118 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



nothing, and I give it freely ; but I believe he obtained it at a 

 cost of five or six hundred bushels of wheat in one year. 



On the cultivation of Indian corn my remarks shall be very 

 brief. Corn will grow on all soils, from the lightest sand to 

 the heaviest clay, among granite rocks and on the richest 

 bottoms. It does not need so compact and calcareous a soil 

 as wheat. It delights in a loose, friable, warm, porous, deep 

 soil, abounding in organic matter. It does well on all good 

 wheat soils, yet it often does better on soils too light and 

 mucky for wheat. It is a gross feeder. We can easily make 

 land too rich for wheat, but I have never yet seen any too 

 rich for the production of Indian corn. Like all spring crops, 

 corn requires an active soil. Its growth is very rapid. The 

 atmosphere should have free access; fine tilth is essential ; the 

 soil should be made as fine as possible before planting, and 

 after the plants are up the hoe and cultivator cannot be used 

 too much during the first month. Throughout the vast corn- 

 growing region of the west, if we can remove stagnant water, 

 prepare the land properly, plant in good season, and use the 

 horse-hoe freely, the soil is, in the majority of cases, rich enough 

 to produce fair and remunerative crops. I have been in a two 

 hundred acre field in Ohio, that has produced annually a good 

 crop of corn for over fifty years without manure ; but it was 

 thoroughly cultivated. Not a weed or blade of grass was to 

 be seen. In passing over the magnificent prairies in Illinois, 

 I was much struck by the decided difference of the corn crops. 

 Wherever the soil was dry, and proper care had been exercised 

 in preparing the land, and keeping it well cultivated, the crops 

 presented a most luxuriant appearance ; but where careless 

 preparation, and negligent, slovenly culture were rendered 

 visible to the observant eye by the growth of weeds, the crop 

 was as yellow and sickly as though it had got the ague. It 

 was literally starved in the midst of plenty. Whether grown at 

 the east or the west, on rich land or poor land, corn must have 

 good culture, and I would here say that taking everything into 



