132 AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 



wasteful proceeding, unless labor is very costly. In south Ohio, the 

 corn is cut and tied in bundles, arc! daily hauled to a small field, where 

 stalks, grain, leaves, &amp;lt;fec., are thrown on the ground for the fattening 

 cattle to cat. The next day, these are removed to a second field, and 

 their place is taken by a drove of hogs, which pick up what the cattle 

 have wasted or refused. Thus, the two are fed alternately in different 

 fields; and the swine fattened at comparatively little cost. 



309. If the cobs are not ground for feed, they should be 

 mixed with animal manures in a state of fermentation, when 

 they will gradually decay. They contain many valuable ele 

 ments of manure. They are occasionally used for smoking 

 hams, and some other minor domestic purposes. 



310. There are no weeds peculiar to this crop. Indeed 

 skilful farmer will not allow a solitary weed to grow arnono; his 

 corn ; and thence it is an excellent crop for cleaning foul land. 



311. Corn is subject to the growth of a very peculiar and 

 destructive fungus or Brand. 



Maize Brand (Uredo maydis. De Candolle.) attacks all the paren- 

 chyraatous organs of the- corn plant, and more or less completely de 

 stroys them. The stalk, however, the female, and the male blossoms, 

 are the parts which it most especially affects. Its development is a 

 peculiar one, as it forces out great masses of cellular tissue, formed 

 from the tissue of the mother plant, and similar in formation to the lat 

 ter. Son;;:? parts of the organs affected by the brand swell and become 

 white. This species always impairs some blossoms, as soon as it i 

 seated in the ear, while the other blossoms standing near bear good ripe 

 kernels. The brand bladders can be very easily removed from the liv- 

 ig plants by cutting thera out, only this must be done as soon as pos 

 sible, in order that in cutting them out the bladders may not scatter 

 tLeir powder, and thus a future crop of brand not be prevented. For 

 seed only, kernels should be selected from plants which have remained 

 wholly free from the brand. This fungus is, by the structure of its 

 spores, different from all others, and only related to the wheat brand. 

 Corn in rich, damp loam appears more subject to this disease than in any 

 other situation, and draining would probably prove an effectual cure, 

 (See Trans, of N. Y. Agricul. Socy., vol. viii.,p. 842.) 

 In the Patent Office Report for 1847, a description of a disease whib 



