FARMERS' REGISTER 



735 



a3 to escape the present loss, sometimes accruing 

 from niiniiling too much dead earih with the soil 

 by deep flat ploughing, and yet to mellow and 

 d-'epen it more rapidly. And much labor is saved 

 in planting the corn, whether the hoe is used alter 

 a siring, or the siring is carried acrosa I'urrows 

 previously made on ihe ridge. 



In all lands unable to produre forty bushels of 

 corn to the acre, the considerations of produce and 

 saving labor united have determined the proper 

 distance to be five and a half feet square, with 

 two or three stalks at each station, except in poor 

 spots where one will suffice. It" it can produce 

 that crop or more, I have planted it at the dis- 

 tance of five (eet six inches, by two feet nisie^ 

 leaving two stalks in sandy, and three in stiH' 

 lands. Deep ploughing in one direction, by shield- 

 ing the corn against drought, and saving its roots, 

 allows it to be planted thicker than usual. 



Young's e.xperiments have ascertained that fal- 

 low crops are more profitable than naked lallows. 

 Several superioriiies of Indian corn over the lal- 

 lovv crops used in England, have been noticed. 

 The following are, I believe, omitted. The high 

 ridges produced l)y the mode of culiivation I have 

 adopted, double the surface exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere, and lessen by one-half that exposed to the 

 sun, so as to increase inhalation and diminish ex- 

 halation very considerably. No other fallow crop 

 will enable us to obtain these benefits by the 

 agency of the plough, because none of them will 

 admit of being drd!ed sufficiently wide apart, nor 

 admit of an e(|ual use of the plough. 



Corn is a fallow crop, peculiarK' adapted to co- 

 operate with ihe system of inclosing ; whereas a 

 fallow lor wheat, by which an ungrazed lay of 

 grass, weeds, or even of red clover is turned un- 

 der, frequently defeats the hopes of the fi^rmer. 

 Hence he is seduced into the ruinous practice of 

 feeding oH' his clover before he commences his 

 fallow ; a practice under which very rich land only 

 will improve ; whereas the heaviest cover, turned 

 under by a large plough and lour horses, is a 

 pledge lor good crops both of corn and wheat, 

 owing to the quality of the former of thriving! 

 upon the (bod yielded by coarse litter, and the 

 time gained during its growth, for reducing this 

 htter to the proper (bod (or the latter. 



The winter's manure, like this litter, is also 

 made more extensively beneficial to a crop of 

 wheat, than if it had been exposed to putrefaction 

 throughout the summer, because whatever es- 

 capes into the atmosphere, during a violent sum- 

 mer's fermentation, is lost both to the earth and to 

 the crop of wheat ; whereas the fermentation is 

 less violent, when this litter is mingled with ihe 

 earth, which catches a portion of its fertilizing 

 qualities as the slow putrefaction proceeds, and 

 Jess of the manure is lost when the wheat is sown, 

 than if rotted in a body, whereby much of it is 

 dissipated in the atmosphere; a dissipation which 

 corn partly prevents, and partly saves. 



The manure made on the winter's farm pen re- 

 mains wet, cold, and unrolled until the month of 

 April, and when composed of corn stalks is of a 

 rough and hard nature. Yet land covered with 

 fifty loads and sown with one bushel of gypsum 

 to an acre, will produce three-fold more corn than 

 in its natural state; and this crop is made in five 

 months; a space just sufficient to reduce the 

 coarse litter to a pabulum proper for wheat. The 



better this coarse litter and the earth are divided 

 and mingled, the less will be the fermentation, and 

 the greater the crop. The sudden growth of the 

 corn, demonstrates the vast benefit to be derived 

 (rom litter as coarse and hard as corn stalk?, 

 whilst their degree of the putrefaction is inconsi- 

 derable, and consequently the vast loss sustained 

 by completing this puirelaction, without gaining a 

 valuable crop (iom its process. After the process 

 of fermentation and putrefaction is finished in the 

 earth, the residuum ii? the satriC, as if it had been 

 finished out of the earth ; besides this residuum, 

 supposed by the old theory of compounding, stir- 

 ring and rotting dunghills, to contain all the ferti- 

 lizing qualities of vesetahie matter, Indian corn 

 enables us to reap a rich harvest of bread stuff 

 (iom the process towards it. 



The same property of Indian corn presents us 

 a'so with a vast addition to our vegetable matter 

 lor manure. The crop of ofTal as well as that of 

 (bod, is augmented three-lbld by the matter sepa» 

 rated from the coarse litter in reducing it to manure 

 proper for wheat. This of itself exhibits the vast 

 preference of corn as a (allow crop, to the applica- 

 tion of rotted manure to a naked (allow for wheat. 

 No two crops can be so exactly fitted for advanc- 

 ing a good system of agriculture. The coarse 

 organs of the one, relish the food rejected by the 

 delicate organs of the other, and by the economy 

 of saving what would otherwise be lost, not only 

 enable us to obtain an additional crop, but by in- 

 creasing our means for raising manure in a three- 

 fold ratio, must have the effect of increasing the 

 crops of wheat themselves, far beyond the con- 

 fines to which they are limited by naked (lallows. 



The reader will remember, that Indian corn is to 

 be planted on a high ridge, and that cross plough- 

 ing is excluded. These ridges should run north and 

 south, to equalize both the benefits and injuries 

 derived from the sun. The injury suffered by a 

 flat surfiice from its excessive heat, would be ra- 

 ther increased than di^minished, by exposing one 

 face of the ridge to the" south, whilst the northern 

 aspect would lose the benefit of its genial warmth. 

 These high ridges have another important eHect. 

 However steep the declivity, we never see the 

 roots of trees, shrubs or grasses, penetrating 

 through the ground into the atmosphere. It is of 

 course evident that they recoil from one element, 

 and bend towards their lood in the other, wherever 

 it is to be (bund. By the position of the corn oa 

 high ridges from its infancy, the roots on approach- 

 ing the declivity on each side, are trained to run 

 lengthways of the ridge, atid thus escape the in- 

 jury they would otherwise sustain by getting into 

 the range of the deep middle (Ijrrow. 



As it would be unreasonable to expect the read- 

 er to recollect observations made in considering 

 the subject of manuring, I shall remind him that 

 the ground intended to be manured for Indian 

 corn is fallowed in the winter ; that before or after 

 the rest of the crop is planted, this manure is car- 

 ried out, ploughed in, and the corn to be benefited 

 by it planted ; and that before it receives any 

 ploughing, the corn is to be thinned and weeded, 

 or hand-hoed. This process will bring us into 

 June, and allow an interval for recruiting the 

 teams, when clover is in its best state for that end. 

 By this time the corn is from eight to twenty-four 

 inches high. At this juncture the deep furrow be- 

 fore mentioned on each side of it being run, nar- 



