^0 



to deny all common meadows.'* Thefe are burnt up, 

 in thofe countries, in the heat of fummer. 



The improving of our hufbandry, in New-England, 

 is to be expeded, not from a rejection of Indian corn, 

 as the ruin of our lands, but by a better management 

 of that crop, in order to render it, as it appears it 

 may be rendered, the bed preparation for a crop of 

 wheat, and other fmall grain. 



Every farmer knows how eagerly cattle devour 

 the entire plant of Indian corn in its green Hate j 

 and land in good condition will produce heavy crops 

 of it. Some years ago, juft when the ears were in 

 the milk, I cut clofe to the ground the plants grow- 

 ing on a meafured fpace, equal, as I judged, to the 

 average product of the whole piece ; and found that, 

 at the fame rate, an acre would yield twelve tons of 

 green fodder ; probably a richer and more nourifli- 

 ing food than any other known to the hufbandman. 

 And this quantity was the growth of lefs than four 

 months. The ground was rich, and yielded, at har- 

 veft, upwards of fifty bulhels of corn to the acre. 

 The green llalks of our northern corn are incom- 

 parably fweeter than thofe of the fouthern ftates ; at 

 lead when both forts are grown in the north. Per- 

 haps the greater and longer continued heats of the 

 fouth may give a richnefs to the fame large plants 

 which thefe cannot attain in the north. The flalks 

 I have grown, rofe to the height of 13 or 14 feet, 

 and many of them weighed above five pounds. To 

 fupport this height, they are neceffarily thick, and 

 woody in their fibres. My cows ate a fmall part of 

 them — reluctantly — while they would devour the 

 xlalks of our northern corn. It has appeared to me 

 that the fort called fweet corn (having a white fhriv- 

 died grain when ripe) yields ftalks of richer juice 



