296 THE CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



culture. Being a semi-tropical plant it might be supposed 

 that it would flourish best in a Southern climate, and yet 

 the product of Maine and New Hampshire averages more 

 than twice as much as that of all the Southern states, and 

 four times as much as the yield in South Carolina and Geor- 

 gia, where the soil is quite as rich as in the stony fields and 

 among the granite rocks of northern New England. 

 Southern corn has a very much larger grain than that 

 grown in the North, but the custom of growing single stalks, 

 which prevails in the South, reduces the yield per acre very 

 largely. This method is "a custom that would be more 

 honored in the breach than the observance;" for the author, 

 on his farm in North Carolina, where a part of the year is 

 spent, has grown corn successfully in the Northern manner 

 with 3 stalks to the hill, and has produced a full crop; hav- 

 ing 3 ears to each hill. 



The large yield of a full crop of corn is due to its longer 

 season of growth and its vigorous rooting. The roots of 

 corn have been found to extend 8 feet in each direction, and 

 in a crop grown by the author which yielded 99 bushels per 

 acre of shelled grain, the roots, when the soil was washed 

 from them by means of a stream of water through a hose, 

 formed a close network completely through the rows, and a 

 mass of fibers enveloped every visible particle of manure. 

 This crop was grown on a heavy clover sod from the pre- 

 vious year, well manured late in the fall and during the 

 winter, and plowed 7 inches deep, late in the spring, when 

 the clover was a foot high; the furrow' slices being lapped 

 in the usual manner at an inclination of about 45 degrees. 

 After the plowing the soil was well worked with the Acme 

 harrow; which did not disturb the sod or the manure, but 

 mixed it with the pulverized soil in the most intimate man- 

 ner. The seed was planted with a one horse planter in rows 

 82 feet apart, dropping 3 or 4 seeds at intervals of 18 inches. 

 The part of the field thus prepared was two acres, and the 

 crop was husked by the bushel. 398 bushels of ears were 

 measured twice, and paid for; and when shelled the produce 

 \vas 198 bushels of shelled grain. This however is by no 



