51 



own experience with the result of two or three experiments. 

 As early as the year 1827, I became convinced that, in the 

 event of a drouth in summer, the ordinary method and 

 routine of planting corn, in my neighborhood, was ruin- 

 ous in its results, entailing on the planter the necessity of 

 getting his supply elsewhere than from his own field. 

 Acting from the suggestion derived from books on agricul- 

 ture, I took for my first experiment a level-, much- 

 exhausted red-clay field, which produced not five bushels 

 of corn per acre the preceding year. 



,' About the ' first of December, I started the work of 

 ploughing and subsoiling with bull-tongue ploughs and an 

 old-fashioned Coulter, running two of the former to one of 

 the latter, thus subsoiling every alternate furrow. 



Early in February the field was laid off four feet each 

 way with a seven inch shovel, followed by a subsoil 

 plough. In each check, a small shovelful of a compost of 

 cotton seed, stable manure and the scrapings of -the lots, 

 was put and cbverpd with a tongue plough. In March the 

 field was planted in corn, the seed having been soaked in 

 a solution of saltpetre, and was covered with hoes to the 

 depth of about two inches. As soon as the plant attained 

 the height of three or four inches it was thoroughly 

 ploughed with tongue ploughs and followed by the hoe 

 hands. It received two other ploughings with snort 

 shovels, and was laid by before the tassel appeared. The 

 cultivation was level, rather drawing the earth from, 

 than t6 the stalk, at the early stage of its growth. 



The contrast between this and other fields around, dur- 

 ing the hot and dry season, was striking. In this field, 

 the vigorous growth and dark green blades gave but little 

 indication of drouth, while in many fields around, the 

 plant was literally being scorched to dryness. 



The product was put down at twenty-five bushels per 

 acre, being a gain ot at least twenty bushels per acre over 

 the preceding crop. ' 



From the fpregoing experiment we learn the be-neficial 

 effect of opening the soil for the reception and retention of 

 moisture during the winter, the better pulverization by 

 freezing, and adaptation of the soil for the ramification of 

 the lateral roots of the corn, 



. It is remarkable that this method of preparing the soil, 

 successfully practiced among the ancients, should have 

 been lost sight of in our country until within the last forty 



