322 On Lidian Coj'ri, Potatoes, ^c. 



by the obstructions in the furrows, and backed on them 

 at the head lands, or finds a passage over the declivi- 

 ties, sweeping the soil and plants before it, forming in- 

 numerable gullies, none of which would appear, if the 

 furrows were opened in proper directions. 



Mixed crops of maize are profitable, and believing 

 my crops of this description, have been more produc- 

 tive than any of the same sort, which have been pub- 

 lished ; the errors in management, with observations 

 on them, may be beneficial. Accident in my crop first 

 published, led me to expect considerable advantage 

 from ridging for corn ; but have since found that it 

 was an increased quantity of soil and manure, introdu- 

 ced by the ploughing, that rendered the plants on the 

 ridges which had been accidentally formed, better than 

 the rest of the field, and not, as was supposed, the con- 

 centering a double quantity of manure under them ; 

 and that ridges produced artificial droughts, without 

 any perceptible advantage from them. I also believed, 

 and continue in the same opinion, that wide intervals, 

 admitting large scope for sun and air, permits the in- 

 troduction of numerous corn plants with safety, in the 

 rows, and that this is the principal cause why corn is 

 more productive in proportion to the soil occupied by 

 it, when mixed with low growing plants, more especi- 

 ally, if the cultivation of the crops, cuts off" the com- 

 munication between the corn plant and its neighbours, 

 which has been the case with my crops, till a trivial 

 experiment ma^e last summer; and till then, close 

 planting on the rows had been entirely overdone by 

 me. My mixed crop of corn and potatoes, for 1810, 

 published in the second volume of the memoirs of 



