118 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



not exceed forty-five cents per bushel. This esti- 

 mate includes one half the cost of the fertilizers 

 and all the labor from the time of planting to shell- 

 ing, but it does not take into account the fodder, 

 which has proved in my experience to have a high 

 value. This has been fed to milch cows in associ- 

 ation with wheat straw in the long and cut condi- 

 tion, and careful observation and experiment show 

 that, as a milk-producing agent, it is worth nearly 

 as much as upland hay. Corn is the cereal to which 

 farmers should give special attention. To grow it 

 profitably, we must grow large quantities on small 

 parcels of ground. It requires no greater expense 

 or labor to raise seventy-five to one hundred bush- 

 els to the acre, than to raise twenty-five. Corn 

 can be grown in good quantity for several consecu- 

 tive years upon the same field by the use of agents 

 which hold those great essentials to plant-growth, 

 phosphoric acid, potash, and lime ; but to attain 

 to the highest success, substances capable of afford- 

 ing the nitrogenous element must be added. The 

 first three years of my experiments with the corn 

 crop, I depended solely upon dressings composed 

 of lime, potash or ashes, and flour of bone, and my 

 crops were excellent ; but I now use in association 

 four cords of good fresh farm dung to the acre, 

 spread over the ploughed field, and harrowed in 

 with a Geddes harrow. In the hills, at the time 



