312 On Indian Corn, PotatoeSy bV. 



published, with another large crop, to show that great 

 increase has been obtained, from very injurious ar- 

 rangements of the plants, and that much greater might 

 be acquired, if we knew how to arrange the full com- 

 plement which the soil and climate are capable of per- 

 fecting. But it is far better to introduce too few, than 

 too many plants, for in the first case, a good crop is 

 insured, while in the latter, the soil is uselessly ex- 

 hausted, and the crop is rendered precarious. 



Corn should be planted early, more especially in 

 high latitudes, where the farmer's expectation is fre- 

 quently blasted by an early frost, or a cool spring and 

 summer procrastinating the growth and maturity of 

 the plants ; and this evil is increased, if he cultivates 

 the larger and more productive corns, not only as it af- 

 fects his crops, but also as it establishes the erroneous 

 opinion, that they cannot be grown. But I had been pre- 

 pared to encounter those false opinions, having planted, 

 my crop much sooner than my neighbours, and observ- 

 ed that maize, in the early stages of its growth, was not 

 subject to such injury from frost, as was generally sup- 

 posed. For though its tops were frequently turned 

 yellow, and sometimes severely scorched, the roots 

 were established early in the soil, and the plants press- 

 ed forward with great rapidity ; and no question with 

 me, derived at least as great advantage from early plant- 

 ing, as barley, or any other spring crops. And it fre- 

 quently occurs, that the weather is more favourable for 

 vegetation in April, than in May, at the usual time of 

 planting ; and the ground, early in the spring, is less 

 subject to become dry and crusty, which often pre- 



