INDIAN CORN. 475 



INDIAN CORN. 



(TROP OF MR. STEVENS AT UOBOKEN FIFTY YEARS AGO— THE PHILOSOPHY THAT SHOUI-D 

 GOVERN THE OFFER OF PREMIUMS. 



Mr. EorxoR: About fifty years have elapsed since a wager of (ifty guineas was 

 laid between Mr. John Stevens, of Hoboken, (father of the Stevenses still so 

 noted for going ahead in what they do undertake, whether by wind, steam, or 

 horse power,) and Daniel Ludlow, Esq., of Westchester, who would make the 

 heaviest crop of Indian corn on three acres. To avoid all doubt as to measure- 

 ment, a precaution was taken which I recommend to all Agricultural Societies, 

 to be enforced against competitors. Mr. Stevens sent a man to measure Lud- 

 low's land and Ludlow sent one to measure Stevens's. Stevens won, making on 

 the three acres 354 bushels and 6 quarts, being one hundred and eighteen bushels 

 and tu-o (/uarts to the acre ! Mr. Ludlow 98 bushels and 14 quarts. 



I send you the process for publication, if you will promise that no more pre- 

 miums will be ottered for heavy crops, except on condition that the crop shall ex- 

 ceed these, made fifty years ago, and that it be done by the instrumentality of 

 some new and economical and profitable implement or mode of culture, that shall 

 be pronounced a discovery in agricultural economy, and worthy of being followed 

 as a new and profitable application of labor and capital. For, after all, that 's 

 the philosophy of the case, and the only view or conditions on which such pre- 

 miums should be now awarded, after $10,000 have been bestowed for the same 

 old things ; and the same may be said of many others besides heavy crops on 

 small patches, if you overhaul the old standing lists. T. 



We have no power over the case. We don't know what lingering old tastes and customs 

 may still demand ; but we will so far add to the stoiy of this Hoboken prize crop, as to say 

 that Mr. Ludlow planted his com in continuous rows, about 4 feet apart and eight inches in 

 the row, aud applied 200 horse-cart loads of street dirt — while Mr. Stevens (see how as the 

 old cock crows, so crows the young !) determined to go ahead " anyhow," plowed in seven 

 hundred loads of street manure ! and planted in donhle rows 5^ feet asunder, and was at the 

 pains of dibbling-in each grain over the three acres, " to do which with expedition and ac- 

 curacy, he bored two rows of holes in a piece of board of about four feet long, so as to form 

 equilateral triangles, the sides of which were seven inches, as thus : 



Into these holes he drove pegs about 3^ inches long. As the com was dropped into these 

 holes, made with this machine, a man followed with a basket of rotten dung, with which ho 

 filled them up. Then came on the carts, out of which the rows were spiinkled with a coat 

 of street manure. During the season the crop was suckered three times. The intervals 

 were frequently plowed, aud the rows kept perfecdy clean of weeds, by hoeing and hand- 

 weeding. 



" But extraordinary as this crop may appear, Mr. Stevens is confident that he should have 

 had considerably more com, had not his crop suffered very greatly by a thmider-storoi, 

 which laid the greater pint of it down at the time the ears were setting." 



It would be curious to know what price for this crop would have realized a fair ag- 

 ricultural profit? Is not, our con-espondent correct in the Suggestion that the tnie de- 

 sideratum is, whose com has realized for the cultivator the most profit 7 It is very well to 

 stimulate vvealthy amateurs to trials, without regai'd to expense, to see what can be done; 

 but they don't need or want any of the little money that is to be had for agricultural pre- 

 miums. Societies should give their premiums for demonstrations that may be followed with 

 profit by farmers in ordinary circumstances, and above all for something new in principle, 



or new in its way, in our country, so as to keep the public agricultural mind, if we may so 

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