ll, if the ground be
not deeply moved, and very near to the plants to which they are growing.
You will see in America a field of corn late in June, perhaps, which has
not been ploughed, looking to-day sickly and sallow. Look at it only in
four days' time, if ploughed the day after you saw it, and its colour is
totally changed. Five feet are accordingly recommended as the distance
between the rows, and six inches only between the plants."

A great advantage of Indian or Cobbett's corn is, that it occupies the
ground for little more than half the year: it is planted in May or June,
and ripens in November. Unlike common corn or grain, where there is
generally a superabundance of blades, every plant of Indian corn is of
importance: it cannot be spared; and as the sweetness of the early growth
renders it a tempting prey to birds, insects, and rabbits, it becomes
necessary to guard against their encroachments with the most lively care.

Weeds are to be instantly put down on their first appearance, or corn is
not to be expected; "the poor corn-plant, if left to itself, will soon be
like Gulliver when bound down by the Lilliputians." The hoe is the
instrument to be used on this occasion, and then the plough; the latter
operation is repeated twice; two double ploughings are the death of weeds,
and the life of the plants; the first takes place when the corn is from
six to eight inches high, and the second, about the middle of July, or
earlier, when the plants are about a foot and a half high, or from that to
two feet. "Let no one," says Cobbett, "be afraid of their tearing about
the roots of the plants, when they are at this advanced age and height;"
and in encouraging them to pursue the work resolutely and fearlessly, he
tells them of the way in which the Yankee farmer manages the matter, and
digresses, as he loves to digress, into a picture of manners, or an old
recollection.

"Ninety-nine of my readers out of a hundred, and I dare say, nine hundred
and ninety-nine out of a thousand, will shudder at the thought of tearing
about in this manner; thinking that breaking-off, tearing-off, cutting-off
the roots of such large plants, just as they are coming into bloom, must
be a sort of work of destruction. Let them read the book of Mr. Tull; or
let them go and see my friends the Yankees, who generally drive the thing
off to the last moment, especially if they be young enough to have a
'frolic' stand between them and the ploughing of