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Mode of cultivating Indian Corn. Harroxvs. 

 By i?. K. Meade, of Virginia. 



Lucky Hit> May 28th, 1816. 



Dear Sir, 



The plaster is working miracles in our limestone soil. 

 A next neighbour of mine, whose veracity I can vouch 

 for, has, with the aid, he says, of fifteen bushels of plas- 

 ter, cleared four hundred dollars from fifteen acres of land. 

 He put, late in the spring, fifteen bushels of plaster on 

 fifteen acres of clover, and got but a very moderate crop 

 of hay, there being a great drought. He thinks it will 

 pay him for all the expense of plaster, cutting, and get- 

 ting out forty bushels of clover seed, at ten dollars per 

 bushel, which he actually sold. This neighbour of mine, 

 John Kerfoot, has been in the habit, generally, of having 

 better wheat than myself; and I cannot account for it, if 

 it be not from this circumstance. He pulverizes well, 

 after a deep ploughing, sometimes two ploughings, sow- 

 ing from three to five pecks of wheat per acre, doubly 

 harrowing it in, with light harrows, very shallow. I pre- 

 pare my ground in the same way, sow from four to six 

 pecks per acre, and put it in with heavy, sharp harrows, 

 well weighted, so that the grain has been put to a consi- 

 derable depth. His grain uniformly looks thicker than 

 mine. I intend, this fall, to roll in a small spot of wheat ; 

 last fall I smoothed off, with a small harrow, thirty-two 



