246 



FARMERS' REGISTER— DIARY OF THE WEATHER. 



etroys the vitality of the plant. Thus when the 

 tops of corn are cut, the supf'Iy of food to all the 

 ears above the reniaininc^ leaves, is cut off, and 

 the supply is materially diminished to those below. 

 A diminished product must of coursebe the con- 

 sequence, 



I very much regret that Mr, Clark did not carry 

 his experiments one step further, and ascertain the 

 relative weight of forty-six hills cut with the en- 

 tire stalks, at the tmie he topped his No. 2. It 

 would have decided whether the stalks afford nu- 

 triment to the grain, alter they are separated from 

 the roots, and to vv^hat extent. This last has been 

 my method of harvesting my crop, from an im- 

 pression that I lost by it nothinjj in the weight of 

 the grain, while I gained much in the quantity and 

 quality ol" the Ibdder. The objection that the 

 stalks mould is not tenable. They will not mould 

 while the corn is upon them, if tied above the ears. 

 And if not sufficiently dry when the corn is picked, 

 ihey may be left in stacks till ])erfectly cured; and 

 yet be housed in far better condition than they are 

 by the ordinary mode of saving them. It is not 

 the drying that deteriorates their value for fodder, 

 but the drenchings which they get when left out 

 till the corn is picked, and the irosts, wdiich dimin- 

 ish very much their nutritive properties. If well 

 cured, and especially if cut and steamed, cattle eat 

 them freely, and I consider them nowise interior to 

 hay. The grain from the crop secured in my way, 

 has weighed sixty and sixty-two pounds the bush- 

 el. It IS a twelve rowed eariy variety, which I 

 denominate the Dutton corn, 



I have remarked, that the modes of planting 

 com, or rather the distance between the plants, is 

 different in different states. In New England, 

 the distance is greater than in. New York, and 

 greater in Pennsylvania than in the former. Mr. 

 Clark's hills were four by three feet, which gave 

 him 3,646 hills, or by my estimate 3,630, on the 

 acre. Our Mr. Stimson plants at two and a* half 

 feet each >yay, and gets upon the acre 6,969 hills, 

 or nearly double what Mr. Clark does. I once 

 planted an acre in drills, two rows in a drill, the 

 plants SIX inches apart in the rows, the rows six 

 inches apart, and three leet between the centres 

 of the drills, quincunx, and had, if there were no 

 vacancies, 30,970 stalks, equal to 7,742 hills on 

 the acre. The ground and entire product were 

 accurately measured and weighed. While the 

 Messrs. Pratts, of Madison, produced 170 bushels 

 on the acre, by planting in drills, three rows in 

 each, quincunx, thus, : - : - and lour feet from 

 t^ie centre of the drills. If the rows were six inches 

 apart, and the plants nine inches in the rows, the 

 plants amounted to 43,560, equal to 10,890 hills. 

 Assuming as data, that in all the above cited cases 

 each plant produced an ear of corn, and that the 

 ears averaged one gill of shelled grain, their pro- 

 ducts would be as follows, in bushels and quarts: 



Mr. Clark's, - 

 Mr. Stimson's, 

 My own, - - 

 Messrs. Pratts', 



56 bushels, 13 quarts. 

 108 " 24 " 

 120 «' 31 '^ 

 170 " 



The close planting, whether in hills or drills, re- 

 quires high manuring, and the two and three rowed 

 drills, extra labor; and the ears may withal be 

 somewhat smaller. Yet I nevertheless believe 

 that seventy or eighty bushels may be obtained on 

 an acre, with good manurings on a genial Boilj in 



our mode of planting, with about as little labor as 

 twenty, thirty, or forty bushels, are obtained in the 

 New England or Pennsylvania open method. 



I have detailed the preceding fiicts and calcula- 

 tions, not with a view to vaunt of our skill or of 

 the fertility of our soil, but to shnw how the large 

 crops of corn have been raised in this state, which 

 have been noticed in the papers. 



There is one liict connected with the experiment 

 of the Messrs. Pratts, worthy of coiisideration; 

 there was not a plant missing, or deficient, in their 

 field. They quadrupled their seed; and pulled up, 

 as the character t)f the plants was developed, all 

 but the requisite number, reserving only the strong- 

 est and most promising. It is common to see 

 corn-fields very df^ficient in plants and even in en- 

 tire hills. This deficiency often amounts to one- 

 fourth or one-half. — The loss incident to this defect 

 may readily be estimated, and greatly counterbal- 

 ances the expense of e.xtra seed, and the labor of 

 thinning the plants. 



J. B. 



Albany, N. V. Jlpril 9, 1832. 



Diary of the temperature and state of the weather 

 ill July and j/ugust, observed at Shellbanks, 

 Prince George county. 37 deg. 14 min. ^. Lat. 

 — Thermometer kept in the shade, and in the 

 open air. 



Fair or sunshine, f — cloudy, c — rain, r. 



* 96° at 3 o'clock. 



1 95 J° at 2, in an open passage withio the hous«. 



