CHEAP CORN. 247 



But when you are told my talk is to be upon the Cheap Cultivation 

 of Indian Corn, methinks I hear a whisper, ''How trite, how thread- 

 bare !" 



To some, perhaps, the lengthy articles of the press and the numer- 

 ous discussions in farmers' meetings upon this subject ma}' have 

 shorn it of its novelty, if not also of its interest. Nevertheless, we 

 have no doubt there are owners of many acres right here in York 

 Count}' who are not fully decided to-day whether it is cheaper to 

 produce the corn they consume upon their own farms or leave those 

 farms partially neglected and devoting a portion of their time to some 

 other calling and purchase their corn from the fertile plains of the 

 West. 



The importance and amount of the corn crop of our country, as 

 well as the consumption and exportation of its products, are told by 

 figures so large as to be almost beyond our comprehension. I shall 

 not weary you with statistics. It is of but little moment to us, to- 

 day, how much our country produces or consumes, or our State or 

 our county even. The great practical question confronting you and 

 me, brother farmers, is. Can we get the corn we are consuming and must 

 have any cheaper than at present? 



I stand before vou firm in the belief that it can be grown from 

 twenty-five to thirty per cent below the present market price, and this 

 not only in my State and my county but also in yours as well. I 

 propose to describe the methods and estimate the cost in detail of 

 the production of a bushel of shelled corn grown in a field of not 

 less than ten acres in extent, nor of not less than fifty bushels yield 

 per acre, and that right here in the Pine Tree State. 



And if, perchance, I should not recommend the adoption of all 

 the methods and machinery of which you have heard, you will please 

 not take it for granted they have not been tried upon my farm and 

 discarded for something more economical. You will pardon me if 

 in stating a simple fact, I say it has been my study for a quarter of a 

 century to grow cheaj) corn, and I hope I may not seem to draw too 

 largely from the operations upon ray own farm, although the methods 

 I shall describe are the result of many experiments and of long prac- 

 tice. Last harvest I rounded my crib with fifteen hundred baskets 

 of "'golden ears," while the autumn before two thousand baskets 

 crowned the labors of the year. I devote much of my attention to 

 this branch of farm husbandry, because my surroundings are adapted 



