and reckons upon a deep ploughing between the hills after it is partly
grown up for a supply of health and vigour. This great distance between
the hills, sometimes placed four feet apart one way, and five feet apart
another way, and the height of the plant with its lofty top and its
lateral ears form a far different picture than that presented by an
English corn field. Cobbett's or the dwarf corn is, however, only four
feet high: he planted his in rows three feet apart, which distance he is
inclined to think is too small. "Three feet do not give room for good,
true, and tolerably deep ploughing: and that is the main thing in the
cultivation of corn, which indeed will not thrive well, 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,