161 



this Department a statement of the yield per acre secured in 1873 by 

 several of the ofi&cers and members : The president, J. B. Wakefield, 

 produced, of wheat, 30 bushels per acre. The secretary, C. Wakefield, 

 wheat, 27; corn, 95; potatoes, 340. The treasurer, David Detweiler, 

 wheat, 24; corn, 98; potatoes 100. Jacob Sharp, wheat, 27; corn, 100. 

 S. Sharp, wheat, 21 ; corn, 85. N. Hartzlar, wheat, 28 ; corn, 60. J. 

 E. Odeukirk, wheat, 21 ; corn, 93. C. S. Brown, corn, 90 ; potatoes, 200. 



A GOOD YIELD OF CORN. — A farmer of Virginia gives an inter- 

 esting account of the method he pursued to secure a good crop of 

 corn In Smyth County. He began on a very poor farm in 1859, of 

 which he devoted ICJ acres to corn. The yield was small. In 186G he 

 again planted in corn, with much better results. The tract was then 

 turned over to grass, and mowed and pastured up to the winter of 

 1871-72. At this time manure from the barn was spread on the thin- 

 nest parts, and during the winter the field was plowed to the depth of 

 10 to 12 inches, after which slacked lime, to the amount of 80 bushels 

 per acre, was applied, and the land harrowed five times, thoroughly 

 mixing lime and soil. About May 1 the corn was planted in rows, 2i} 

 feet apart. When it came up about one bushel of idaster per acre was 

 spread, and the spaces between the rows were thoroughly plowed to the 

 depth of 12 to 13 inches. It was now thinned, leaving two stalks to a 

 hill; replanting was done, and cutting ''trash'' from the hills with the 

 hoe; no other work with this implement was done. From the 20th to 

 27th of June plowed with broad shovel-plows, and afterward with the 

 long coulter-plow; thoroughly erased all traces of the shovel, except at 

 the hills. In September, from 10th to 15th, cut up and shocked; and 

 in December cribbed. Yield from the lOi acres, 1,500 bushels, or an 

 average of 90|^ bushels per acre. Some acres of the field yielded as 

 high as 125 bushels. Corn planted, white gourd-seed; soil, a clay loam, 

 very well adapted to blue-grass, when in an improved condition. 



A REMARKABLE YIELD OF CORN IN MARYLAND. — Mr, H. Yander- 



ford, one of the editors of the Democratic Advocate, Westminster, Md., 

 furnishes the Department a statement of a remarkable yield of corn, 

 published in a recent number of his journal. The crop, said to be the 

 largest ever i)roduced in that county, was grown by Mr. John W. Mur- 

 ray, of Hampstead district, Carroll County, from whose letter the fol- 

 lowing extract is made : 



The land is low aud is overflowed by the wasliiugs from the turnpike and from my 

 baru-yard, aud was iu grass for fifteen years prior to the spring of 1872 ; then plowed 

 and planted in corn, and j'ielded 26^ barrels per acre. This was the same piece 

 of ground that I used last" year. The stubble was left until I had planted the rest 

 of my corn. On May 16, iS73, I plowed the ground very deep, harrowed it the 

 same day, and rolled it on the 17th. I sowed 300 pounds fine bone and harrowed it 

 again the same day. I marked it otf, 32 inches one way, and sowed 200 pounds Ehodes's 

 super-phosphate iu the rows, and dropped the corn 10 inches apart, one and two grains 

 in a hill. On the 4th of June it was badly missing ; dragged the ground and replanted ; 

 10th of June plowed again, still some missing; 17th of June plowed aud hoed, and 

 plastered the weak spots ; 30th of June dragged, plowed, and thinned ; 4th of July lulled 

 with a potato-plow as deep as one horse could pull, aud kept thinning as I thought 

 required until shooting-time. The variety of corn was the Chester County mammoth 

 yellow, of which I send you a sam^ile. 



In regard to the yield, the ground was surveyed by a practical, sworn surveyor, cut 

 off by two sworn men, and measured by a sworn man, in the presence of mauy, and 

 measured 29-,% barrels,* and the same measured at the cattle-scales iu Baltimore made 

 oOi barrels, for which I hold a receipt. 



I am not a one-acre farmer, but cultivate forty acres, with myself and three boys, or 

 perhaps I could have given the one acre more attention and had a larger yield, which 

 I believe could have been made. 



*A Maryland barrel is five bushels. 



