INDIAN CORN. 67 



The corn raised upon one rod, with the Stockbridge For- 

 mula, weighed fifty-nine pounds and a half. The corn raised 

 upon one rod, with the hen-manure compost, weighed fifty- 

 nine pounds. 



The society's standard has been from seventy-two to eighty 

 pounds to the bushel. This would give in the one case over 

 a hundred and thirty-one bushels, and in the other over a 

 hundred and eighteen bushels of shelled merchantable corn per 

 acre, — an unprecedented crop. We were not satisfied with 

 this result ; and, believing that it requires more than eighty 

 pounds of corn on the ear to the bushel, we determined to test 

 the matter thoroughly. Mr. Flook, entering earnestly into 

 the question, hung the corn over the kitchen stove, where 

 it remained two weeks drying. At the request of Messrs. 

 Ordway and Day, I examined and again weighed the corn 

 on the day it was shelled, Oct. 29 ; and the result proves what 

 your committee expected it would, — the corn was dry, hard, 

 flinty, and fit to grind. 



The shelled corn raised upon one rod, wjith Stockbridge 

 Formula, weighed thirty-six pounds and three-quarters (a 

 shrinkage of twenty-two pounds and three-quarters), a hun- 

 dred and five bushels per acre. 



The shelled corn raised on one rod with hen-manure com- 

 post weighed thirty-six pounds (a shrinkage of twenty-three 

 pounds), a hundred and two bushels and six-sevenths per 

 acre, making Mr. Flook's actual crop nearly a hundred and 

 four bushels per acre, instead of a hundred and thirty-one 

 bushels, as tested by the standard of seventy-two pounds 

 per bushel. It will be seen that the shrinkage from the gross 

 weight when harvested, to the net weight when merchanta- 

 ble, is nearly forty per cent ; and we hope our trustees will 

 hereafter make the standard ninety pounds per bushel. 



When we take into consideration the enormous amount of 

 corn exported in 1876 (50,910,532 bushels, nearly seventy 

 per cent greater than the previous year, and also the fact 

 that New Hampshire last year raised 2,029,000 bushels of 

 corn, and Massachusetts only 1,150,000), would it not be 

 well for the old Essex Society to endeavor to increase 

 this all-important crop by offering more than one premium 

 for corn ? 



Horace F. Longfellow, Chairman. 



