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DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



and quiet. "Very respectfully yours, &c, F. K. 

 Phanix. Delavan, Wisconsin, Jan. 12, 1850. 



Experiments with Vegetables. — Having 

 been a constant reader of the Horticulturist from 

 the issuing of the first number, and learned much 

 in the perusal of its pages, I regard it as an in- 

 cumbent duty to accompany such acknowledg- 

 ment with a brief detail of some experiments 

 which I was prompted to make from notices in 

 your journal. The results of those experiments 

 have, in most instances, more than equalled my 

 most sanguine expectation, while otbers have 

 exceedingly disappointed me; and in some instan- 

 ces their repeated trials have given me repeated 

 mortification. That similar results would be eve- 

 rywhere obtained I am not warranted in saying ; 

 and furthermore, the testimony of others, equally 

 creditable with my own, stands recorded in direct 

 opposition to what I have to offer. The fact, that 

 different results are obtained from experiments 

 fairly conducted, may be accounted for from dif- 

 ferences of climate, soil, and season, under which 

 those experiments were made. That there are 

 influences arising from conditions of atmosphere, 

 which we may call climacteric, as well as consti- 

 tutional principles of soil, affecting the growth of 

 our vegetables, increasing or stimulating the pro- 

 ducts of our garden as well as our orchard, all 

 may be ready to admit ; but in what they specifi- 

 cally consist, is not in all cases so easily dis- 

 covered. 



The cause of the failure of the Darling sweet 

 corn, as detailed below, in a region of country 

 admirably adapted to corn, I should be happy to 

 learn. Can you give me any light? An analo- 

 gous fact is found in the failure of the Canada 

 corn, in all the trials made of it in New-Jersey, 

 as far as I have been able to learn. My own trial 

 of it has been a most signal failure. The corn, 

 known as the Brown corn, that originated in the 

 neighborhood of Lake Winipiseogee, has been 

 much lauded in the more northern states as a 

 great yielder; and, on the farm of Mr. Crispell, 

 of Ulster county, has been reported as yielding 

 90 bushels of shelled corn to the acre, for which 

 a premium was awarded by the New- York State 

 Agricultural Society. I obtained from Mr. Cris- 

 pell a quantity of the seed, sufficient to plant a 

 half acre, the yield of which was barely sufficient 

 to compensate for the expense of cultivation. 

 Would it not seem, from such facts, that there 

 may be constitutional adaptations of this grain to 

 particular regions of country? In other words, 

 that when cultivated for a number of years in a 

 region of country distinguished for its length of 

 season, corn acquires so much of a climacteric 

 character, adapting itself in its period of growth, 

 be the season either long or short, as to fit it pre. 

 eminently for that region, and disqualify itself for 

 any other? 



In the April number of the Horticulturist of 

 J, under the head of new vegetables, you 



highly recommended a trial of the Darling sweet 

 corn, as a variety ripening earlier than any other 

 of the varieties known. At a considerable ex- 

 pense, I obtained enough of the seed to plant a 

 half acre. It was planted under propitious cir- 

 cumstances, in a field well manured, and as well 

 tilled as other fields, from which I obtained good 

 crops. When about a foot high, very many of 

 the stalks began to exhibit a blasted appearance; 

 and on examination I found decay commencing at 

 the centre of the stalk, just below the surface of 

 the ground, looking very much as if it had been 

 pierced by the sting of some insect. In a few 

 days the entire stalk would wither and dry up. 

 In this way, more than half of the field was lost; 

 the remainder attained the height of some two 

 feet, gave me a diminutive ear, and a diminished 

 crop, although it ripened a few days earlier than 

 the other varieties of sweet corn on a contiguous 

 part of the same field. When the crop was har- 

 vested, I found the half acre had given me just a 

 bushel and a half of shelled corn for seed. My 

 confidence in it, as adapted to the soil and climate 

 of New- Jersey, was somewhat shaken; but as I 

 had known it highly prized by an individual who 

 had grown it in the vicinity of Albany, as a most 

 valuable variety for the market gardener, and 

 knowing that our climate was better adapted to 

 the growth of corn than northern New- York, and 

 that no field crops were more remunerative to the 

 farmers of New-Jersey than Indian corn, I deter- 

 mined to repeat the experiment the next year. 

 Now the past season, I gave it a different loca- 

 tion, planted the corn (having obtained fresh seed 

 from Albany,) the 20th of April, ten days earlier 

 than on the preceding year. The appearanco of 

 the crop was flattering, until it attained the 

 height of a foot or more, when the calamity that 

 overtook and destroyed more than half of the for- 

 mer crop, proved to be the fate of this. The part 

 that survived for a time looked flourishing, and 

 promised to yield me a remunerating crop, and 

 when about two feet in height, seemed to have 

 attained its growth, gave me. like the former one, 

 a diminutive ear, and if possible a smaller crop. 



Another calamity, to which the variety is sub- 

 ject, not yet alluded to, which reduced the yield 

 of the first season smaller than it would other- 

 wise have been, and entirely destroyed the crop of 

 this, for seed, is this: the corn, when almost dry 

 enough to be gathered for seed, requires a suc- 

 cession of dry days. An occasional shower, just 

 at this period, will cause the chit to vegetate in 

 the ear, and destroy the crop. 



My first experiment was made on a moderately 

 rich interval field; the last, on a southerly slope, 

 of a gravelly loam. I need scarcely add, I am 

 done with Darling sweet corn. [This corn is 

 excellent on strong, deep, and rather clayey 

 loams. Ed.] 



But of the Turtle Soup Bean, noticed in the 

 same article, I can most heartily subscribe to 

 your recommendation of it, although it has not 



