The ground being good, and the sowing, or planting, having been properly performed, the next thing is the after management, which is usually called the cultivation.



If the subject be from seed, the first thing is to see that the plants stand at a proper distance from each other; because, if left too close, they cannot come to good. Let them also be thinned early; for, even while in seed leaf, they injure each other. Carrots, parsnips, lettuces, every thing, ought to be thinned in the seed leaf.

Hoe, or weed, immediately; and, let me observe here, once for all, that weeds never ought to be suffered to get to any size either in field or garden, and especially in the latter.

In England, where it rains, or drips, sometimes, for a month together, it is impossible to prevent weeds from growing. But in this fine climate, under this blessed sun, who never absents himself for more than about forty eight hours at a time, and who will scorch a dock root, or a dandelion root, to death in a day. and lengthen a water melon shoot 24 inches in as many hours: in this climate, scandalous indeed it is to see the garden or the field infested with weeds.

But, besides the act of killing weeds, cultivation means moving the earth between the plants while growing. This assists them in their growth: it feeds them: it raises food for their roots to live upon.

A mere flat hoeing does nothing but keep down the weed.. The hoeing when the plants are become stout, should be deep; and, in general, with a hoe that has spanes instead of a mere flat plate In short, a sort of prong in the posture of a hoe And the spanes of this prong hoe may be longer, or shorter, according to the nature of the crop to be hoed.

Deep hoeing is enough in some cases; but, in others, digging is necessary to produce a fine and full crop. If any body will have a piece of Cabbages, and will dig between the rows of one half of them, twice during their growth, and let the other half of the piece have nothing but a flat hoeing, that person will find that the half which has been digged between, will, when the crop is ripe, weigh nearly, if not quite, twice as much as the other half.

But, why need this be said in an Indian Corn country, where it is so well known, that, without being ploughed between, the corn will produce next to nothing!

It may appear, that, to dig thus amongst growing plants is to cut off, or tear off, their roots, of which the ground is full. This is really the case, and this does great good; for the roots, thus cut asunder, shoot again from the plant side, find new food, and send, instantly, fresh vigor to the plant.

The effect of this tillage is quite surprising. We are hardly aware of its power in producing vegetation; and we are still less aware of the distance, to which the roots of plants extend in every direction.

MR. TULL, the father of the drill husbandry, gives the following account of the manner, in which he discovered the distance to which certain roots extend. I should observe here, that he was led to think of the drilling of crops in the fields of England, from having, when in France, observed the effects of inner tillage on the vines, in the vinevards.

If he had visited America instead of France, he would have seen the effects of that tillage, in a still more striking light, on plants, in your Indian Corn fields; for, he would have seen these plants spindling, yellow, actually perishing, to day, for want of ploughing; and, in four days after a good, deep, clean and careful ploughing, especially in hot weather, he would have seen them wholly change their color, become of a bright and beautiful green, bending their leaves over the intervals, and growing at the rate of four inches in the twenty four hours.

The passage, to which I have alluded, is of so interesting a nature, and relates to a matter of so much importance, that I shall insert it entire, and also the plates, made use of by MR. TULL to illustrate his meaning. I shall not, as so many others have, take the thoughts, and send them forth as my own; nor, like Mr. JOHN CHRISTIAN CURWEN, steal them from TULL, and give them, with all the honor belonging to them, to a Bishop.

"A Method how to find the distance to which roots extend horizontally. A piece, or plot, dug and made fine, in whole hard ground the end A. 2 feet, the end B. 12 feet, the length of the piece 20 yards; the figures in the middle of it are 20 Turnips, sown early and well hoed.

The manner of this hoeing must be, at first, near the plants, with a spade, and each time afterwards, a foot distance, till the earth be once well dug; and, if weeds appear where it has been so dug, hoe them out shallow with the hand hoe. But, dig all the piece next the out lines deep every time, that it may be the finer for the roots to enter, when they are permitted to come thither.