We have two methods for doing this. The first one is below

Go to CMS –> Pages –> Home page in admin section and click Design section and then upadte Layout XML code with below

<block type=”catalog/product_new” name=”home.catalog.product.new” alias=”product_new” template=”catalog/product/new.phtml” after=”cms_page”>
<action method=”addPriceBlockType”>
<type>bundle</type>
<block>bundle/catalog_product_price</block>
<template>bundle/catalog/product/price.phtml</template>
</action>
<action method=”setProductsCount”><count>12</count></action>
</block>

This shows a maximum of 10 items.

The second one is change code in the magento files.

This example to show 10 items in 2 rows 5 products each.

You need to change the line in appcodecoreMageCatalogBlockProductNew.php
$products->setOrder(’news_from_date’)->setPageSize(5)->setCurPage(1);
change to
$products->setOrder(’news_from_date’)->setPageSize(10)->setCurPage(1);

And need to change new.phtml

<!–?php if ($i–>5): continue; endif; ?>
change to
<!–?php if ($i==5): echo “ “; endif; ?>
<!–?php if ($i–>9): continue; endif; ?>