734 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



however deterring may be the prospect of our 

 ability to improve upon it. It' indeed we could tie 

 persuaded to relinquish what vve have retained ol 

 this indigenous system, ami to draw one Irom sci- 

 entific principles and European experience, per- 

 haps we might recover the palm in the cultivation 

 ol' maize, from those to whom vve have ourselves 

 assigned it by special cognominalion. 



Neither in theory or practice, in Europe or 

 elsewhere, did vve ever hear of conden)ning land 

 perpetually to severe crops, two years out ol' three, 

 without aiding it by any species of manure. Bi:t 

 if vve add to this system the two items with which 

 it is usually attended, one, close grazinij the year 

 of rest, as it is called, (a rest like that enjoyed by 

 a man first stunned with blows and then tramp.led 

 (o death,) the other, licquent plourrhings of two or 

 three inches deep to let in sun and keep out atmo- 

 sphere as much as possible, it would be viewed as 

 the most complete agricultural caricature hitherto 

 sketched by the finest fiancy for the ridiculous. 



In England, a thorough manuring universally 

 attends a fallow crop, thl; efi'ect of which is a me- 

 dium product of wheat, of about thirty bushels to 

 the acre. Let manuring attend maize as a lallow 

 crop, and we follow this example. To come up to 

 if, however, we must get our land into equal heart 

 with theirs, when it receives this manuring; and 

 then we should be able (iiirly to estimate the va- 

 lue of Indian corn. In its cultivation, the first 

 improvement required is, iherelbre, to manure it at 

 the usual rate of other fallow crops. 



The second is to plough vastly deeper than we 

 plough at present. In our dry and hot climate, 

 the preservation of the moisture, and the inhala- 

 tion of the atmosphere, are sufficient reasons for 

 this. To these are to be added, the deepening of 

 the soil, and an increase of pasture for the plant. 

 The maize is a little tree, and possessing roots 

 correspondent to its size, these roots will of course 

 strike deeper, both to procure nourishment, and to 

 strengthen this small tree against severe winds. 

 It follows, with a great degree of probability, that 

 this large plant requires deeper ploughing than a 

 smaller one. Yet we plourrh shallower in its cul- 

 tivation than the people of Europe do in cultivat- 

 ing wheat, 



I shall here endeavor to prove the truth of a 

 pair of paradoxes. One, that shallow ploughing 

 increases; the other, that deep ploughing dimi- 

 nishes labor. A single observation almost suf- 

 fices to sustain both. By shallow ploughing, tlie 

 seeds of grass and weeds arc kept near the sur- 

 face throughout the year, locked up by frost, 

 drought or immersion, ready to sprout up on the 

 occurrence of every genial season, when they ap- 

 pear in millions, and instantly require the plough, 

 however recently used ; by deep, if skillijily done, 

 these seeds, which abound most near the surface, 

 are deposited below a depth of earth, which they 

 penetrme slowly and in small numbers, so that the 

 repetition ol ploughing is far less necessary. 



One or two deep ploughings, according to the 

 nature of the soil, will, with the subsequent use 

 of the skimmer or the harrow, serve to make the 

 crop of corn ; in place of which at least four or 

 five ehallow ploughings, with the same aid, will 

 often destroy it. 



To demoiistate the difference in point of labor, 

 I will describe the tillage of corn as I practise it 

 to some extent, and leave the reader to make the 



comparison in his own mind with the usual mode 

 of cultivation. 

 The rows are never ploushed but in one direc- 



ed. 



be- 



tion, cross ploughing beinix wholly abandon 

 Their width is five and a half feet. The field I 

 ing once thrown into the position of ridges and fur- 

 rows, never requires to be laid ofi' again. The 

 furrow is left as deep as possible, and when the 

 field comes again into tillage, the list or lidixe is 

 made upon this furrow, so that there is a regular 

 alterniiy beuveen ridges and furrows. If the soil 

 is ofa Iriable nature, a large plough drawn by lour 

 horses, and cutting a sod about twelve inches wide 

 and eight deep, is run on each side of this old fur- 

 row, and raises a ridge in its centre, on which to 

 plant the corn. The old ridge is split by a larue 

 trowel-hoe-piough, havinir a coulter on the point, 

 two moulii- boards, drawn by ff)ur horses, and cut- 

 ting ten inches deep. If the soil is stiff or tough 

 with turfj the first plough, with four horses, ridges 

 or lists on the old water furrow, with four furrows 

 of the same depth and width. On the summit of 

 this ridge or list, a deep and wifle tiirrow is run 

 with a ttowel-hoe-plough and two mould boards, 

 in which the corn is planted and coveted between 

 two and three inches deep, with the foot. The 

 planting is guided by a string carried across the 

 ridges, with colored marks at the distance apart 

 intended for the corn. This furrow is a complete 

 weeding of the ridge previous to planting, which 

 it should barely precede. The corn receives no 

 more ploughing until it is thinned and hand-hoed 

 along the rows, about two feet wide. After this 

 a deep furrow is run on each side of it by a large 

 plough, drawn by two horses, with a mould board, 

 causing the earth thrown out of it to meet at the 

 corn, though the furrow is a foot from it. Thence- 

 forth the tillage consists of a streak or furrow of a 

 mere weeding plouL:h, called a skimmer, cutting 

 with two wings twenty-four inches — drawn by 

 one horse ; and of a central, deep and wide fur- 

 row, made vvith a trowel-hoe and two mould 

 boards, drawn by two horses, to be repeated when 

 necessary. The whole to be concluded vvith a 

 narrow weeding or hand-hoe along the slip in the 

 direction of the row, not kept completely clean by 

 the skimmer. 



The judicious reader will discern, that the ef- 

 fects of high ridges and deep fijrrows, in cultivat- 

 ing corn, are numerous. The corn is planted im- 

 mediately over the 'urrovv of the preceding crop, 

 and by completing the reversal of the ridge early 

 in its culture, it grows upon a depth of tilth three 

 or four limes exceeding what is attained by plant- 

 ing and cross ploughing in the usual mode. Its 

 roots are never cut in one direction, and this great 

 depth of tilth thus early obtained, by superseding 

 the occasion for deep ploughing in the latter period 

 of its growth, saves them in the other. The pre- 

 servation of the roots, and their deeper pasture, 

 enables the corn much longer to resist drought. 

 The litter of inclosed grounds, thrown into the 

 deep furrow upon which the corn list is made, is a 

 reservoir of manure, far removed from evapora- 

 tion ; within reach of the roots, which will follow 

 it along the furrow ; and calculated for feeding the 

 plant in droughts. The dead earth brought up 

 by the plough from the deep furrow ia deposited 

 on each side of it, without hurting the crop on the 

 ridge, and with the bottom of the furrow remains 

 four years to be fructified by the atmosjjhere, so 



