m. 151.] 405 



lire tend to run off the hill instead of sinking into it. 3d, part of 

 the manure is turned up and exposed, and it applied to the corn in 

 the hill, further removed from the air and moisture by being buried 

 deeper. 4th, more labor and trouble are required in turning up the 

 hills, while the weeds are most likely only to be buried, and soon 

 appear again. 5th, more room is required between the rows, and 

 consequently a less yield per acre. 



The advantages in stirring and loosening the earth in place of 

 billing it about Indian corn, are: 1st, The root is not buried deep- 

 er, and the earth all around the plant is in good tilth. 2d, dew, 

 rain and moisture are allowed freely to penetrate the soil and benefit 

 the plant. 3rd, the action of the manure, whether applied broad- 

 cast, or laid in with the seed, is hastened, without being directly ex- 

 posed. 4th, the trouble and labor are less, while the weeds are more 

 liable to be cut and destroyed, £s a plow armed with a coulter only, 

 is sufficient to stir and loosen the soil. 5th, a larger yield must fol- 

 low; and the plants being closer, the stirring of the earth is more 

 easily accomplished, and with more benefit to the crop. 



MADDER. 



Gen. James Tallmadge, in alluding to the cultivation of this valua- 

 ble drug in America, says: 



It would form a very valuable staple, and keep at home some 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars, and by export, bring many home 

 from foreign nations. Madder and silk are of immense value to us, 

 and we must become producers of them both. 



European books give us instructions as to the culture of madder; 

 but I have entirely too much confidence in American genius to be- 

 lieve that we shall ever require the numbers of women, and children, 

 and cattle, and the spading used in the old world, to bring that 

 valuable drug into market. We shall be able by deep ploughing, 

 and by using the subsoil plough, to till our soil to the requisite depth 

 (some twenty inches) and contrive to cultivate it as well and per- 

 haps better than they do in Holland and France. I have witnessed 

 the operations in the madder fields near Avignon in France, and 

 feel assured that we can excel them at it, not by their 'ways, but by 



