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FARMERS' REGISTER— CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



er of the vegetative or nutritious principles of the 

 earth. Fall crops do not injui-e land as nmch as 

 spring and summer crops, for the reason that the 

 action of the sun is iircble — the nights are Ion"" — 

 dews are copious, and by the spring tiie earth is 

 so compact as not to receive the rays of the 

 sun, and is soon shaded by the wheat, &c. For 

 these, among other reasons, I am satisfied that the 

 earth is not empoverislied by the growtli upon it. 

 The last observation I have made, to wit: that 

 '■'■heat is the great destroyer of the vegetative or nu- 

 tritious principles of the earth,'''' requires some re- 

 marks. Make the richest earth into bricks — then 

 pulverize them, and you will find that seed -will 

 not sprout in the dust, or if they sprout thej^ live 

 but a short time and perish lor want of Ibod." The 

 valuable principle is killed or expelled by heat. 

 Take a piece of plank, say 12 inches square — 

 place it: on a gall; let it remain Jbr one year, and 

 then sow seeds on the place covered by the plank 

 and on the conterminous earth, and you will find 

 the plants on the space covered by the ]ilank 

 much more vigorous than their neighbors: indeed, 

 that they will survive through the summer, and 

 yield fruit, while those on the" earth which was not 

 shaded will sprout and soon die. 



JOHN ROBERT WALLACE. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



To tlio Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Fauquier, Feb. 4, 183-5. 



I have been a farmer for five years only, but as 

 my mode of cultivating my land difiers Irom that 

 usually pursued, and has returned me a larger re- 

 ward than the same quantity of labor bestowed 

 on even better land, I will communicate it to you. 

 Impressed with these truths — 



That heat i§ a great destroyer of land — 

 That deep ploughing is indispensable — 

 That the roots of corn ought not to be injured 

 or disturbed — and 



That the corn crop ought to be so cultivated as 

 to make the best crop of 'wheat — 

 I accordingly have my land broken up as deep 

 as two and three good horses can do it. I require 

 the sod to be as carefully turned as if ibr fallow i'ov 

 wheat. The ground is then well harrowed, the 

 harrow running as the plough. The usual mode 

 is pursued in laying ofifwith a very small shovel- 

 plough. The corn is planted, (from the 12th of 

 Ajjril to the 1st of May,) and as soon as it is thin- 

 ned, I use cultivators of five teeth, (set in as in a 

 triangular harrow.) made of harrow iron — the 

 teeth flattened for two inches, sharpened and turn- 

 ed so as to enter the ground. With these imple- 

 ments my corn is worked three and four times. 

 But if there has been much rain, so that the grass 

 cannot be kept down by them, or if the ground be 

 very hard, then I direct the double sliovel-plouirh 

 (about as long as the hand, and one-third broader) 

 to be used; but if there be time after it, I again 

 use the cultivator, in order to level the land "and 

 prevent washing. In the use of both these imple- 

 ments, orders are given not to turn a sod up, and 

 if it be done, to replace it. By this mode a very 

 small portion of the earth is exposed to the action 

 of the sun; the roofs of the corn are not wounded, 

 and can readily extend themselves in their search 

 for food; the moisture of the earth ig lono-er re- 



tained; the ground does not Vv^ash, and the fine ve- 

 getable mould made by the rotted grass and roots 

 is preserved from the sun for the nourislunent 

 of the corn and the following crop of wheat. 



Having gathered my fodder in the old mode, 

 when rccady for sowing wheat, I have the corn 

 cut and stacked in small stacks — the same ploughs 

 running at the same depth with the ploughs used 

 in the spring. On the land thus prepared, ray 

 wheat is sown and hari-owed in. The crops of 

 wheat are decidedly better than those put in with 

 that mischievous shovel-plough, which (next to 

 negro labor, that ever has, and ever will carry des 

 olation and ruin in its train.) is the greatest enemy 

 to good crops and good land, that the human intel- 

 lect can devise in the Ibim of an implement of 

 husbandry. 



This mode of preparing the land lor wheat, has 

 these advantages: the decayed grass, Sec. is 

 thrown to the top, nourishes the young wheat, 

 preserves it against frosts and wdnds, and when 

 hard freezes occur, owing to the depth of tiie 

 ploughing, the wafer is dissipated, and the body of 

 earth is too heavy to be afTecied by any but the 

 severest spells of weather. When the crop of 

 corn has been properly cultivated, and the ground 

 prepared as above, the crop of wheat is not much 

 inferior to a fiillow crop: the reasons must be ob- 

 vious to every one. 



As to the corn crop, I am not left a doubt of its 

 advantages over every other I haye heard of I 

 have never failed in a crop. If the season be 

 wet, the water sinks to the sod, where, owing to 

 the grass and roots, it is "retained by them by 

 absorption, and is prevented from passing off ra- 

 pidly. The earth too, being more compact than 

 when the shovel-plough is used, the Avafer is much 

 more slowly evaporated, and in hard rains, owing 

 fo this cause, and the smoothness of the surface, 

 but little of the soil is washed away. 



In drought when other fields of corn are exhib- 

 iting its serious effects upon them, corn cultivated 

 in the manner above mentioned, shows but little, 

 if any injury from it. Wherever that destroying 

 enemy, the shovel-plough, is used in dry seasons, 

 its injury to the crop is shown after each plough- 

 ing, in the withered blades and sickly color of the 

 corn. Owing to the depth they run, the roots of 

 the corn are loounded, broken, and huddled together 

 in bunches, instead of being expanded through the 

 ground as the radii of a circle. 



Is it not surprising to see how almost universal- 

 ly the notion prevails, that it is serviceable to break 

 the roofs of corn? They do not seem to compre- 

 hend the offices of roofs. One set of them is to 

 support the plant; these shoot out when the ear is 

 forming, and descend perpendicularly into the 

 ground; the other, shooting out horizontally are 

 purveyors — they spread themselves through the 

 earth in search of food; but if they are bruised or 

 broken, they cannot do their duty, for they must 

 first be healed to enable them to do it, and then 

 being forced altogether they must receive less 

 nourishment for themselves and ibod for the stalk, 

 than if they ran through a circle, doubling in 

 its diameter, any one of the roots. What would 

 be thought of the reason of a man, who declared 

 it to be his opinion, and practically enforced it, that 

 the best mode of fiittening a bullock was to wound 

 his tongue, disable his jaws, and break his teeth 

 whenever he reached his head towards food? Can 



