OG On Indian Corn, Potatoes, isrc. 



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the fattening of cattle, it will be found much more pro- 

 fitable than turnips and potatoes from the same quan- 

 tity, and equal quality of land, notwithstanding a state- 

 ment directly opposite to this assertion has been pub- 

 lished, by a very respectable writer on agriculture : but 

 that statement will be found replete with error through- 

 out; for here again, Indian corn, without manure, pro- 

 duced 15 bushels per acre ; potatoes manured, produ- 

 ced 200 bushels per acre, the expense of ten acres of 

 potatoes manured, rated at 36 dollars and 60 cents, 

 when it actually cost nearly double that sum to remove 

 them from the ground, and secure them properly. 



That Indian corn does not exhaust the soil more 

 than potatoes, appears clear to me, from some mixed 

 crops of those plants, which were grown on my farm. 

 After the ground had been equally manured, one row 

 of corn occupied the same quantity of soil as was as- 

 signed to two rows of potatoes, throughout the fields : 

 the plough was too frequently used in the cultivation 

 of the potatoe crop, and sufficiently in the cultivation 

 of the corn, of consequence, a communication between 

 the corn roots with the potatoes was too effectually cut 

 off. Those crops were removed in the fall, and the 

 grounds immediately sown with wheat, and no per- 

 ceptible difference was ever discovered in the crop 

 growing either where the corn or potatoes had grown, 

 even where the ground had been but once ploughed 

 for seeding, and that too in the same direction the corn 

 and potatoes had stood. The crops of wheat were abun- 

 dant, except in one field, which being struck with 

 the mildew throughout, yielded only about twenty 



