116 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



nal gale, and will not turn the showers off to the in- 

 jury of the crop. This management may seem not 

 exactly orthodox ; but I fancy I derive some advan- 

 tages not to be obtained by the use of the harrow or 

 even cultivator alone. Those mischievous miners, 

 the moles and mice, are more effectually opposed in 

 their operations, a deeper and softer bed is prepared 

 for the roots to strike into, and greater extent of 

 surface is exposed to be heated by thf sun's rays ; 

 which is, in effect, protracting the summer a week 

 or ten days; time enough, not unfrequently, to save 

 a crop. A common saying with our farmers is, com 

 only wants hot weather; and the fact is notorious, 

 that a fair crop of^corn may be obtained by nice 

 management in a season so dry that any other grain- 

 crop would fail almost in toto. The harrow and 

 cultivator scarify the ground, but do not lay it open 

 with a bold incision, nor leave the corn-hill on a 

 prominent ridge or hillock at the commencement of 

 growth, when nothing but heat seems necessary to 

 the vitality and health of the plants. If it be object- 

 ed that by this use of the plough we assist the escape 

 of vegetable food in the form of carbonic acid gas 

 and volatile alkali, I reply, it may be so to the amount 

 of six or eight per cent. an inconsiderable matter 

 compared with the accelerated maturity of the crop. 



ARCH. JAYNE. 



EXPERIMENTS IN PRODUCING IMPROVED VARIETIES OF 



INDIAN CORN. 



Some ten or twelve years since, I instituted a se- 

 ries of experiments in crossing different varieties of 

 corn, and was perfectly successful. The variety 

 named in Dr. Brown's list (page 43 of the same num- 

 ber), " No. 16, Pennsylvania, 8 rows, called Smith's 

 early white," was the result of one of the experi- 

 ments. It was produced by what we call the Tus- 

 carora, or " New- York cheat," with the Sioux (No. 

 9 of Dr. Brown's list). From the parentage of thia 



