bore is generally much greater than in EnglanJ, and it will 

 seldom be necessary to res«rt to the covered drains so com- 

 mon in that country, and so expensive. 



An essential requisite of good husbandry is, that the soil 

 should be kept free from weeds. In this particular there 

 are among us great deticiencies. We are the less excusable 

 in not keeping our lands free from weeds as we have one 

 crop which is peculiarly favorable to that object, I mean 

 Indian corn or maize. This alone gives us a great ad- 

 vantage over those countries where it is not cultivated, 

 that is over almost all Europe. Perhaps we are not fully 

 aware of the value of this noble plant. The celebrated Arthur 

 Young considers it as the test of a good climate for agricul- 

 ture. In Great-Britain and the larger part of France, it will 

 not come to maturity, the climate is too cold. In the south of 

 France and in some par^s of Italy it is cultivated to a consider- 

 able extent. Mr. Young says, the only good husbandry he 

 found in France was in those districts where maize was pro- 

 duced. Wherever this plant was cultivated, there was an 

 abundant supply of food for man and for domestic animals. 



Our soil and climate are well adapted to the growth of 

 maize. It produces a much larger quantity of food on the 

 same space, than any other kind of grain ; forty, fifty, sixty 

 bushels an acre, are not an uncommon crop, and several expe- 

 riments shew, that one hundred bushels may be obtained in 

 ordinary seasons, from a single acre. The stalks and husks af- 

 ford a nutritive food for cattle equal on an acre to half a ton of 

 hay, when the corn is good. 



It affords an excellent opportunity for enriching land, so that 

 no manure may be lost by evaporation. All kinds of manure, 

 animal, vegetable, or mineral, and in any condition if turned 

 under the soil are beneficial, and may be applied without dan- 

 ger. I mentioned it in the first instauce as a clean crop, that 

 is a crop that enables the farmer to keep his land free from 

 weeds, and prepare it for another. In England where 

 turnips and beans are used as crops for cleaning land, the value 



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