FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 281 



I want nothing better, if they only have all they can drink. I feed mine on 

 milk till grass comes, when they are ready to take care of themselves, and 

 grow and tlirive, instead of going from milk into winter quarters and dry feed, 

 as the other course necessitates. 



Mr. W. B. Langley of Nottawa read the following essay on 



COKN CULTUEE. 



Corn is a crop that takes less seed per acre than any other which we raise. 

 There is no crop on which so much depends on the selection and proper care of 

 the seed. We should endeavor to procure a corn that will produce the largest 

 and most uniform sized ears with the least stalk. You will often see the 

 largest stalk producing a very small ear. Greater ease and facility of husking 

 can be obtained by selecting ears for seed that are small where they are 

 attached to the stalk, this is also a mark of a good quality of corn. If a person 

 in selecting seed corn will decide on what qualities they wish their corn to 

 possess and will continue from year to year to select their seed with reference 

 to those qualities, viz. : time of maturing, size of stalk, height of ear from the 

 ground, color of corn, depth of kernel, size of cob, and if they find a quality 

 possessed by other corn which they wish to add it can be done by getting the 

 corn possessing it, mixing and planting it with their seed then continuing the 

 selection. Some farmers never lose a crop of corn on account of poor seed, while 

 others, after selecting, for want of care, have had to replant or lose their crop. 



There is no crop to which sojmuch injury is done by planting too close and 

 putting in too much seed as corn, I am ofttimes reminded of an incident that 

 happened over forty-five years ago, not far from the center of our county. 

 There was a new settler just preparing for planting his first crop of corn in 

 this country when older settler stopped, as he was passing along, to see what 

 he was about, said to him, '"We have got a good country here. Mister, but you 

 cannot cheat Providence ; he will not be cheated. If you will plant your corn 

 four and one-half or five feet apart and not put in more than four kernels in a 

 hill you will get a good crop of corn, but Providence will not be cheated." 



Another settler who came about the same time from Pennsylvania, where they 

 raised a small kind of corn and planted it close, in relating his experience, said 

 the first year he planted his corn three feet apart each way, and, tiiinking the 

 ground was new and strong and would bear it, put in from five to seven kernels 

 in a hill, and he got a great deal of fodder and not much corn. The next he 

 planted four feet apart each way and got a better crop of corn and not so much 

 fodder. Well, that was what he wanted. The next year he planted four and 

 a-half feet one way by five feet the other, and not more than four kernels in a 

 hill, and he got a still better crop of good corn. There is a great deal of time 

 saved in liusking good, fair ears instead of nubbins. Who has not seen a hill 

 of corn with a single stalk that would produce more corn than one with from 

 seven to nine stalks with each a small nubbin that took longer to husk than a 

 large ear? I know good farmers that have good ground, tend their corn well, 

 and beat themselves by having too many stalks in a hill, I know a farmer 

 that will not have more than three kernels planted in a hill tliat I never have 

 known to fail to have a good fair crop of corn, and in good seasons large ones. 

 Some, to insure a good stand of corn, will plant more than they wish to let 

 stand in a hill, intending to thin it out at some time, which they never do, and 

 so spoil their crop. 

 3G 



