THE VISITOR. 



INDIAN CORN CROPS. 



New Hampshire against the Union. 



There cannot be a more desirable climate for veg- 

 etable production than one which is adapted to the 

 growth of Indian corn; and the soil on which 

 Indian corn grows will never fail, witha properap- 

 plication of labor, to produce abundance for man 

 and beast. Now in the production of Indian corn 

 the soil of New Hampshire will not shrink from a 

 comparison with any other part of the country. 



The immense crops of corn which have been re- 

 peatedly raised in the county of Strafford, in the 

 vicinity of the beautiful Lake Winnipisspogee — in 

 Moultonborou2;li, Tuftonborough and WoTfeboro' 

 comprising^ tlie islands and shore on the north 

 side of the Lnkc, and in Barnstead and Gilmanton' 

 at a few miles distance over the Gunstock moun- 

 tains to the south-east of tlie Lake ; these crops have 

 been noticed repeatedly by gentlemen farmers in 

 Massachusetts and other places as being too great 

 for the belief of the credulous. One hundred thirty- 

 seven bushels to the single acre raised if we do not 

 mistake on the fertile hills of Barnstead, or even 

 one hundred and seven bushels to the acre raised 

 by our friend Brown on the Winnipisseogee island, 

 was too great an amount : it was probably corn in 

 the ear — so much shelled corn could not be made 

 to grow on an acre, said a distinguished agricultur- 

 ist in conversation witli the editor of the Visitor. 

 We did not positively contradict him, because we 

 could not say that we had actually seen with our 

 own eyes the acre tiiat had yielded so much. But 

 we have now tlie evidence of a yield, of Indian corn 

 raised by Mr. Brown the present year, '' weighed 

 by tlic man appointed to measure crops for premi- 

 ums" in the cnunty of Strafford ; and this whole 

 crop of the weight of 8051 lbs., measuring the trac- 

 ed corn in tlie ear at 7(1 lbs. to the bushel, and that 

 which was not traced at GH 1-4 to the bushel, was 07ie 

 hundred and sixteen bushels. If we can believe a 

 disinterested witness, we must give credit to this 

 statement. 



We iiave heretofore published in the Visitor, from 

 under the hand of Mr. Brown himself, the manner 

 in whicii he raises these great crops of corn. He 

 does it by putting upon the land double the usual 

 quantitv of manure, and by bestowing as much la- 

 bor upon a single acre as is ordinarily bestowed up- 

 on two and three acres. The soil upon these isl- 

 ands — not alluvion, but common rocky land with a 

 hard pan or subsoil, is probably of that kind on which 

 manure and cultivation will have their greatest 

 effect; the same may be said of most of the swelled 

 hill lands in Meredith, Gilmanton, Barnstead and 

 other towns in Strafford county. The result of 

 Mr. Brown's experiment proves that labor is more 

 profitably applied by hiin in the cultivation of his 

 corn field than by farmers generally; for his one 

 acre produces a present crop equal to the common 

 orop oftiiree acres; and this crop leaves the condition 

 of the hmd such t!iat it will produce, without any 

 further application of manure, at least twice the usu- 

 al amount of wheat or oats for the first year and of 

 grass afterward.s fur some five or six subsequent 

 seasons. 



Mr. Brown's preparation, according tc our recol- 

 lection, is, to take land which liad been broken up 

 from the sward and planted once with potatoes, 

 with a first apitlication of some twelve or fifteen 

 loads of coarse manure before planting. After the 

 first crop is. taken off, apply twelve or fifteen loads 

 of manure and plough it in deep in the fall. The 

 next spring plough in at a less depth some fif- 

 teen to twenty loads more of finer manure. In this 

 way the whole soil for from six to ten inches deep 

 is pulverized and feels the effect of the manure. lu 

 addition to these advantages, Mr. Brown has an 

 excellent kind ot corn adapted to a northern clim- 

 ate, which he has been improving for several years, 

 and which will come to maturity in three months 

 from the time of planting. If we could be sure of 

 a season of four months free from frost, there are 

 other larger kinds of corn — the Dutton twelve and 

 sixteen rowed, or the long eight rrowed ear called 

 the Parker corn, for example — that might grow 



more upon the acre than the Brown corn. But in 

 land prepared as he prepares his, with rows three 

 feet apart, and the hills iu the rows placed at the 

 distance of two feet each from the other, and three 

 stalks to the hill — we do not believe there isakind 

 of corn in the country that will, year in and year 

 out, produce a greater quantity on the same ground. 

