66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



the forest was destroyed, that never had been planted four inches deep, 

 and never had a shovel full of manure, and yet, with such slight scratching 

 of the surface as we have alluded to, were expected still to produce a 

 crop of grain that requires a deeply-worked, rich soil. It is no wonder 

 that such fields do not produce ten bushels to the acre, and it is not a sub- 

 ject for question that they might be made to yield fifty. Not, however, by 

 planting, as their owners frequentry do, one stalk in a place^ three to five 

 feet apart. 



That there is no necessity for such miserable crops, even upon the light, 

 pine-wood lands of the south, has been fully proved over and often. Even 

 last season, Charles A. Peabody, of Columbus, Ga., raised upon the light 

 land on the opposite side of the river, in Alabama, an average of over 120 

 bushels per acre, on a field of- some twenty acres ; and it is stated in the 

 southern papers as a fact, that over 200 bushels were grown last year upon 

 one acre in South Carolina. We hope the statement is authentic, and if 

 60 it will set off against a great many other acres in that State that do not 

 yield three bushels per acre. '^ 



At the west, upon all the boasted corn lands of the great corn-growing 

 States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, 

 and Kentucky, we do not believe the average yield of all the acres planted 

 is thirty bushels, although well authenticated crops of ten acres each in the 

 last named State have averaged over one hundred and fifty bushels per 

 acre, and crops of one hundred bushels are not unusual in all those States. 

 Still, it is a fact well known to us, that a crop grown upon the richest 

 prairie soil, that yields from forty to sixty bushels per acre, is accounted 

 first rate and fully satisfactory to the producer. We also know that in 

 many instances these crops could have been doubled, without any other 

 expense than plowing the ground four inches deeper. This has been 

 proved, and can be again. 



" What fools not to use a better plow and stronger team ! I wish I could 

 double my crop ; I guess I would, in short order." 



This expression comes from nearer home. It is, in spirit, the cry of all 

 New England, New York and New Jersey corn growers — victims of blind 

 prejudice and false education in farming. Scarcely one of them but could, 

 if he would, get as well as wish, double his production, as easily as his 

 brother of the south or west. 



"How can we do it?" The question comes to us upon every breeze, 

 and so to the winds we give the answer. Perchance it will be wafted back 

 to the eye or ear of the questioner. 



You must abandon the absurd notions of your ancestors, who plowed 

 shallow and hoed deep. The system is not much better than the one so 

 common at the south, of scratching where the rows are to be planted, and 

 plowing the "middles" afterward, if such work is worthy of the name of 

 plowing. 



It is no bare assertion that most of the corn fields of all the eastern 

 States might be made to double their yield by the use of a plow that would 



