INDIAN CORN. 541 



' the ground to the top, without erecting the top blade, 14 feet 6 inches ; circum- 

 ' ferenco of the stalk between the joints, the blade stripped off, 7? inches ; 

 ' length of blade, put out S feet from the ground, 4 feet 1 inch ; breadth of ditto, 

 ' 71 inches." Col. Paxton had no doubt it would reach the length of 17 or 18 

 feet, as no tassel had then made its appearance. 



All these facts go to show the propriety of having several measurements, and 

 that the same system of gathering and curing the corn and fodder may not suit 

 all latitudes alike. 



We would therefore suggest, with all deference, to the American Institute 

 to offer two or three premiums of $50 or $100 each, to be placed in the hands 

 of gentlemen of known character and zeal in the cause, living in latitudes 

 wide asunder — say with Presidents of Agricultural Societies in Massachusetts 

 and Virginia, Tennessee, or Kentucky, or Ohio— to be by them offered to 

 some practical farmer of their acquaintance, who might be relied upon to take 

 this matter in hand con amore, and let us have the exact quantities, as here set 

 forth, of all parts and substances pertaining to an acre of Indian corn of average 

 product of grain ; for once knowing that a given amount of these different sub- 

 stances was incidental to a given amount of grain, a man would only have, ever 

 after, to ascertain how much grain he made to know, with sufficient exactness, 

 how much and what was the value of all the rest of the crop. 



There are rules laid down for determining how much grain a given space filled 

 with the ears will yield. The first we remember to have seen was by Bordley, 

 (in his "Husbandry,") one of your book farmers again, who, though himself not 

 successful, did more good to agriculturists, by causing them to think, than fifty of 

 your " practical men" who come along in the wake of mechanical and scientific 

 discoveries, and grow rich on the practice of theories they once denounced. A 

 correspondent, referring to Bordley, says: Multiply the length, depth and width 

 together ; the solid measure multiply by 8 ; the quotient will be about one per 

 cent short. Take any box, therefore — say 3 feet square and 2 feet deep — 3X3= 

 9X2=18X8=14-4 bu^els and a fraction. The following is given in the Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist as from the Western Cultivator : 



To Measure Corn in the Ear. — In a bulk of com in the ear, measuring 12 feet long-, 

 11 feet broad and 6 feet deep there will be 316 bushels and 8-tenths of a bushel of shelled 

 com, or 633 bushels and C-tcntbs of a bushel of eai- com, as : 

 12Xll=132X6=792X4=316-8 

 12X11=132X6=?92X8=633'6 



The decimal 4 is used when the object is to find the quantity in shelled com, because 

 that decimal is half of the decimal 8, and it requires two bushels of ear com to make one 

 of shelled corn. In using these rales a halt' bushel should be used to every hundred, that 

 amount of enor residtiug from the substitution of the decimals. 



There is a considerable difference, however, between different species of com. 

 The Editor of The Farmers' Library well remembers that his father, who was 

 always a corn-seller, in old Calvert County, Maryland, and cultivated the yellow 

 gourd-seed, taking pains to select for seed perfect ears having the greatest num- 

 ber of rows, always demanded pay for six bushels for every ten bushels of ears 

 measured into an ox-cart, as was the fashion, and if the gentleman hesitated he 

 had it shelled to satisfy him. 



Just as we had written thus far, we received a letter from R. L. Colt, Esq., 

 of Paterson, who states — " As you requested, I took one bushel of best kind of 

 Jersey corn in ears, carefully shelled it, and had half a bushel and six quarts of 

 shelled corn and a heaped half bushel of cobs ; so, for all practical purposes, you 

 can say that a struck bushel of shelled corn v/ill furnish a heaped bushel of cobs. 

 (1111) 



