86 farmers' and mechanics' journal. 



had been a hog-pen in one end of my patch, it was very clearly 

 seen that superiority of soil was not the cause of this marked dif- 

 ference. 



When corn is planted very early, it is commonly severely aflfect- 

 ed by frost ; so much so, that many of the plants are cut off by the 

 ground. This is unquestionably an injury to which no judicious 

 farmer would expose the plant, if the advantages obtained by very 

 early planting, could be had by planting later. Still if the roots 

 remain unhurt, they are of consequence established, and very soon 

 repair the injury done above the soil, after the frost ceases to act 

 on the plants. Of course they take the lead, and will maintain 

 their superiority over later planted corn. The ears also till and 

 ripen much better in northerly climates from this practice. 



The shooting and filling of them take place when the heat of the 

 sun is much greater ; and when less cloudy, cold, dripping weather 

 prevails, and the crop is nothing like so liable to be injured by 

 frost. The grounds are also sooner ready for crops sown in the 

 fall. This mode of management will often enable the cultivator to 

 grow the large and more productive corns, in climates where they 

 have been abandoned, from observing that they did not ripen when 

 planted at the usual time. 



When I introduced the large yellow gourdseed corn, from seed 

 procured from Huntingdon county, every farmer here ridiculed 

 the idea of attempting to grow corn of this description. They con- 

 sidered the soil and climate hostile to the growth even of the small- 

 er corns, and but little was planted. As they waited until the 

 earth was warmed before they planted, the crops were frequently 

 either destroyed, or greatly injured by frost. 



I had, however, seen the effects of early planting, and knew that 

 these men had been more or less conversant with it ever since they 

 had been old enough to assist in the labor done on a farm. Thej 

 were ignorant of ihe properties of maize, merely from not having 

 sufficiently considered that a farmer ought to endeavor to become 

 acquainted with the economy of the plants cultivated by him. 



If they had thought of this, they might have seen that the corn 

 planted by them, and every-body else, for growing early roasting 

 and boiling ears, was generally put into the ground much sooner 

 than that planted in fields. Also, that the corn planted for early 

 use always succeeded, unless the roots were materially injured by 

 frost ; and that this seldom happened : as actual and long-continu- 

 ed practice in their gardens had taught them, that it was unsafe to 

 plant for this purpose until materi d danger from frost had passed 

 by. For although gentlemen who keep gardeners, and those who 

 grow early corn for market, plant the very early varieties for green 

 corn, farmers very often plant the same kind which is grown in 

 their fields. 



As it seldom occurs that the whole of the ears are pulled off 

 when gree , practice, in his garden, might long since have taught 

 the farmer, that early planted corn, in cold, backward climates, 

 eared and filled much better than corn planted at the usual time : 