 Mr. Brown's kind yields larger ears and more in 

 quantity of corn in proportion to the size of the 

 stalk, than any other kind within our observation. 



But Mr. Brown's crop of one hundred and six- 

 teen bushels to the acre was not the largest crop of 

 corn raised this year in New Hampshire. The 

 green islands, which stud the charming Winnipis- 

 seogee, bear away the palm for the greatest crops 

 of corn. Mr. Robert Larnpr«.y, whose farm is on 

 the same island with Mr. Brown'f, within the lim- 

 its of the town of Moultonborough, has raised this 

 year from one acre one hundred and thirtAj-ojiclmsh- 

 cls and seven quarts^ "estimated in the usual way by- 

 measuring all in a basket and shelling one basket 

 full." Some grains of allowance mrst be made for 

 this mode of measuring, as the persons who har- 

 vested the corn would naturally feel an interest to 

 pack the basUet to be shelled qui*e as close as any 

 basket which was not shelled. Mr. Paul P. Pilsbury 

 lives on Cow island situated in the town ofTufton- 

 borough, some \g\v miles eastward of Long island 

 on the same lake shore ; and his crop of corn, meas- 

 ured in the same way as that of Mr. Lamprey, was 

 one hundred and thtrtif bushels to the aerc. 



Mr. Lamprey and Mr. Pilsbury have each sent 

 to the editor of the Monthly Visitor a trace of the 

 corn raised on their respective lots : the samples 

 are the most beautiful we have ever seen. Both 

 kinds of corn are in some respects similar, being a 

 mixture resembling partly the Dutton and partly 

 the Brown corn. Mr. Lamprey's corn has the near- 

 est resemblance of the Brown kind — the kernels 

 have a varnished exterior with the same elegant 

 blazed tinge — a part is eight, and a part ten and 

 twelve rowed. The ears are larger tlian the Brown 

 corn — the kernels are smaller, but the cob is larger. 

 In Mr. Pilsbury 's sample the ears are large but not 

 as long as the other — tlie color of the corn is a 

 lighter yellow, tiie kernels something smaller, and 

 the cob larger especially at the stump end. In both 

 samples the ears of corn are covered to the tips, and 

 there was a beautiful uniformity of kernel from one 

 end of the ear to the other. 



The Brown corn, where it has had a fair trial, 

 has fully come up to tlie expectations of the public. 

 Benaiah Cooke, Esq. editor of the Cheshire Farm- 

 er, exhibited a few traces of his corn raised on his 

 premises, at the late agricultural meeting at Keene: 

 all the seed he raised was at onse bespoken by tlie 

 farmers of Cheshire ; and so pressing was the de 

 mand for this seed, that Mr. Cooke at once pro- 

 ceeded personally to Long Island, a distance of 

 nearly one hundred mVes, and purchased from Mr. 

 Brown himself, all he could spare of his great crop 

 of the present year. 



The crop of Brown corn raised this year by the 

 editor of the Monthly Visitor was as good as any 

 -crop we had seen in the vicinity. The ground was 

 not, as good, nor did it have the advantages of that 

 of Mr. Brown. It was a track upon the intervale 

 bordering upon the Merrimack riVer, which had 

 been formed," not by a deposlte of sediment by'tlie 

 backing up of the raised stream, but by the wash- 

 ing on of sand directly over it. This land had not, 

 until it came into our possession, been considered 

 worth cultivation-, two years ago it was covered with 

 bushes, and where tlie surface was stirred the wind 

 blew the sand over much of it so as to prevent veg- 

 etation. Yet on one acreof this land we think was 

 produced full seventy b^Ishels of shelled corn. Of 

 this kind of corn we have saved full fifty bushels 

 of seed. A part of this has been engaged in Bos- 

 ton. Mr. Samuel Whitney, living on the premis- 

 es of the editor, selected from the field about forty 

 bushels of the finest ears of the crop, which have 

 been carefully traced and hung up. Gentlemen 

 who may wish to furnish themselves with this kind 

 of corn will please to apply to Mr. Whitney, who 

 also will have the dispositon of a few bushels of 

 Kohan potatoes raised by the editor of the Visitor. 

