1884.] QUESTIONS. 123 



117| bushels to the acre; he did not finish it. Being inter- 

 ested in corn culture, and desiring to obtain the best results 

 for the labor expended, I wish he would finish it. I should 

 like to know whether the method adopted was hill cultivation 

 or flat cultivation, or how it was done. 



Mr. Chamberlain. The method of cultivation in that 

 respect I should think was about an average between the two 

 extremes of level culture and ordinary hill culture. The soil 

 was a strong black loam, and I think that perhaps the grower 

 adopted a very wise method in the treatment of his own crop; 

 not that it will apply to all cases. I think you will see by the 

 statement which I have already made that this corn crop was 

 not excessively fertilized; twenty loads of barn-yard manure 

 being used and plowed under, and ten loads of composted 

 night soil being used upon the surface — no fertilizer in the 

 hill. I remember that in his statement he said this, " I culti- 

 vated this corn a number of times and hoed it only twice." 

 Beyond this I do not know that I can make any further ex- 

 planation. 



Question. How was it planted ? 



Mr. Chamberlain. It was planted three feet and a half 

 each way. He left four stalks in a hill. This, of course, was 

 in competition, and he adopted one little plan that was not 

 made public. In order to secure every hill, he went over this 

 field one night with a, solution of faris green in order to pre- 

 vent the cutting of any of this corn by the worm. I presume 

 that his competitors had no knowledge of this, and did not 

 try the same experiment. 



Mr. Fenn. My reason for asking the question was this : 

 Many of those present will remember that Dr. Sturtevant has 

 advanced the theory of root-pruning. The old-fashioned 

 method was to plow deep and make a large, square hill at the 

 last hoeing, which was, in effect, a system of root-pruning. 

 That system I used to follow, the same as my forefathers, but 

 for the last three or four years I have adopted flat cultivation, 

 and little or no hilling, and I have had better results ; and 



