On Indian Corn^ Potatoes^ ^c, 311 



sized ears will average more than half a pint ; if each 

 plant in his field had produced only half a pint of shell- 

 ed corn, his crop would have yielded at the rate of 

 about 200 bushels per acre, of consequence the num- 

 ber of plants, or their arrangement, or, perhaps, both 

 those causes combined, injured his crop. And the 

 same cause produced similar effects in my crop of 91 

 bushels, grown in the year 1811, in double rows, on 

 ridges half a perch asunder. The number of plants not 

 exceeding 20,000 per acre, were too much crowded, 

 and leaned out from the ridges into the intervals, to 

 procure the air, until the tops of the plants standing on 

 opposite ridges, intersected, and those which got un- 

 dermost in the scuffle were entirely barren ; and those 

 which predominated, had the shortest ears which had 

 ever been grown before by me ; but still the greatest 

 crop of corn. If the same number of plants had been 

 introduced on the same ground, in single rows, at half 

 the distance, it appears reasonable to suppose, that the 

 crop would have been much more productive, but 

 whether so many can be arranged on an acre, so that 

 they will produce large and perfect ears, is unknown 

 to me. Those crops are merely introduced to show, 

 that large increase does not always determine judici- 

 ous management of the crop ; and that if cultivators 

 would carefully observe the progress of their crops, 

 and publish their errors with the publication of the ma- 

 nagement and the result ; those errors, instead of being 

 copied and perpetuated by others, would be avoided, 

 and the knowledge of agriculture rapidly increase. 

 1 introduced the greatest crop of maize that has been 



