48 On Corn. 



to sucker the stalks, was very irksome to my boys, and 

 the price of labour rising at this time out of a due pro- 

 portion, and my other employments engrossing my time, 

 I did not pursue the experiment. Since that time I have 

 chiefly improved my small portion of land by letting it 

 to others. 



My neighbours are generally farmers, and are called 

 good farmers in the old fashioned way ; but they have 

 too much land to invite them to make experiments, and 

 to spend the summer upon a few acres. I do not know 

 that any of them have tried the methods which my pub- 

 lication prescribed. They saw and admired the result 

 of my experiment, but either for want of help or for 

 want of zeal in making experiments, they went on in 

 the old track — raising 20 or 30 bushels on an acre. — 

 They had as many acres as they could improve without 

 employing any additional labour on two or three acres, 

 which would have filled their cribs, as full as they are 

 commonly filled from ten or twelve. I have not omitted 

 to pursue the method stated in my publication, from the 

 slightest conviction that there is any error or defect hi 

 the system, but merely from my not being employed in 

 farming, as my stated business. Too much of my time 

 would be engrossed to pursue the course effectually. — 

 Want of leisure and capital, prevented my course of ex- 

 periments, in such a manner as the importance of the 

 subject demanded. — My publication was designed to 

 invite farmers of property, and practical husbandmen, 

 to pursue the experiment. And I am persuaded that 

 they might pursue it to as great advantage, as my pub- 

 lication supposes. Not looking much to my little por- 

 tion of land, and unable to procure labourers at a rea- 



