1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



635 



The statements respecting the experiments o! 

 1833, were written as they will be given below 

 (from memoranda made at the time of the several 

 occurrences.) and were designed tor publication in 

 the following winter. A desire to make the proofs 

 of success and profit complete, by another season's 

 trial on a larger scale, induced me to wait for the 

 securing of the next crop. Of that, a daily jour- 

 nal of proceedings was also kept, from which the fol- 

 lowing statement is now prepared. These results 

 were as disastrous, as the previous ones had been 

 flattering or successful. The marked difference of 

 seasons and of results left the question still doubt- 

 ful, and made it proper to wait for a further trial, 

 which was made in the last crop. Readers 

 will judge for themselves whether greater care, 

 and more judgement, than I was able to have ex- 

 ercised, may not enable them to obtain the bene- 

 fits of this practice, in suitable seasons, without 

 the risk of loss under different circumstances. The 

 details presented will at least show the different 

 causes of both the safety and danger — and may 

 also throw light on the principles of drying and 

 preserving corn, which may be of use in all other 

 modes of securing the harvest. 



The reader will notice throughout. the statement 

 of the experiments of 1833, that my confidence in 

 the safety of the plan was unbounded — and so it 

 remained until several hundred barrels of the next 

 year's crop had been gathered. The expressions 

 which grew out of that confidence, however mis- 

 taken, as well as all other statements, I have left 

 unchanged. 



Experiments of 1833. 



In No. 1. Vol. I. of the Farmers' Register, three 

 experiments were reported on the gathering of corn 

 at times much earlier than usual. On part of my 

 crops of 1833, (on two farms in Prince George coun- 

 ty, Va.) this practice was continued; and though 

 several errors were againcommit ted, the results have 

 been such as to leave no doubt as to the safety and 

 propriety of the plan. These additional facts will now 

 be presented. As the manner of constructing the 

 pens was minutely described before, (page 50, Vol. 

 I.) it will be unnecessary to repeat the general plan 

 here, though some variations will be mentioned. 



The corn crop of 1833 in lower Virginia was 

 matured uncommonly early; and was as dry by 

 the 15th of September, as it was in 1832, on simi- 

 lar soils, by the 30th. A long continuance of rainy 

 weather which lasted through nearly all May, and 

 part of June, had prevented the usual and proper 

 tillage, and had endangered the crop by the 

 growth of grass. The latter part of the growing 

 season had been very dry, and no rain had fallen 

 lor several weeks beibre the commencement of the 

 gathering. About the 11th of September it was 

 unusually cold — the 18th, 19th and 20th, unusual- 

 ly hot for the season. On the last two of these 

 days, my thermometer in the shade, and in open 

 air, rose to 92 5 and 92£°. 



Experiment 4. — Began to gather corn, on Sep- 

 tember 18th. The tops had been cut about 10 

 days before, and the blade fodder stripped perhaps 

 15 days earlier. The land on which the corn 

 grew was generally a clay loam — a smaller part, 

 sandy loam — and the average product about 25 

 bushels of grain to the acre. Only the ears on 

 which the shucks continued green, (and these feet! 



were but few) were separated, as not ripe enough 

 for the general treatment. 



The first pen was filled with ears, and covered in, 

 by the morning of the 21st. It was 9^ feet square, 

 inside measure, 12 feet high, and with only one 

 flue, (intended for 4 inches wide) carried up 

 through the middle. Before the cover or roof of 

 corn-stalks was completed, a slow rain began to fall. 

 The first planting of this field had been of the 

 large soft corn, and a large proportion of it, of the 

 red kind. The replanting was generally of the 

 small flinty, or rare-ripe corn, to insure greater 

 equality in ripening. But as the crop had not 

 stood well, setting of plants was resorted to, and 

 to this cause I attribute the circumstance that a 

 small portion of the corn of the large kind, was 

 still very green — the beasts of the grains milk}', 

 and the cobs so green and sappy that water might 

 have been pressed out of them. Of course, these 

 green ears (with the exceptions that will be named) 

 were not permitted to be penned with the large 

 dryer body. 



A material objection to this pen was discovered 

 before it was half finished, but too late to avoid it 

 Old oak fence-rails, which were neither straight 

 nor strong, were used in part to build the pen; and 

 these not being enough, green pine rails were 

 mauled, as the pen was filling, and used for the 

 balance. The rails were not notched so as to lie 

 close, except near the bottom (to guard against the 

 depredations of fowls,) and the ears were kept 

 from falling through the openings, caused by the 

 irregular form of the old rails and the flexibility of 

 the green ones, by being placed perpendicularly 

 and close together along the most open places. To 

 do this, required a man to be closely engaged in 

 placing the ears, while others were pouring in the 

 baskets of corn— and his continued trampling set- 

 tled the cars much closer than they would other- 

 wise have been. Besides this, the flue (as former- 

 ly) had been kept open by two perpendicular rails 

 being placed within the two ends, so as to keep 

 the sides of the flue from being pressed in by the 

 corn, during the filling. But the green rails so 

 yielded to the pressure, as in some places to close 

 the flue in the middle, and to diminish its average 

 width throughout. The remedy for all these evils, 

 would have been to use seasoned rails, as straight 

 and as strong as pine rails are generally. 



The corn in this pen was not moved until Janua- 

 ry 17th. The winter so far had been very wet, and 

 some fear was entertained that the heavy rains had 

 penetrated the roof of corn-stalks. It did not appear 

 however that a drop had gotten through. The 

 most exposed ears of corn, next the openings be- 

 tween the side rails, and sometimes extending 

 partly outside, were somewhat discolored by 

 the long exposure to rain, and every change of 

 weather — but not rotted, nor materially hurt in any 

 way. The ears partially rotted found in the whole 

 pen, perhaps might have amounted to from one to 

 two bushels. These were principally of the red 

 corn, which was observed, at the time of penning, 

 to have much more of rotten than the white. The 

 whole loss in rotten corn was inconsiderable, and 

 even that did not seem to be attributable to the 

 greenness of the corn. Many ears evidently 

 among the greenest in the pen, (and one of these 

 had been selected, and distinguished by a mark 

 when building the pen,) were observed to be per- 

 ectlv sound. Theclosencss ol the bulk, owing to 



