VEGETABLES DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 217 



in bloom, and every three weeks thereafter to July at 

 New York, and until August in Georgia, selecting the 

 early sorts for the first and last plantings. 



The early crop may be forwarded a month, by planting 

 a few hills in pots under glass, on a large scale, in boxes, 

 thus : " Prepare boxes about 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 

 5 inches high. Make one of the sides so that it can be 

 easily removed. Fill these boxes with loam mixed with 

 some manure. Then prepare some strips of board 2J 

 inches wide, 5 inches long, and as thin as the blade of a 

 hoe. Put these down endwise into the loam, so as to di- 

 vide the loam into squares, 2$ inches square and 5 inches 

 deep. (As these squares are each to contain a hill of 

 corn, it will be seen that the thin strips are to prevent the 

 roots of one hill from interfering with those of another.) 

 Place these boxes in a sunny place, well protected from 

 the west wind, and about a month before the usual plant- 

 ing time, plant 4 kernels of corn in each one of these 

 squares. By planting time, that corn will be 5 or 6 inches 

 high. Having prepared the ground and opened the hills, 

 take the hills of corn from the boxes in the hand, put them 

 into the prepared hill, press the earth around them, and 

 the corn is at once planted and hoed the first time. It 

 would be well to use some phosphate of lime or hen ma- 

 nure, so as to cause the corn to start immediately. In a 

 short time the corn will be as large as usual when hoed 

 the second time." (New England Farmer.) 



The ground for corn should be deeply plowed or spade- 

 ed, then laid off in hills three feet apart each way, for 

 Sugar and Early corn, leaving three or four .plants in a 

 hill, while two plants in hills five feet apart is near enough 

 for large Southern corn. If the ground is not rich, place 

 a shovelful of decayed manure to each hill. Fresh dung 

 can be immediately applied to corn, if spread before plow- 

 ing, and well turned in. Plant four or five grains to a 

 hill, and cover two inches deep. When they are up, thin 

 10 



