62 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



about 96 pounds of ears at husking to make one bushel of dry 

 shelled corn. Let future experiments be tried and this amount 

 may be reduced a little. 



An experiment was tried a few years ago by one of your 

 Committee, on the King Philip corn, and the shrinkage was 34 

 per cent., from two years' trial. It has been said that the great 

 corn crop, reported a few years ago in Plymouth County, of 

 145 bushels to the acre, was calculated from 75 pounds of ears 

 for the bushel of the large, smutty, white corn. It is also said 

 that corn in its dry state, contains ten per cent, of water, and 

 that five per cent, of water is frequently expelled by grinding. 

 Let it be remembered that this corn was cut up on the 28th day 

 of September. Later cutting will give less shrinkage. 



We might rest here, but the importance of the subject of 

 raising grain forbids. The corn crop is the crop of New Eng- 

 land, next to the hay crop, the most indispensable ; it has been 

 conducive to the unparalleled growth of our country. It is 

 both a cereal and forage crop, furnishing an abundance of food 

 for both man and beast, and lies at the foundation of our 

 strength and prosperity. It is indigenous to this continent, 

 and was found among the Indians in the early history of our 

 country. 



More bushels of Indian corn are raised in the United States 

 annually, than of all other cereals put together. It makes our 

 pork, our beef, our mutton, our poultry ; it gives strength to 

 our horses, our oxen ; it gives us a double crop, of grain and of 

 hay ; is classed by botanists with the grasses, and is used at the 

 South as their principal " fodder " for their horses, mules and 

 cattle ; and the farmer who neglects the cultivation of this 

 important grain here in New England, denies the faith and 

 forfeits his name. It is said that the fodder from an acre pro- 

 ducing fifty bushels of corn, will pay for the cultivation after 

 the corn is planted, including the harvesting, which will be at 

 least two tons. 



To the young farmer we would say, when you plant corn, 

 plant for fifty bushels to the acre at least ; and when you 

 manure and cultivate as you may, you may expect seventy-five 

 bushels, which are equal to three tons of English hay ; added 

 to the two tons of stover makes five tons. And when you plant, 

 suffer only four blades to grow in a hill ; and graduate your 



