ABOUT FRUITS, FLO WEES AND FARMING. 61 



on account of its prying, intrusive disposition in arable 

 lands, that our farmers are unwilling to give it a chance ? 



PLOWING CORN. 



MANY farmers, because their fathers did so before them, 

 plow their corn lands very shallow before planting; but 

 make up for it in deep plowing while dressing the corn- 

 crop. Why is corn plowed at all ? 



1. To DESTROY WEEDS. In this climate if a plow is not 

 kept lively in the early part of the season, weeds will com- 

 pletely take the crop. The soil is like a table full of food. 

 Every man who sits down to it makes it less. Every weed 

 eats up a part of the soil, and takes away, needlessly, so 

 much from the corn. But it is not merely the nutritive 

 ingredients which are extracted but what, on some soils, 

 in some seasons, is even worse weeds drink up the moist- 

 ure. There are many soils which could afford to lose much 

 mineral and vegetable substance without lessening the sup- 

 ply for corn ; but, in this climate, in ordinary seasons, no 

 soil can afford to squander its moisture. 



But a corn crop is often put in to act as a cleanser of the 

 soil when it has become foul. This end can only be 

 answered by a rigid persecution and destruction of the 

 weeds throughout the whole growing season. Some 

 fanners, strangely enough, will deal thoroughly with their 

 fields, but allow the edges and fence rows to swarm witli 

 weeds that luxuriate and ripen seed which the winds 

 scatter all over the field. This is as if a man should busy 

 himself all day long, in driving hogs out of his field, but 

 leave all the holes open where they broke in. The soil 

 should be thoroughly worked. 



2. To PREVENT DRYNESS. Nothing" is wider of the truth, 

 than letting corn alone in dry weather for fear of " firing " 



