276 ON THE CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 



ON THE CULTURE OF THE CEREALS. 

 The cereals, as a class of vegetable products, have the highest claims on the husbandman : 

 .they constitute the main resources for bread, and civilized life would lack an essential element 

 of support, if it was deprived of them. Bread is a token of civilization ; the pounded corn, 

 mixed with water and roasted upon a flat stone, is the first step towards a better condition ; a 

 cornfield is the first indication that the chase of wild animals for subsistence will be abandoned — 

 it foreshadows the fixity of a tribe or people, and the idea of property in lands and tenements. 

 Th^ perfection of cultivation, however, is left to a period of perfect rest and undisturbed pos- 

 session. The cultivation of the cereals is still imperfect, though cultivated in patriarchal times. 

 The progress of cereal culture, however, I shall not stop to give in detail ; my present work 

 is to give the present experience, to speak of the best practices of the best cultivators, and the 

 principles upon which their cultivation is founded. 



Indian Corn. 



Indian com does not demand a special soil, though it does not grow equally well upon all : 

 what farmers call a loam is preferred to sandy or clay soil ; yet good crops are obtained upon 

 both. The essentials to the best crops are perfect seed, from near the butt of the ear to a point 

 beyond the middle, always the kernels one inch and a half from the tip. 2. A deep ploughed 

 field, made mellow. 3. Early planting. 4. Seasonable hoeing and the proper use of the 

 cultivator. 5. The application of fertilizers. 



The seed should be culled from the earliest ripened ears. Attention should be given 

 early to this point. The least taint of smut or mould is sufficient cause for the rejection of 

 any ear for seed. When the ears are selected, the husk should be stripped down and used to 

 suspend them until dried, or perhaps until wanted for use. 



The field should be ploughed rather deep. The question of subsoil ploughing turns upon 

 its condition. An old field will be improved by it ; in a new one it is less necessary. A wise 

 farmer will give his field an even surface, and will mark out the course of his rows with a light 

 plough. A field, when wet, should not be ploughed, hoed or drilled for corn or any other 

 purpose : the soil should remain and not be stirred until dry. Still the time for ploughing for 

 Indian corn is when the field is dry : the time for planting is when the soil has attained a tem- 

 perature of 60° Fah. The temperature should give an impulse to the germinating power of 

 the seed. They will rarely rot if germination begins, and though the blade may not issue from 

 the ground at once, still it will appear, and though a frost may cut it down, it will yet live, 

 and the roots will increase in extent during the whole period it is lingering in its upward 

 growth by the spring cold. It will mature at an earlier day, and become a sounder and heavier 

 com, and escapes the autumnal frost. These are the advantages of early planting. It is to be 

 understood, or should be well known, that seed which is perfect is far more likely to germinate 

 than seed which has just ripened, and when its vitality is only feeble ; such seed will not bear 

 an early planting, it will surely be lost j hence, where the vitality is doubtful or feeble, a later 



