( 227 ) 



On raising Indian Corn, by W. Noland, Esq. in a letter 

 to Thomas Leiper, Esq. 



Aldie, March 30, 1817. 

 Dear Sir, 

 It was only a few days ago that I was able to procure 

 an answer to the inquiry contained in your letter ; and 

 this must be my apology for so late an acknowledgment 

 of your favour. The land which produced the crop of 

 corn, to which you allude, was prepared in the usual 

 Loudon county mode ; which is, to plough deep, turn 

 over the sod well, and harrow the whole. The field was 

 laid off in furrows, four and one-half feet apart, and the 

 corn drilled at from eighteen inches to two feet apart. 

 The corn planted at that distance produced fourteen bar- 

 rels to the acre ; but where the furrows were again di- 

 vided, so as to make the distance between the hills from 

 two feet three inches to eighteen inches, or two feet, 

 which was the case with three or four acres, the product 

 was eighteen barrels* per acre. Had the season been a 

 good one, I am confident twenty barrels per acre would 

 have been made ; and this, too, on a field very uneven, 

 and improved entirely by plaster and clover. As many 

 as sixteen barrels per acre have been made in this coun- 

 ty, from planting three feet each way ; but it is believed 

 that more corn can be made from the drill mode than any 

 other. Mr. Delaplain, of Maryland, who made from 

 twenty-three to twenty-five barrels of corn per acre, plant- 

 ed in drills ; as did also Mr. Machir, on the south branch 



* A barrel contains five bushels. 



