e broad leaves of the former
shading the young plants and preventing the too great evaporation of the
moisture from the ground; the roots strike little way, so that they rob
the corn of a very small portion of nourishment. The one crop trails to
an amazing length along the ground, while the other shoots up to the
height of several feet above it. When the corn is beginning to branch,
the ground should be hoed once over, to draw the earth a little to the
roots, and cut down any weeds that might injure it. This is all that is
done till the cob is beginning to form, when the blind and weak shoots
are broken off, leaving four or five of the finest bearing shoots. The
feather, when it begins to turn brown and dead, should also be taken
off; that the plant may have all the nourishment to the corn.

We had a remarkable instance of smut in our corn last summer. The
diseased cobs had large white bladders as big as a small puff-ball, or
very large nuts, and these on being broken were full of an inky black
liquid. On the same plants might be observed a sort of false
fructification, the cob being deficient in kernels, which by some
strange accident were transposed to the top feather or male blossoms. I
leave botanists to explain the cause of this singular anomaly; I only
state facts. I could not learn that the smut was a disease common to
Indian corn, but last year smut or dust bran, as it is called by some,
was very prevalent in the oat, barley and wheat crops. In this country
especially, new lands are very subject to the disease.

The ripe corn is either shocked as beans are at home, or the cobs pulled
and braided on ropes after the manner of onions, and hung over poles or
beams in the granaries or barns. The stripping of the corn gives rise
among some people, to what they call a husking-bee, which, like all the
other bees, is one of Yankee origin, and is not now so frequently
adopted among the more independent or better class of settlers.

The Indian corn is a tender and somewhat precarious crop: it is liable
to injury from the late frosts while young, for which reason it is never
put in before the 20th of May, or beginning of June, and even then it
will suffer; it has also many enemies; bears, racoons, squirrels, mice,
and birds, and is a great temptation to _breachy_ cattle; who, to come
at it, will even toss down a fence with stakes and riders for
protection, i.e. a pole or cross-bar, supported between crossed stakes,
that s