AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 6*7 



reyerse tlie surface ten incLes, bringing the lower five to the top. and leav- 

 ing them loose and friable, and then following in the same furrows with a 

 subsoil lifter that would loosen the compact earth eight or ten inches deeper, 

 to say nothing of the advantage of turning under a strong grass or clover 

 sod to decay and furnish food for the grain at the very time when it was 

 most needed. All this is independent of manures, either from the farm- 

 yard, or sea side, or muck beds, or city streets, or from Peru, or any of the 

 manufactories of artificial fertilizers, and is within the reach of all corn 

 planters who may be unable to procure the other means of fertility and in- 

 crease of the crop, without some of which it is now useless to attempt to grow 

 Indian corn in all the eastern States. 



We lay it down as the first rule for all corn growers, whether manure is 

 to be used or not, that, at least in all the old States, no crop of Indian corn 

 can be profitably grown upon land that has not been underdrained or sub- 

 soil plowed, and that is not plowed at least eight inches deep for each crop, 

 and most th^flroughly pulverized before the seed is put in the ground. This 

 is of much more importance than the after working, particulai-ly where the 

 after labor of culture is, according to time-honored notions in New England, 

 devoted to hilling the earth with a hoe up around the growing stalks. The 

 same practice h^ns been carried by emigrants to the west, but is there fast 

 giving way as it is slowly at the east, to cultivation by the plow, cultivator, 

 or horsehoe. 



No specific directions can be given for planting that will fit all localities 

 where we hope these hints will be read ; but, as a general rule, half the 

 labor, of after culture will be saved by proper preparation of the ground 

 before planting. One of the best implements ever used for marking out 

 the rows is a subsoil lifter. We have seen an ordinary plow coulter, 

 eighteen inches long, fastened to a beam with handles, and used for mark- 

 ing the rows Avith decided benefit, as it made a temporary drain for the 

 young plants, which every farmer knows cannot bear any excess of water, 

 even for a few hours, in a hot sun, without serious injury to all the after- 

 growth of stalk and production of grain. 



It would greatly surprise some of the old corn planters of the eastern 

 States, to see what crops are sometimes grown at the west, in fields where 

 a hoe never was used. 



It would be equally surprising to know how small a price per bushel it 

 costs to grow corn in some rich virgin soils. The Hon. Henry L. Ells- 

 worth, of Lafayette, Indiana, has had three thousand acres of corn in a 

 season, grown for five cents a bushel. That is, he contracted with parties 

 to plow, plant, till and grow the crop ready for harvesting for three dollars 

 an acre, and the yield gave sixty bushels per acre. 



" Five cents a bushel !" exclaims one of a host of corn growers. " If I 

 believed that story I never would plant another acre of corn in this State, 

 where every bushel costs fifty cents, and sometimes a dollar, if we count 

 our labor at anything like what it is worth." 



