On Indian Corn, Potatoes^ ^c. 307 



bushels per acre, of light ordinary grain ; this crop 

 you saw, previous to this disaster, and admired it 

 much, and you have now in your possession an ab- 

 stract copy of the accounts kept for the whole of mv 

 crops for 1810, and will find a neat clear profit of 

 about four hundred dollars, from eight and an half 

 acres of wheat, grown after a mixed crop of corn and 

 potatoes. In that statement, not only every expen- 

 diture on this crop has been deducted, but also a 

 ground rent of nine dollars per acre, and interest on 

 the capital employed in the cultivation of it. No ma- 

 nure was applied to any of these crops, after the mix- 

 ed crops were removed. 



The lateral roots of Indian corn take a horizontal 

 course, filling the ploughed ground in every direction. 

 The finger-like or perpendicular roots dip deep, far 

 below the range of plants in general. I have seen them 

 traced two feet below the level of the ridge in which 

 they grew, with no better implement than a grubbing 

 hoe, in the hands of an awkward workman ; how much 

 further proper investigation might have traced them, 

 I cannot determine : but I am satisfied, that they were 

 numerous, and more capable of running deep and col- 

 lecting nutriment, than they would have been, had na- 

 ture formed them into one tap root of equal length and 

 dimensions : this opinion is further confirmed, from 

 the well known properties cf this plant to withstand 

 drought, of which a striking instance has occurred in 

 my little field, planted here on a high and dry ridge ; 

 for no rain fell on it from the 30th of July until the 1st 

 of September, during which, moisture is particularly 



