ry of every sort, the greater part of the oxen, and a
considerable part of the sheep, are fatted upon this corn; that it is the
best food for horses; and that, when ground and dressed in various ways,
it is used in bread, in puddings, in several other ways in families; and
that, in short, it is the real staff of life, in all the countries where
it is in common culture, and where the climate is hot. When used for
poultry, the grain is rubbed off the cob. Horses, sheep, and pigs, bite
the grain off, and leave the cob; but horned cattle eat cob and all.

262. I am to speak of it to you, however, only as a thing to make you some
bacon, for which use it surpasses all other grain whatsoever. When the
grain is in the whole ear, it is called corn in the ear; when it is rubbed
off the cob, it is called shelled corn. Now, observe, ten bushels of
shelled corn are equal, in the fatting of a pig, to fifteen bushels of
barley; and fifteen bushels of barley, if properly ground and managed,
will make a pig of ten score, if he be not too poor when you begin to fat
him. Observe that everybody who has been in America knows, that the finest
hogs in the world are fatted in that country; and no man ever saw a hog
fatted in that country in any other way than tossing the ears of corn over
to him in the sty, leaving him to bite it off the ear, and deal with it
according to his pleasure. The finest and solidest bacon in the world is
produced in this way.

263. Now, then, I know, that a bushel of shelled corn may be grown upon
one single rod of ground sixteen feet and a half each way; I have grown
more than that this last summer; and any of you may do the same if you
will strictly follow the instructions which I am now about to give you.

1. Late in March (I am doing it now,) or in the first fortnight of April,
dig your ground up _very deep_, and let it lie rough till between the
seventh and fifteenth of May.

2. Then (in dry weather if possible) dig up the ground again, and make it
smooth at top. Draw drills with a line two feet apart, just as you do
drills for peas; rub the grains off the cob; put a little very rotten and
fine manure along the bottom of the drill; lay the grains along upon that
six inches apart; cover the grain over with fine earth, so that there be
about an inch and a half on the top of the grain; pat the earth down a
little with the back of a hoe to make it lie solid on the grain.

3. If there be any danger of slugs, you m