CHAPTER V. 

 Vegetable?, Etc. — Coxtixued. 



CORN {Zea Mays). The Commox Eield sort is 

 not a market garden crop : yet we cannot leave 

 wholly unmentioned this, the " king crop of the coun- 

 try." The cheap and easily tilled lands of the great 

 West, with the labor-saving machinery lately "brought 

 into use, furnish this corn at such low prices that many 

 farmers prefer to buy their supply rather than grow 

 it. But, where there is suitable land that is not too 

 valuable, it is, in our opinion, cheaper in the long run 

 for the owner to grow his home supply. 



The soil best adapted to corn is what is generally 

 called " warm " land ; that is, a rather light sandy or 

 gravelly loam with a porous sub-soil, well enriched 

 and thoroughly worked. 



There is no crop which will respond more quickly to 

 careful and liberal treatment, as is proven by the fact 

 that, within the last few years, so large a yield as 240 

 bushels of ears has been produced on a single acre ; 

 and this was in the Eastern States, where — so our 

 Western neighbors claim — we have no good land. 

 This is, of course, onlv a sin^rle instance, and the larjre 

 crop was obtained by exceptionally careful culture. 

 Ill 



