178 THE BOOK OF CORN 



CULTURE IN NEW ENGLAND AND THE EAST GENERALLY 



New England offers varied conditions for the 

 growth of the corn crop. In the most northern por- 

 tions of Vermont, New Hampshire, and central Maine, 

 there are but ninety to one hundred days free from 

 frost, so that only the earliest maturing kinds of flint 

 corn can be successfully grown. In the southern por- 

 tion with one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five 

 days free from frost, there is no trouble in maturing 

 all of the flint varieties and many of the dent sorts. 

 Owing to the great expense formerly attached to grow- 

 ing corn by the old hand methods, this crop fell some- 

 what into disrepute and the drift of agricultural opin- 

 ion from 1865 to 1875, or later, was that this crop 

 could not be grown with profit, either because of the 

 cheaply produced and transported western product, 

 or because of the demand of our markets for supplies 

 in producing which the west could not compete. There- 

 fore, it was considered a stroke of good policy to grow 

 the other products and buy the corn needed for home 

 consumption. Since 1875, this opinion has been mate- 

 rially modified until it is now generally conceded that 

 corn is one of the most profitable crops farmers can 

 produce. 



Returning Favor for Field Com — Silage methods 

 had made the fodder part of the crop so valuable as 

 to pay the cost of cultivation, while at the west it had 

 little value. The rough and rugged character of most 

 of New England farm land precludes the economical 

 use of the methods and machinery employed in the 

 corn belt. Small farms, small fields, short rows, a thin 

 soil often filled with loose and fast stones makes it im- 

 practicable to use two-horse cultivators and planters. 

 The old time method of planting by hand and covering 



