THE GROWING OF CORN. 103 



Dr. Sturtevant. I have demonstrated it, by an experi- 

 ment continued for five years, on a field of eight acres ; and 

 the land improved under my hand, and gave me four tons of 

 Hungarian grass, this year, per acre. 



Question. Have you ever tried Stockb ridge manure on 

 heavy soil ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. No, sir: my soil is light soil. The 

 experience of our farmers who have used it on heavy soil is, 

 that it has value ; and on light soils the report is, that it is 

 also valuable. 



Mr. L. H. Chamberlain (of West Brookfield). I would 

 like to say a word in regard to the application of fertilizers, 

 in answer to the gentleman who put the question. There is 

 a gentleman in Worcester who took an old piece of light 

 pasture-land to make an experiment, put thirty-five dollars' 

 worth of Stockbridge fertilizer on the field, and planted with 

 corn, and he raised sixty-seven bushels and a half of shelled 

 corn to the acre. The next year, he applied just the same 

 quantity, and raised eighty-two bushels of shelled corn to 

 the acre. The third year, he applied the same quantity, and 

 raised eighty-two bushels and a half. This last year, he 

 sowed it with oats, and seeded down. He had a very heavy 

 crop of oats, and he sajs he has got as good a field of grass 

 as ever grew on bis place. He says he shall mow that piece 

 of ground for four years in succession, if he lives, without 

 any fertilizer whatever, no matter whether it yields two 

 hundred pounds to the acre, or two tons. 



Mr. Williams. As I understand the doctor, he says he 

 cuts his corn-fodder just after the ear is glazed. The ques- 

 tion I wish to ask is. What effect would it have upon the 

 grain, provided you cut it before it was glazed ? Or, perhaps, 

 I might put it in this form : I want to know the power of 

 development of the grain in the stalk after it has been cut. 



Dr. Sturtevant. The development of the grain in the 

 stalk depends upon the motion of the juice of the plant, and 

 the acquisition of carbonic acid from the air. The corn-leaf, 

 in its natural condition, takes these products from the air, and 

 transforms them into carbon-hydrates, which are transferred 

 by the changes in the plant to the grain. The corn acts by 

 its own laws of growth, and all these processes stop whenever 

 the leaf wilts ; so that these transferences cannot then take 



