HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 243 
tlie progress ■which the stalk makes during the period of midsummer, is 
most important to the success of the crop. It is then that the process of 
rooting is going on, which is commonly over before the ear begins to make 
its appearance. If the subsoil remain unbroken, the roots from necessity 
spread themselves over the surface, ceasing their extension before the period 
when, if ever, the drought makes its appearance. If dry weather super- 
venes during the month of August, when the growing ear is calling for most 
nourishment, it has become too late for the roots to take a n'ew direction, 
even if the state of the soil permitted it. Had the land been well subsoiled 
the roots, during their most thrifty season, would have placed themselves at 
such a depth as to have found moisture at all events. The stalk, thus pro- 
tected, is never taken by surprise. Having assumed a downward direction, 
the roots continue their descent so long as the urgent demand made by the 
stalk and ear is continued. 
The following observations on this subject, will confirm the above reason- 
ing. 
During .the present season (1852,) a piece of land of about eight acres, on 
the farm of the N. H. Asylum for the Insane, composed of a light sandy 
loam upon rather a firm subsoil, was, under the writer's direction, plowed 
deeply with the subsoil plow and planted with Indian corn in the usual man- 
ner, and with no extra manuring. The season was extremely dry, even at 
the time of sowing, and much of the ground required re-planting in conse- 
quence, before the blade made its appearance. Light rains about the mid- 
dle of June, gave the crop its first start, after which with the exception of a 
shower on the 28th of July, which hardly penetrated below the surface, no 
rain fell till nearly the last of August. The season being unusually hot, 
the drought was, consequently, very severe. The roots of the corn were 
examined with some care from week to week. On the middle of July, they 
were found to have reached the depth of a,bout eight inches, after which, to 
the end of the month, they made hardly any progress. The dry weather 
began to be severely felt in August, and it was remarked that during no 
period did the roots elongate so rapidly as during the dryest and hottest 
weather, reaching, before the harvest, to the depth of full eighteen inches. 
During this time the leaves remained green, full, and uncurled, and the ear 
filled with no interruption, while several fields in the vicinity, on the same 
kind of soil, suffered severely — some being almost cut off. 
3. Suhsoil plowing is an indispensable part of the system of tliorough 
drainage. 
I would here wish to impress on the reader the importance of the remarks 
