THE GROWING OF CORN. 117 



doubt very much whether it is wise to undertake to raise a 

 crop of corn. 



Now, if I may state my own practice, it is this : I have a 

 hundred acres about my barn which are suitable for grass. 

 On that land I do not undertake to raise corn to any extent. 

 Occasionally I raise two or three acres, on account of some 

 peculiar circumstances. I have also intervale land on the 

 river, pasture-land (distant from my barn a mile or so, which 

 is a light loam), and easily cultivated upland, well drained 

 by nature, and exposed to the sun, and not very expensive 

 land. On this last kind of land I have raised a crop of 

 corn on the same parcel of sixteen acres for three years. 

 Dr. Sturtevant saw the first crop two years ago this sum- 

 mer. The crop of 1878, raised on the sward, was a very 

 good crop. The crop of 1879 was a poor crop. The crop 

 of 1880 has been, for the character of the land and the 

 tillage, a very good crop. The failure in 1879 was due, in 

 part, to the season, and in part to the circumstance, as I 

 think, that we neglected, at the time of the first cultivating, 

 to use the hand-hoe. We ran the cultivator through it, and 

 the weeds were left in the hills, and they got the mastery of 

 us to some extent; and although we went through the field 

 later in the season, and pulled out by hand those that had 

 grown large, the crop of corn was very much diminished by 

 weeds ; and this year, at the time of the first cultivation, we 

 went through with the hand-hoe, and just moved the earth 

 around the corn, so as to interrupt the growth of the weeds. 



Now, taking the mode of culture this year, it was this : 

 we ploughed in the spring (not very deep, of course ; for it 

 was old ground), then harrowed, then put on half a ton of 

 the Bay-State phosphate to the acre, then harrowed again, 

 then planted. We planted, not with the horse-planter, 

 but with the hand-planter. Then we went through once 

 with the cultivator, and used the hand-hoe, and then twice 

 with the cultivator afterwards. Then, when the corn was 

 just earing, we cut it up, stooked it, and, when both the 

 fodder and the corn were seasoned thoroughl}^ we husked 

 the corn in the field, took up the corn and the husks every 

 night, both being well seasoned, and put them where they 

 were to be stowed. 



We did not weigh the whole of the corn-fodder ; but we 



