34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have given considerable attention , and am to some extent a 

 corn-fancier. 



I tliinlc it is tlie richest, the most beantiful, and the most 

 stylish of all the cultivated crops. When the blade first 

 shoots out of the ground, it pricks up like the ears of a race- 

 horse, and in every stage of growth it is beautiful. What is 

 more beautiful than a well-cultivated field of corn, stretching 

 away in straight rows till they become blended in one waving 

 mass of luxuriant folia2:e? 



I have a mode of cultivation which will produce a yield of 

 eighty bushels or more of shelled corn to the acre ; also a 

 rule for estimating the yield of a field of corn, which I will 

 describe to the meeting, and then show samples of the corn. 



I prefer sod-land for corn, ploughed in autumn, six inches 

 deep and no more, and ploughed with a swivel-plough. When 

 I commenced farming:, I bought a Holbrook and an Ames Plow 

 Company swivel-plough, and have never used, and never intend 

 to use, any other kind of plough. I would not have my land 

 ploughed into dead furrows and ridges with a land-side plough, 

 if it were done for nothing. These swivel-ploughs Avere not so 

 good as I wanted, and so I made a new one, which Avill do one- 

 quarter more work than the old swivel-ploughs with the same 

 power of draught, and do the work better, too. 



The field on which the samples were raised, which I have 

 here and shall show, was ploughed last autumn. In the spring 

 I spread on five cords, or fifteen two-horse loads, of stable 

 manure to the acre, which I worked in with a Boston horse- 

 hoe and a Geddes harrow. I then furrowed the field three and 

 a half feet apart each way, and laid a moderate shovelful of 

 stable manure in the hill, which takes about ten two-horse 

 loads to the acre, making twenty-five two-horse loads of 

 manure to the acre of corn, which is as much manure as I 

 think is economy to use. From my experience, I am con- 

 fident that for every additional load of manure the yield of 

 any kind of grain is not increased more than one bushel to 

 the load, and the yield of hay not more than one hundred 

 pounds to the additional load of manure. In seeding, I plant 

 five kernels to the hill, no more, nor less ; this is pretty 

 sure to make four stalks to the hill, which is as much as I 

 intend shall grow. When six to eight inches high, I hoc it. 



