152 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



and was told that it had grown twenty-five consecutive crops of 

 corn. It has been planted in corn forty-four out of the forty- 

 five years since having been sown in wheat once it has never 

 had any manure, and receives no benefit from an overflow, as 

 there is always a swift current that carries off more soil than it 

 leaves. This field still produces profitable crops, and I believe 

 that if put in clover a single year it would restore it to its 

 former productiveness. 



Manures for Corn. In a previous chapter I have said 

 that under ordinary circumstances I thought the farmer could 

 not afford to apply stable manure to the corn crop and that a 

 sod was the best and cheapest manure for it. I believe, how- 

 ever, that it would pay to apply a little manure in the hill to give 

 the corn a start, as the plant-food from the sod is not available 

 early in the season, and such a manure can be easily and 

 cheaply prepared as I describe. Some of our drills and planters 

 already have fertilizer attachments and our manufacturers will 

 furnish them to all whenever the farmers demand them. I 

 should expect good results from a manure composted with bran 

 like that which I used on my potato crop with such good re- 

 sults. It will be easy to experiment with manures in the hill, 

 applied by hand, to determine whether it will pay, and if it 

 does, the fertilizer attachment to the planter can be purchased. 

 I would also advise that experiments be made with plaster, 

 used after the corn is up and applied to the plant when the 

 dew is on. 



I have not been troubled with cut worms for several years, 

 but if I should be I would try a mixture of salt and plaster; 

 two parts of the latter to one of the salt. At a meeting of 

 farmers in Logan County, Ohio, I heard the following statement : 

 "I had a field of corn on sod this year, and found soon after it 

 came up that the cut worms were destroying it. They kept it 

 so short that we could not see it in the row and I thought I 

 should be obliged to plant it over. I mixed salt and plaster; 

 two parts of plaster to one of salt, and we applied it at the rate 

 of a barrel of the mixture to eight acres, dropping about a tea- 

 spoonful on each hill, and two days after, on careful examina- 



