70 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Whilst residing in Waterville, Me,, I developed a variety of sweet 

 corn, which acquired a very early habit. I commenced my experi- 

 ments in the spring of 1855, on a lot which had been for two 

 generations a garden, but for a few years previous had been aban- 

 doned to weeds. The soil was black and unctuous, consisting of 

 decomposed slate, mixed with road wash. A dyke of hard slate, 

 wilh a vertical dip, crossed diagonally from northeast to southwest, 

 two feet below the surface, serving to warm and enrich the soil. 

 The surface sloped gently to the southeast from the crown of the 

 ledge, and was level north of it. A row of maples on the north 

 side, and some large apple trees on the south, gave shelter. The 

 ground was ploughed about the first of June, and a variety of sweet 

 corn ftom the Patent Office, with large, shrivelled kernels, was 

 planted just over the ledge. It received no dressing, nor any care 

 beyond keeping down the weeds, and grew slowly until the last of 

 June, when it took a start and grew with great luxuriance, bearing 

 two or three ears to a stalk, and remaining green until the middle 

 of October, at which time the kernels were very small and imma- 

 ture, but very sweet. The germinal part, the chit or embr30, was 

 better developed than the food sac or endosperm, the kernels small, 

 and the cob enormous. Being struck b}^ hard frost, it was cut up 

 and housed the third week in October. There were many stalks 

 from nine to twelve feet high. The ears reserved for seed were 

 hung away, and the remainder seemed to fill out after it was 

 housed, so that the last cooking was better than the first. 



The second year it was planted in well prepared soil, about the 

 middle of May, a succession being sown until the first of June. 

 After coming up a dressing of unleached hard wood ashes was 

 given, and later an occasional application of liquid manure made 

 from hen dung, between the rows. It was cut up the middle of 

 September, four or five weeks earlier than the previous year, and 

 found to be better filled out, and as it was planted only three 

 weeks earlier, it had shortened its period of growth more than 

 three weeks. Some which had been transplanted was much in ad- 

 vance of the rest and gave the first corn for the table. The ears 

 marked for seed, by some mischance got into the pot, and the loss 

 was not observed until killing frosts came, when the most promis- 

 ing of the second planting were selected. The kernels of this 

 planting were not so well filled as the year before, and it ofteuer 

 had twelve or fourteen rows than sixteen. 



