48 On Planting Corn, 



ing one, and some three stalks in a hill. After the first 

 hoeing, a small handful of unleached ashes was put 

 round each hill through the field. In those portions of 

 the field where the corn was planted thick, I directed 

 the suckers when about eight or ten inches long, to be 

 plucked off*, so as to leave no part of the shoot on the 

 original stalk ; then the dirt was drawn about to prevent 

 bleeding. The corn was suckered three times. When 

 the shoots began to appear above the second joint they 

 were left for bearing. The third of the field planted in 

 the usual mode was left to nature, and was not suckered. 

 The two feet corn was cultivated by hand hoeing. In 

 the other parts, the harrow or the plough was used 

 twice ; the two last hoeings were plain. The rankness 

 and tenderness of the stalks would not admit of the 

 plough. The eighteen inch and common way planting 

 were well hilled : the two feet corn would not allow hill- 

 ing, but in a slight manner. The corn planted in the 

 usual mode suffered much more by falling to the 

 ground than either of the other lands ; owing, I sup- 

 pose, to the feebleness of the secondary stalks or suck- 

 ers : the two feet corn stood the m.ost firm and erect. 



On the night succeeding the 31st of August, my 

 field v/as so situated as to receive manifest injury from 

 the frost. At harvest I was careful to make an exact 

 measurement of the corn upon each portion of the field, 

 by a half bushel, then examined by the town standard. 

 The field I measured by the surveyor's chain ; it con- 

 tained one hundred and eighty rods of ground. The 

 produce on each part was as follows, viz. 



60 rods planted square, two feet distance, yielded 39 

 bushels and 1 1 quarts, which is 105 bushels to the acre. 



