THE CULTURE OF CORN. 81 



THE CULTURE OF CORN. 



[From the Eighth Annual Report of the New-Jersey State Board of Agri- 

 culture, 1881.] 



BY HENRY STEWART, BERGEN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY. 



Corn is the basic crop of American agriculture. If the 

 annual product, equalling the enormous amount of a bil- 

 lion five nundrecl million bushels, or nearly fifty million tons 

 or five million railroad car-loads, be valued at the point of 

 export in comparison with other cyops, we should have the 

 following figures : — 



Value of average crop of corn $900,000,000 



Value of average crop of cotton 200,000,000 



Value of average crop of wheat 500,000,000 



But it would be far easier to double the product of corn 

 than to double that of the other crops, and to produce a 

 supply which should add a thousand millions of dollars to 

 the wealth of the world. By only moderately good culture 

 this end might be achieved in one year if we should set 

 about it. There are, however, two difficulties, not practical 

 but ideal ones, wholly in the way. One is that corn cannot 

 be grown profitably by Eastern farmers ; and the other, that 

 it would be utterly impossible to dispose of such an enormous 

 quantity of corn if it were produced. I want to show that 

 both of these ideas are unfounded ; that, by good culture, 

 any farmer who has not yet tried to do it, or has not yet 

 done it, may double his product if he will ; and that, when 

 he has done it, he need be under no apprehension of wanting 

 purchasers for his surplus. 



It has been the fashion to believe, or at least to sav, that 

 the farms in the eastern parts of the country are exhausted; 

 that agriculture here is in danger of ruinous competition 

 from the newer lands of the West, and that it is cheaper to 

 buy Western corn than to grow it in the East. 



If any thing could be needed to more clearly show the 



