AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 65 



nature, not the almanac, when the ground had become sufficiently warm 

 to insure rapid vegetation. 



We have known many New England farmers wlao rigidly adhered to the 

 Indian rule, and watched the general appearance of the oak trees for the 

 time to plant corn. 



Experience has proved that the 20th of May, as a general rule, corres- 

 ponds very well with the time of putting forth oak leaves " as large as a 

 squirrel's ear," and then it is the fittest time for planting. That day is 

 close at hand. 



Now, farmers, are you ready ? for upon this depends this great, this most 

 valuable and important crop — a crop that Americans would need a long train- 

 ing to learn how to do without. A crop that would be less easily dispensed 

 with than any other one known, because there are millions of human beings in 

 these United States, who rely upon it as the staple of their existence. It 

 is the source, too, of a very large proportion of our fat beef, mutton, pork, 

 lard, and our fat roast turkeys, geese, ducks and other birds, and it enters 

 very largelj^nto the clothing of our bodies, heads and feet, since wool and 

 hides come from corn ; and without that as food for the laborers, we do not 

 see how a cotton crop would be grown, since the toiling slave thinks him- 

 self so poorly fed upon other food than corn bread and bacon, that he could 

 not do his hard and hot field-work, if fed upon lean meat and wheat flour. 



Indian corn then is the great American staple — the grand necessity of 

 all American agriculture. The grand success in its production is, first of 

 all, in the preparation of the seed, and the soil in which it is to be planted. 



The great, the immense importance to all the people of this country of 

 this crop warrants us in appealing most earnestly to every individual who 

 will or can attempt to grow it, to make an efi'ort this year to increase the 

 product per acre, and in so doing lessen the expense of production. 



It is our candid opinion that an annual increase of ten per cent, on the 

 expense of growing Indian corn would add fifty per cent, on the average to 

 the product of all the acres planted. Can farmers increase their profits so 

 easily in any other way ? 



There is no crop grown that varies so much in its general yield as this of 

 Indian corn. We think that in all the southern States, excluding the 

 alluvions, the average per acre will not equal ten bushels, while a crop of 

 forty bushels upon some of the richest river bottom is considered a first 

 rate one. It is not very surprising that the yield is so light. Look how it 

 is planted — that is, in many, if not in most instances. 



A negro man or woman, with a small mule and a shovel plow — three 

 sticks of wood and a piece of iron — goes to the field and scratches two or 

 three marks about two inches deep in the loose earth, in the place where 

 the rows are to be, leaving the "middles" to be "broke out" after the 

 corn is planted and has come up. This is a part of the cultivation or 

 " tending the crop," and this, as well as all subsequent plowings, is done 

 with the same implement — the shovel plow. 



We have seen many fields that had been planted every year to corn since 



[Am. Inst.J 5 



