314 On Indian Corn, Potatoes, bV. 



frost occurred on the 6th of October, and finding the 

 corn plant debilitated by age, it scorched it oxessive- 

 ly ; and another on the 11th killed it effectually. I have 

 never seen better ears of corn, than were grown m 

 those two crops, when for forty miles or more round, 

 we hear of no good crops, not even on the Susquehan- 

 nah and other rich bottoms, justly famed for growing 

 corn ; except a field grown by a neighbour, which 

 was planted from the 11th to the 13th of May, and that 

 part of his crop seeded with the same kind of corn 

 grown by me, to wit, highly impregnated with the 

 gourd-seed, was not perfectly matured. This general 

 failure m crops of corn, has been commonly attributed 

 to a great redundancy of wet, during the spring and 

 first summer months, and an unusual drought in the 

 latter part of the summer. But the fertile fields men. 

 tioned above, were subjected to the same, therefore 

 those causes could have had no general effects else- 

 where, except those arising from late planting, which 

 the difficulty of the seasons have rendered more con- 

 spicuous. From these facts, I infer, that early plant- 

 ing of corn, more particularly in high latitudes, would 

 augment the general crop to an immense extent. 



A grass lay is vastly preferable for corn. The very 

 minute division of the soil, by its innumerable roots, 

 with their fermentation and decomposition, furnish 

 considerable heat and nutriment, and introduce cavi- 

 ties in due proportion to the number and size of those 

 roots, keeping the soil open and mellow, for the ready 

 admission of the corn roots. Stable, or other animal 

 manure, should be spread regularly over the lay. But 

 it is seldom properly done, in the usual random mode 



