MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



VOL. II. JUNE, 1847. NO. 12.. 



INDIAlg CORN : 



WHAT IS KNOWN .\ND WHAT IS WANTED TO BE KNOWN ABOUT IT. 



" Fell Famine sickens at the o'erilowing good, 

 And, hissing, flies the native land of food." 



If any should ask what is our warrant for encouraging inquiries like the follow- 

 ing from a correspondent, we answer : 1. The duties that belong to our very po- 

 sition. 2. That volume on volume may be produced to show that for the last 

 thirty years we have been instigating inquiries on every branch of agricultural 

 industry ; and, 3. As to this particular subject, as far back as March, 1822 — 

 twenty-five years ago — a friend in Massachusetts made a call upon us, saying : " I 

 ' beg leave to inquire in behalf of myself and others, of you and your correspond- 

 ' ents, what is the relative value of barley, buckwheat, Indian corn, oats and rye, 

 ' as food for hogs, horses and neat stock. Satisfactory answers would enable us 

 ' to ascertain what particular part of our surplus produce might be offered for 



* sale consistently with good husbandry." 



In publishing the above inquiry in the American Farmer, we remarked : 

 " The object at which our correspondent aims is, we think, entitled to the notice 

 ' of Agricultural Societies. They might call for and reward the most judicious 



* sets of experiments connected with the subject ; and we persuade ourselves to 



* believe that it is within the power of any one of these Associations to com- 



* mand satisfactory and useful answers to these questions; but meanwhile we 

 ' would very gladly receive such information in the case as any of our readers 

 ' may be disposed to furnish." 



Such were our published sentiments in 1822 — such are they in 1847. The 

 references and extracts which we shall now make are not intended to show that 

 anything new can be said on the mere practical part — the cultivation — but they 

 will show what progress has since then been made in the application of sci- 

 ences to these subjects. We have no longer to inquire in vain for the relative 

 value and nutritive properties of wheat, corn, rye, barley, &c. Thanks to the 

 votaries of science and the " book knowledge" they give us. 



Extract of a Letter to the Editor of The Farmers' Library. 



" The calculation is that we shall raise this year five hiiiulred millions of bushels of com, 

 and if so, then there will be four huiidreil and ninety-nine millions of bnsliels of ears 

 thrown away. Now the question of whether cobs are of any value or not ouf;lit to be set- 

 tled. Yon know that corn-blades are considered of more value than hay at the South for 

 their race-horses ; and our fanners here feed blades and stalks to theii- catde, and soinu few 

 (1107) 



