376 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



the great sin of American agriculture is too thin sowing. 

 Grass is nearly always sowed too thin, and the same is true 

 of small grain. In England they sow four and five and 

 sometimes six bushels of oats to the acre ; in this country 

 generally not more than a bushel or a bushel and a half. 

 Hence in England they yield three or four times as heavy as 

 in this country ; while in this country we never hear of an 

 extraordinary crop where less than three or four bushels 

 to the acre were sown. Now, we venture to affirm that no 

 very large corn crop was ever grown unless it was planted 

 more than usually thick. In the crop of George W. Wil- 

 liams, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, the com was planted in 

 rows two feet apart, with a stalk every foot in the rows. 

 This crop produced 167 bushels to the acre. But there is 

 another important advantage of close planting. The corn 

 very soon becomes so dense that the ground is shaded, and 

 the growth of the grass is prevented, and the moisture 

 retained in the soil. By this method of cultivation, no 

 grass is ever allowed to absorb the moisture from the earth, 

 or to take up the nutritious gases which ought to be appro- 

 priated exclusively to the corn. 



Fourth — ^Deep planting. This probably operates favor- 

 ably by giving the roots a bedding where the soil is always 

 moist. Another advantage may be that the roots are thus 

 not so liable to be broken by the plow in cultivation. But it 

 must be here noted, that by Mr, Young's methed, the corn 

 is "laid by" before the roots are so extended as to be liable 

 to much injury from the plow. 



Fifth and last — It will be observed that, by Mr. Young's 

 method, the soil is kept very friable and loose, and that to 

 a considerable depth. This may be considered the all- 

 essential point in husbandry. One of the chief advantages 

 of all manures is, so to divide the soil that the atmos- 

 phere, from which plants derive their principal nutri- 

 ment, may freely penetrate to the roots of the plants. In 

 Buch a loose soil, too, it is well known that much less rain is 



