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selected from the field, before the crop is harvested. If the 

 variety is not already sufficiently early, those ears which 

 ripen first should be taken from stalks which produce two 

 or more ears, well formed, and perfectly filled. If the stalks 

 are short, and the ears grow near the ground, all the better. 

 If the variety be sufficiently early, and not inclined to ex- 

 cessive growth of stalks, select those ears which are most 

 perfect, without regard to time of ripening or size of stalk. 



Having thus made the selection, the ears should be braided 

 together, by husks left upon them, and hung where they can 

 dry perfectly and be protected from moisture until the time 

 for planting. If these rules had been strictly adhered to, in 

 reference to all the corn planted the past season, we believe 

 we should have heard far less complaint of seed not coming 

 up, and that an addition would have been made to the 

 harvest of the country of some thousands, perhaps millions 

 of bushels. 



Next, the soil should be properly prepared. It ought not 

 to be stirred while wet and cold ; especially the seed should 

 never be put in until the land is dry and warm. It would 

 be better to wait until very late for the purpose, and then 

 plant an early variety, if corn must be planted on land that 

 is not dry in season ; and better still to under-drain the wet 

 portions of the fields, and so have them prepared for the pro- 

 duction of any crop, in any season. In one instance which 

 came under our observation, a field which was excessively 

 wet, was left to dry until the 17th of June, and then planted 

 with an early variety, being but lightly manured, and hoed 

 only once, and produced at the rate of upwards of fifty 

 bushels per acre, of sound, well ripened corn. In another a 

 similar field was under-drained, then planted, and in harvest 

 time the location of the drain could be distinctly traced for 

 twenty rods through the entire length of the field, by the su- 

 perior size and quality of the corn over and beside it ; when 

 but for the drain, the crop, if there had been any at all, 

 would not have paid for the cultivation. The growth of 

 turnips also in the vicinity of the drain was fully doubled. 



