1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



419 



of aiireeable reHeolion that an article which is 

 so extensively cultivated as that of Indiati corn, 

 and which is so particulaiiy exhaustiiiir sliouid 

 be the one so capable ot repairini; tlie injury it does. 



The corn stalk as a fodder is ol" irreat value. 

 Not only the leaves, but the husk inclosing the 

 ear, and the cob enclosed by it, are all more or 

 less valuable Ibod when duly preserved and dealt 

 out 10 cattle. There is no better Ibdder than the 

 leaves or blades lor horses and o.xen; nor any 

 so much approved lor sheep. The husk or shuck 

 is a hiirhly nourishing food for neat cattle. And 

 the [lickings of the stalk, even at a late season, 

 and after much exposure to the weather, support 

 them better than any of the straws. From tlie 

 saccharine matter in the stalk, which is long re- 

 tained about the joints, it cannot be doubted that 

 it" cut early, or before exposure to th6 weather, 

 into parts small enough for niastification. it would 

 well repay, as a fboil for cattle, the labor required 

 for it. 



The ureat value of the corn stalk, in all its parts 

 as a fodder, was brought into full proof, by the use 

 made of it during the late <reneral lailure of crops. 

 It is to be hoped that the lesson will not be suHijr- 

 ed to pass into oblivion. 



But it is as a resource for re-fertilizin<r the soil, 

 that the corn slock finds the proper |)lace heiv; 

 and as such, it merits particular notice; whether it 

 be passed throuijh animals, or be prepared by ler- 

 meniation in the farmyard ; or be merely spread 

 on the surliice of the earth, the mode in which 

 its efiiect must be least considerable. The same 

 qualities which render every part of it nutricious 

 to animals, render it nutricious to the earth, and 

 it is accoaij^anied with the peculiar advantages: 1, 

 that the grain itself is mos'ly every where, and 

 altogether, in places distant from navigation, 

 consumed witliin the farms producing it; 2, that 

 as the grain is in greater proportion to the space 

 on which it grows, than most other grains, so 

 the rest of the plant is in greater proportion to 

 the grain, than the rest of any other grain plant. 

 The straw and chaff of the smaller grains, as al- 

 ready remarked; is in weiirht hut about one half 

 the grain. The corn stock with all its appurte- 

 nant oHkl, is of not less than three times and if 

 taken early from the field, probably of not less 

 than tour or five times the weight of the grain 

 belonging to it. 3. The fertilizing matter "con- 

 tained in the corn stalk is greater, in proportion to 

 its weight, than that contained in the straw and 

 ofi'al of other grains is to the weight of the straw 

 and ofi'al. 



Would it be hazardinsr too much to say, that 

 where a level surliice, or the mode of cuhivating 

 a hilly one, prevents the rains from carryiuir off 

 the soil, a restoration of an entire crop of Indian 

 corn, in the form of manure, to the space pro- 

 ducing it fthere beinsr no other intervening crop 

 not so restoredj would replace the fertility consum- 

 ed by the crop, and maintain a perpetual pro- 

 ductiveness? Reason, the case of forest and fiil- 

 low fields, where the spontaneous crop fiills back 

 of itself, to the earth atid the Chinese example, 

 ■where the cultivated crop is restored to the earth, 

 all pronounce that such would be the efhact. And 

 yet the fact stares us in the fiice, that our most 

 impoverislied fields, even the most level of them, 

 owe their condition more to the crops of Indian 

 corn, than to any other crops. 



Tiie articles of fodder, which are least neglect- 

 ed as a fund of manure, are timothy and clover 

 hays. But the avtuage quantities on liirms, is 

 not as yet, very gn^at; and seldom yield more 

 than stable manure Ibrirardens and culinary crops. 



The cotton f)lant, whiidi is so extensive a crop 

 in the more southern and the south-western states 

 is but little cultivated in Virginia, and scarcely at 

 all in this part of it. I am not able to say how 

 far it is conq)aratively an exhaustmg crop. But 

 it would seem to be more cajjable than any other 

 crop, not wholly consumed within the fiirm, pre- 

 serving its fertility. The only part of the plant 

 carrried away, is the cotton fibre or wooly part, 

 which bears an inconsiderable proportion to the 

 other parts in weight and as may be inferred, in 

 fertilizing matter also. The seed alone, passing 

 by the ball and the haulm, is three times its 

 w'eight, and contains the chief part of the oil in 

 the plant. In the countries where cotton makes 

 the principal part of the crop, the superfluous 

 seed must deserve great attention as a manure. 

 Where the fields are level or cultivated in hori- 

 ziontal drills, it might go tar torwads supporting a 

 continued cropping witliout a diminished fertility. 



The sum of' these remarks on cultivating poor 

 ftnd, ami neglecting the means of keeping or mak- 

 ing land rich is, that if every tiling grown on a 

 soil is carried fi-om it, it must become unproduc- 

 tive; that if ever_v thing grown on it be directly or 

 indirectly restored to it, it would not cease to be 

 productive; and consequently, that according to 

 the degree in which the one or the other practice 

 takes place, a fiirm must be impoverished, or be 

 permanently productive and profitable. Every 

 acre made bj' an improved management to pro- 

 duce as much as two acres, is in effect, the addi- 

 tion of a new acre; with the great advantages of 

 contracting the space to be cultivated ; and of 

 shortening the distance of transportation between 

 the fields^ and the barn, or the fiirm-yard. One 

 of the Roman writers, * on husbandry, enforces 

 the obligation to an improving management by 

 a storv of one Paradiiis who had two daughters 

 and a vineyard. When the elder was married he 

 gave her a third part of the vineyard; notwith- 

 standing which, he obtained from two thirds the 

 same crop as from the whole: when his other 

 daughter was married, he portioned her with the 

 half of what remained; and still the produce of 

 his vineyard was undiminished. 'I'he story, short 

 as it is. contains a volume of instruction. 



The plaster or gypsum, though not a manure 

 within the farm itself, has been too long neglected 

 as a fertilizing resource. It is now beginning to 

 take a high and just rank as such. The proofs of 

 its efficacy are as incontestible as the causes of it 

 are obscure. The experiments of a very distin- 

 guished chemist, t led him to the opinion, that its 

 substance enters into the substance of the plant. 

 Without doubling the fact, it does not sufficiently 

 account for the addition made to the size and 

 weight of the plant, which greatly exceed the 

 quantity of the plaster. It must, therefore, have 

 some further mode of operating. Whether it 

 be by neutralizing some noxious ingredient in 

 the earth, one of the modes by which lime is 

 supposed to operate; or by attracting and convey- 



♦Cohimella. 

 fSir H. Davy. 



