INDIAN CORN. 175 



for the seed will all grow, and when it is sown thicker 

 it sometimes comes up and mats together so close as to 

 check a thrifty growth. These bottoms become harder 

 as the grass grows, and we are often able in a few 

 years to plough them, and turn the wild grass under, 

 and seed them down anew, as we do higher lands. 

 We intend, in a future number, to show how we have 

 subdued peat-meadows by different processes. 



In general, when gravel, or loam, or both are not 

 nigh by, paring and burning are cheaper than any other 

 mode. 



INDIAN CORN. 



This indispensable grain is now come up, and will 

 soon require our attention. It was formerly an univer- 

 sal custom to scrape away all the loose dirt from the 

 intervals and draw it up around these plants, making 

 a high piked hill. 



The curious may inquire, whence arose this cus- 

 tom? It could not have arisen from reasoning and 

 reflection ; for now, as soon as men venture to reason 

 and reflect upon the practice, they abandon it. They 

 now begin to think we should not bury the roots deep- 

 er than nature intended them to penetrate. 



England has a climate more moist than ours, and is 

 not often troubled with a drought. Their practice of 

 ridging and draining is not so necessary here. Did 

 not our fathers, without reflecting on the diff'erence of 

 climate, pursue the English mode of ridging and of 

 tilling, lest the ground should sufter from too much 

 moisture ? 



At the first hoeing it is more convenient to draw 

 up a little earth towards the hills, and cover up the 

 weeds, than to hoe them up or pull them out with the 

 fingers ; and, in this way, the weeds, too, are more 