 We copy the following from the Cheshire Farm 

 er for October : 



The Brow7i Corn. — It will be recollected that we 

 previously have given some account of a kind of 

 corn denominated the " Brown Corn." We pro- 

 cured last spring, one and a halfbushels of this corn 

 of Mr. Brown, and planted one acre with it, and 

 sold the rest. Our acre did very well, producing, 

 as was judged by many farmers who saw it, not far 

 from forty bushels. As we picked a part of it for 

 seed, and fed out some without measuring, we are 

 not able to give the exact amount, though it would 

 not vary much from forty bushels. It is a large 

 eight rowed corn, and very early — a specimen of it 

 may be seen at this office. We exhibited some of 

 it at the last meeting of the society in this county, 

 and find it took very well with the farmers in this 

 section. We have already had orders for some ten 

 bushels of it for seed. 



Concluding that what we raised would go but 

 little way in supplying the demand, and desiring 

 not again to be treed with corn, we proceeded per- 

 sonally to the farm of Mr. Brown, a distance of 95 

 miles, examined his field, and purchased so m"ich 

 of his corn as he would spare, suitable for seed, 

 which in due time we shall have on hand for the 

 accommodation of farmers in this section. 



A few days since we received the following let- 

 ter from Mr. Brown, which we take the liberty to 

 publish . 



Moult07iborovghj (Long lsland)Oct. 19(/i, 1839. 



B. Cooke, Esq., Dear Sir : — I harvested my corn 

 last week, and have a fine lot of seed traced in fine 

 order. On account of tracing so much, I could not 

 measure it iu the usual way, but had it weighed by 

 the man appointed to measure crops for premiums. 

 The whole crop on the acre, in ears, weighed 8051 

 lbs. We shelled both of the traced and the untrac 

 cd, to get the amount in bushels — of that which 

 was traced 70 lbs. made a bushel; of that which 

 was not traced GS 3-4 lbs. made a bushel — whole a- 

 mount 116 bushels. We first went over the piece 

 and selected all that was suitable for seed, which 

 was ever one half in weight. 



Mr. Lamprey measured his in the usual way, by- 

 measuring all in a basket and shelling one basket- 

 full, and had 131 bushels, for which he obtained the 

 first premium. Mr. Pilsbury, on Cow Island, meas- 

 ured his in the same way and had 130, and took the 

 second premium, there being but two premiums of- 

 fered by the society. But the committee on crops, 

 considering the exact manner in which I obtained 

 the measurement, and superior quality of the speci- 

 men which I presented, recommended in their re- 

 port to award me a premium which was accepted, 

 and I obtained a premium for the excellence of my 

 corn. It seemed to be the opinion of many before 

 harvest, that 1 should have the most on an acre, but 

 the season being more suitable for their ground, it 

 being dryer than mine, partly accounts ior the re- 

 sult, and the manner they measured, which cannot 

 be an exact as that of weighing, will also partly ac- 

 count for it. By ploughing in the manure very 

 deep, I did not probably get so much of the strength 

 of it ns if the season had been dryer, but I would 

 not discourage the pratice of deep ploughing, and 

 well mixing the manure with the soil. Istil! think 

 it the best way ; if some seasons we do not get so 

 mucii of its strengh, we retain tiie manure and en- 

 ricli the soil. 



I am yours with respect, 



JOHN BROWN, 2d. 



Three Hills Farm, near Albany, Oct. 5, 1S39. 

 Berkshire Hogs. 



I. Him., Esq. — Dear Sir : — I observe in your re- 

 marks in the last number of the Farmer's Monthly 

 Visitor, on the Berkshire hogs, in possession of the 

 family of Shakers at Canterbury, that you say 

 "they are not so large boned and long bodied as 

 some other breeds," &c. Now, sir, the first posi- 

 tion, viz : that 'Hhey are not so large boned" I am 

 willing to admit; but that " they are not so long 

 i>odied," I cannot accede to. I think you must 

 have made up your mind, on a casual inspection, 

 and did not measure, or take into consideration, the 

 great depth of body, which gives them rather a 

 compact appearance. 



In England they were formerly considered as 

 third in point of size ; but first as quick feeders. 



