38 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



backward springs and early frosts. A field of corn in Lex- 

 ington, planted on the 21st of June, belonging to Mr. Daniel 

 Chandler, yielded an ample crop, and was perfectly ripened. 

 The seed was of the twelve rowed kind, much esteemed there, 

 and easily procured. The kernel is small, but it yields as 

 much to the acre, and weighs more to the bushel, than the 

 eight rowed kind, with a larger kernel. Now a kind of this 

 description, which will ripen in nine or ten weeks, in so un- 

 propitious a season as the last, when there were few warm 

 nights, which are generally considered most important to the 

 forwarding of this crop, is certainly a great acquisition. It 

 will be well to remark here, that it is not only important to 

 procure an early kind, but it will require particular attention 

 to keep it so. Plants, like animals, have a constant tendency 

 to become accommodated to the place and season in which 

 they grow. Indian corn brought from the north to the south 

 will become later and require a longer season for its ripening, 

 unless particular care is taken in the selection of the earliest 

 ripe ears for planting; which is, that high manuring has a 

 tendency, by rendering the growth of a plant more luxuriant 

 and succulent, to refard its ripening and to lengthen its 

 season. 



We are satisfied from long observation and experiment that 

 an early planting of corn is generally and strongly to be 

 recommended. The last season, it is true, formed an excep- 

 tion to this rule ; but it was a rare case. Now a kind of 

 corn which by early planting and consequently early ripen- 

 ing gives an opportunity of laying down the same ground 

 seasonably with winter grain and clover ; or which, where 

 the first plantings will afford us the prospect of a full crop, 

 when the vacancies are not supplied or the planting cannot 

 take place until after the middle of June, certainly is a great 

 object to farmers. 



The kind of land best suited to this crop, I am satisfied, is 

 green sward, completely inverted, rolled, and so cultivated as 

 not during the whole season to disturb or break the sod 

 which has been turned over. This is a point of great impor- 

 tance ; for the decomposition of the vegetable matter in the 

 ground, Avhich is effectually secured in this way, but entirely 

 lost by the common mode of cultivation, will greatly con- 

 tribute to the nutriment and vigor of the plant, supplying in 

 fact an amount of manure greatly beyond what any con- 

 jectures would have made it, had not an exact experiment 



