Mode of cultivating Indian Corn, fcfc. 185 



rows in my corn field, where the wheat had been plough- 

 ed in with a Dutch shovel ; — it has uniformly looked bet- 

 ter than the rough ploughing, and will turn out, I think, 

 considerably more. I shall tire you out with my desul- 

 tory remarks ; will conclude, then, with the harrow. My 

 father was in the habit of using a variety of insu-uments, 

 similar to those you describe in your last letter, but our 

 country was not then sufficiently clear of stumps and 

 rocks, nor is it now, to work complicated instruments to 

 advantage. To put in as much as we could, during the 

 season, has been our general aim ; paying but little re- 

 gard to the mode of cultivation, or the improvement of 

 the soil. My practice, in some measure, and my ideas, 

 agree with your mode of corn cultivation, though, with 

 my neighbours, I have been in the habit of planting my 

 corn in half prepared land, and mangling the young corn 

 to cultivate the balance ; but I have done with it ; an 

 experiment this spring has confirmed me. I cultivate 

 two thirty acre fields in corn, both set in blue grass and 

 clover, the one I harrowed down with a heavy harrow, 

 with three horses, only once, the other I harrowed and 

 cross harrowed, with the same harrow, but loaded, and 

 drawn by four horses, which put it in fine order. This, 

 the last planted field, has met with a trifling interruption 

 from the worm, while the other has been much injured, 

 and required a great deal of re-plantirig. The first re- 

 quires a great deal of cultivation ; the other will wait 

 more than a month after the corn is put in the ground. 

 I put a handful of ashes, with plaster, in each hill, as do 

 a great many farmers around me, in imitation of Farrow, 

 who made a great crop in that way, though the propor- 

 tion of plaster was greater with him. 



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