140 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



loam, had been in sward for a number of years, producing 

 about, one ton of hay to the acre. It was formerly a very rocky 

 piece of land ; many of the rocks had been removed by drilling 

 and blasting for wall and other purposes, though a pretty good 

 sample still remained. It was an oblong piece of ground, and 

 contained more than an acre ; one half acre on one side was meas- 

 ured off, and that only sub-soiled. It was manured by carting 

 on to the sward, and spreading about twenty loads of compost 

 manure to the acre, which was ploughed under. The compost 

 was made from mud and soil carted into my barn cellar, and 

 mixed with the manure from my cattle and horse and hogs ; for 

 my cellar forms a pen for the hogs, and I avail myself of their 

 assistance in mixing the materials. This compost was hoed 

 over and mixed m the yard a week or two before carting out. 

 May 14th to 18th, 184(3, the land was ploughed, then rolled, and 

 afterwards harrowed lengthwise of the furrows, so as net to dis- 

 turb the sod. May 20th and 21st, it was planted in rows three 

 feet apart, and two feet apart in the row, dropping four clevels 

 in each hill ; intending to thin the crop out at hoeing time to 

 three stalks in a hill ; but, from the dry weather, and other 

 causes, there were somany missinghills that no thinningwas after- 

 wards made. The kind of corn planted was the large white corn, 

 called the Whitman corn. June 10th to 12th, run the cultivator 

 twice between the rows, and hoed the first time. June 23d to 

 30th, cultivated and hoed a second time. July 14th, run the 

 cultivator once between the rows. 17th, the cultivator was 

 used again as on the 14th, and the weedy parts of the piece 

 hoed a third time. Nothing further was done to the crop until 

 harvest, except occasionally pulling up weeds — experiment, 

 reason, and experience having satisfied me, that nature never 

 designed the mutilation of this plant, by cutting the stalks for 

 the perfection of the grain ; that the farmer loses all the value 

 of the stalks removed, in weight of the grain, besides something 

 of its sweetness — bread made of corn suffered to grow until 

 ripe without topping, being sweeter than that made from corn 

 topped in the old way. A fact further confirmed by the expe- 

 rience of those recently engaged in the manufacture of corn- 

 stalk sugar; one writer observes, ''the plan to prevent the 



