228 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a rank, uneven growth, liable to rust and lodge badly, thereby proving fatal 

 to a good crop. The fourth course should be a seeding to clover, or a mixture 

 of clover and timothy. tSome prefer to sow the timothy with the wheat, and 

 the clover the following spring, before the ground settles. I prefer to sow 

 both in the spring, as timothy sown in the fall is a detriment to the wheat. 

 The spring after the wheat crop comes off, such artificial manures may be 

 applied to the clover as tlie soil needs. The fifth year the timothy makes a 

 good showing, and this crop is continued for one or more years, according to 

 circumstances, or until the land is wanted to begin another rotation. 



In conclusion I would warn farmers against the danger of a system of crop- 

 ping that takes everything from the soil, giving nothing in return, and any 

 farmer who is guilty of so doing, not only robs and impoverishes his laud, but 

 robs his children, by leaving to them an inheritance of worthless, worn out 

 acres, made so by a pernicious system of cropping. 



DISCUSSION. 



In answer to a question by Secretary Baird, Mr. Merrick said he had a heavy 

 soil and did not often fail to get a catch of grass. When he did fail he had 

 to plow again. 



Prof. Johnson referred to the prejudice against sowing wheat after oats in 

 rotation, and asked for a statement on this point from the farmers present. 

 A few did not approve of it, but most of those present sowed wheat after oats 

 in their rotation, with good results. 



CORN CULTURE. 



BY JOHN M. HUNTEE. 

 [Read at GreenviUe Institute.] 



It seemed passing strange that our worthy friend, our chairman of commit- 

 tee on programme, should select me to write a paper on the culture of Indian 

 corn. We expected to hear all such matter treated both scientifically and 

 practically by our Lansing friends, or at least by our local graduates. I don't 

 think I can tell you of any scientific way of raising corn. If some city chap 

 should ask me for some instruction on corn culture, I could give him plenty. 

 Why, its the easiest thing in the world to raise corn. I should tell him to 

 select a good piece of sod, haul on thirty or forty loads of well rotted manure 

 to the acre, plow it early in May, harrow thoroughly, work in plenty of 

 compost, be sure and have plenty of fertilizers at hand, put a handful of bo-ne 

 dust in the hill at planting, another handful of Mape's special corn manure on 

 just after it comes up, cultivate often and well, and he would have no trouble 

 in growing a good crop of corn. But, as I look around the room, I don't see 

 any city chap, or at least none that wants to learn how to grow corn. Here 

 are mostly farmers, intelligent looking, earnest men, most of whom can raise 

 a better crop of corn than I can. It looks like sending coals to New Castle, 

 so I will not try. But I Avill tell you how I grow the crop year after year on 

 my own farm. My farm of eighty acres is fenced in eight and ten acre 

 fields, one of which is planted to corn each succeeding spring, always on sod. 



