

CROPS AND PROFITS. 129 



undervaluation of his traditional mode of labor, that 

 makes him show a distaste for the crop. 



Corn is a rank grower, and, very largely, a sur- 

 face feeder; for these reasons, it accommodates 

 itself better than most farm crops, to an awkward 

 and careless husbandry provided only, abundance 

 of gross fertilizers are present, and comparative 

 cleanliness secured. It is not a crop which I should 

 count a valuable assistant in bringing the sandy loam 

 of a neglected farm into a condition of prime fer- 

 tility. It has so rank an appetite for the inorganic 

 riches of a soil, as to forbid any accumulation of that 

 valuable capital. Nor do I clearly perceive how, in 

 the neighborhood of large towns, and upon light soils, 

 it can be made a profitable crop at the East. It has 

 a traditional sanctity, to be sure ; and a great many 

 pleasant old gentlemen of New England, who count 

 themselves shrewd farmers, would as soon think of 

 abandoning their heavy ox-carts, or of adopting a 

 long-handled shovel, as of abandoning their yearly 

 growth of corn. 



I think I have given the matter a fair test, not- 

 withstanding the objections of my Somersetshire 

 friend, and have added to my own experience, very 

 much observation of my neighbors' practice. And I 

 am very confident that if only a fair valuation be 

 placed upon the labor and manures required, that any 

 6* 



