunches of 

 corn, when cut up. This is undoubtedly the best course, as ex- 

 periments have proved that more weight of corn is obtained in 

 this way than by topping it, and husking on the hill. Still many 

 old farmers prefer topping, but for no other reason than that it is 

 more expeditiously husked. In either case, the fodder should be 

 secured from the weather as soon as possible, by which its value 

 is much increased. Levi J. Hopkins. 



Troopsville, Dec. 17, 1845. 



The idea of God and religion must have its roots in the very 

 foundation of the soul. — President Hopkins. This being so, does 

 it not follow that man could have attained to a knowledge of 

 God without a revelation? There may exist in the soul the un- 

 formed idea of God, and man might have lived and gone to the 

 grave without the maturing of the idea. But is it not possible 

 that without a revelation some cause might have operated by 

 which a train of reasoning would have resulted in proof. Thus 

 the principle of fire exists in gun-powder — but this may remain 

 for ages unchanged, and the truth in the end may have come out 

 from an accidental explosion. So is it not possible the idea of God 

 may have, or could have been developed and matured by the ope- 

 ration of causes incident to this state of being-. 



