PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 137 



August 26, 1861. 

 Mr. Doughty in the chair. 



TRANSPLANTING CORN TOPPING SUCKERS. 



Mr. Burgess exhibited a specimen of corn which had been trans- 

 planted when about a foot high. It was topped as soon as the 

 grains were impregnated. There were several suckers, and the 

 yield was seven ears, several of which Avere of good size. It had 

 Bot suffered from the drought. His object was to show that corn 

 could be readily transplanted. 



Mr. Carpenter would object to topping corn, when the greatest 

 yield of grain was desired. There will be more corn, and it will 

 be heavier, if the tops are allowed to remain until the grain is 

 perfected. But in many cases the value of the tops for fodder 

 may more than compensate the loss on the grain. 



Mr. Robinson. — I think this experiment touches a new point, 

 in topping corn. In all the experiments that have been made, 

 the results have apparently been in favor of not topping the corn, 

 the increased value of the corn when not topped being more than 

 the value of the stalks. But Mr. Burgess tops his corn several 

 weeks earlier than corn is ordinarily topped. In the experiments 

 hitherto the corn has been topped after the ears have been so far 

 ripened that the grain would grow ; for when in a good state for 

 eating, particularly the sweet corn, if the ears are plucked from 

 the stalk and hung up and dried until they shrivel up, they will 

 vegetate. But it is a new idea, worthy of being tried, to top 

 corn so much earlier. 



Mr. Gale mentioned an incident which had occurred to himself. 

 His neighbors' cows had broken into his corn-field, and remained 

 there several days before they were discovered, topping the corn 

 most effectually; but in the fall, where the cows had been there 

 was the heaviest yield of corn. In his experiment in Maryland, 

 before mentioned, he did not top his corn, as his neighbors usu- 

 ally did. 



Dr. Trimble said that corn ought to be planted at such a dis- 

 tance as not to throw out suckers. They are a nuisance in a 

 corn-field excepting in hills where but one or two kernels of corn 

 have vegetated. There suckers may be allowed to grow. 



Mr. Bergen explained that he had not brought this corn to 

 illustrate the advantage of topping corn, or of suckers, but merely 

 to show that even in such a drought as that of the present year 



