Change of Seed unnecessary* 15 



ten or twelve of those which please me best, as to co- 

 lour, shape, &c. and plant them at least 100 yards from 

 where any others blogm at the time they do ; this, I in- 

 formed him, was the best method I knew of to improve 

 any kind of vegetables, varying the process agreeably 

 to their nature ; I asked him if he thought I should be 

 benefited by exchanging with him ? his ansv/er was, he 

 belie^^ed I was the best gardener. 



In or about the year 1772, a friend sent me a fe\^ 

 grains of a small kind of indian corn, the grains of which 

 were not larger than goose shot, he informed me by a 

 note that they were originally from Guinea, and pro- 

 duced from eight to ten ears on a stock. Those grains 

 I planted, and found the production to answer the de- 

 scription, but the ears were small, and few of them ri- 

 pened before frost. I saved some of the largest and 

 earliest, and planted them between rows of the larger 

 and earlier kinds of com, which produced a mixture to 

 advantage ; then I saved seed from stalks tliat produced 

 the greatest number of the largest ears, and first ripe, 

 which I planted the ensuing, season, and w^as not a little 

 gratified to find its production preferable, both in quan- 

 tity and quality, to that of any corn I had ever planted. 

 This kind of corn I have continued to plant ever since, 

 selecthig that designed for seed, in the manner I would 

 Vv^ish others to try, viz. — When the first ears are ripe 

 enough for seed, gather a sufficient quantity for early 

 corn, or for replanting, and at the time you wish your 

 com to ripen generally, gather a sufficient quantity for 

 planting the next year, having particular care to take it 

 from stalks that are large at bottom, of a regular taper, 

 not over tali, the ears set low, and containing the great- 



