On Corn and Potatoes. 335. 



a little instruction and a trivial expense, thinned them 

 to my entire satisfaction, as soon as they were out of 

 the way of grubs and crows : and I expected to escape 

 re-planting this year by dropping six grains where only 

 two were designed to stand, and keeping a boy in the 

 field to drive off crows: the seed ears were selected and 

 a little shelled off each end of the cob, reserving the 

 remainder for planting. I have since been informed by 

 an observing farmer that the hearts of two or three 

 grains from each ear designed for planting should be ex- 

 amined with a sharp knife, and if they are found to ad- 

 here closely to the flint on each side, and are otherwise 

 sound and healthy, the ear from which they were taken 

 may be relied on : perhaps this precaution in addition to 

 an unusual quantity of seed might go far toward ensur- 

 ing a sufficiency of plants if crows are kept off. 



Potatoes cannot be grown extensively except for cat- 

 tle, and it has been asserted by many who are well in- 

 formed, that they wdll not pay for cultivating, if expend- 

 ed in this way ; they are also a troublesome and perish- 

 able crop, and come off too late for the corn to derive 

 any advantage from turning the ground they occupied 

 to it, consequently the space left between corn grown 

 in this way, cannot be so extensively useful until plants 

 are selected for this purpose, that will combine the des- 

 truction of weeds, an early harvest, with a capability of 

 withstanding a sufficient manuring for wheat, and grass 

 seeds to follow, and that are not perishable, and do not 

 require huckstering to get them off; and there are plants 

 which it is believed will answer all those purposes, but 

 I do not learn that they have been grown in this way, 

 and perhaps some of those would better accord with 



