1S36.] 



FAR M E R S ' REGISTER 



6S7 



have been wasting to it, i!' in the pen. And fur- 

 ther — when the grains are found shrivelled, and 

 standing loosely on the cob, it is evident that the 

 fodder was gathered, and the plant killed, when the 

 grain was still greener than this ear had been when 

 the stalk on which it grew was topped. 



I shall entertain no more doubts as to the safety 

 of early gathering corn; and the saving of labor in 

 the whole business of harvesting corn and sowing 

 wheat, thereby made, is a very irnportanl matter. 

 A still greater saving of labor (and perhaj s o! 

 manure,) may be derived from this plan, by 

 ploughing in the green corn-stalks, in preparing 

 for wheat, as soon as the ears have been removed 

 This will save all the collecting and carting ol 

 stalks to the farm-yard, and bringing them back 

 again to the land, and will enable us to be plough- 

 ing for wheal fifteen or twenty days sooner than it 

 is prudent to begin to sow, or advisable to cut up 

 and shock the corn in the usual manner. 



The precautions which will make the practice 

 perfectly safe and advantageous, are these: 



1. Replant (and set, if setting should be re- 

 quired,) with an earlier kind of grain than the 

 first and main planting, so as to have the ripening 

 of all the grain as nearly equal as possible. 



2. Begin to gather the corn as soon as nearly 

 all the shucks have lost their green color, and put 

 none with green shucks into the pens. 



3. Build the pens in a house, in preference, if 

 convenient: if out of doors, use straight and sea- 

 soned rails, not too large. In either case, let there 

 be at least six inches between the rail floor of the. 

 pen and the earth, (or the plank floor of the house,) 

 the flue four inches throughout, and a clear pas- 

 sage for air on every side of the pen. 



4. The small proportion of soft and greenest 

 corn should be kept thin, and in the shuck, and 

 fed away rapidly. 



It is the internal moisture (of the cob) only that 

 endangers ears of corn. No other grain can be 

 kept so easily, or may be exposed to the like rough 

 treatment. We know that dry ears of corn (at 

 the usual time of shucking) are not hurt by rain, 

 and may be put up wet in our open log cribs, and 

 left there, without fear, in bulk, to dry. By care- 

 lessness, some of my early gathered corn of the. 

 last crop, was exposed to the worst of such treat- 

 ment, and without injury. A large bulk of corn 

 had been shucked, (or penning, and was completely 

 drenched by the heavy rain which fell on the 30th 

 of September and 1st of October. As soon as the 

 rain ceased, the corn, without drying at all, was 

 carried into the upper story of the barn, and laid 

 about two feet thick on a platform of fence-rails 

 raised a Tew inches from the plank floor. The 

 windows were left open for a lew days. This par- 

 cel was beaten out for sale a few "days ago, and 

 was perfectly dry and sound. 



January 25th, 1834. 



.Experiments of 1S34. 



Before commencing the statements of experi- 

 ments of the next year, it is proper to mention se- 

 veral circumstances which led to the loss that en- 



rity than the grain really possessed. Hence, much 



corn, of which the shuck had partly lost its oreen 

 color, (my previous test of its being fit to gather,) 

 was actually too green. Next, there prevailed 

 through all the early (and of course the most haz- 

 ardous) time of gathering, a remarkable, and in- 

 deed unexampled succession of rains — and of 

 dam]) and warm weather generally, when not rain- 

 ing. A third disadvantage was, (and which was 

 alone a sufficient cause of failure,) that the busi- 

 ness was carried on by my general orders, but not 

 under my immediate superintendence, nor on the 

 farm where I resided. Hence arose much of the 

 gross carelessness and mismanagement displaved 

 afterwards, but which was not. so apparent at first. 



1S34. September 16th. Began to gather corn, 

 and to haul it in to the barn door for shucking. 

 Corn the lar<re white kind — the land light, warm, 

 and rich. The cutting up and securing the stalks, 

 and ploughing the land (for wheat) was to follow 

 immediately alter — and it was designed that the 

 gathering should be carried on no faster, than 

 would give room for these operations, and permit 

 the shucking and penning of the corn to proceed 

 as fast as the labor could be given. Contrary to 

 this, about sixty-five barrels the first day, was pull- 

 ed off, and all except the few loads hauled in, 

 left lying on the ground. The carting in of this 

 was not finished until the 19th. Cloudy before 

 night. 



17th. Raining more than half the day T — gener- 

 ally slowly, but sometimes quite fast. The hands 

 being engaged in securing blade fodder (gathered 

 and curing previously,) until the increase of rain 

 stopped that work, no corn was shucked until eve- 

 ning. Part of the heap was thrown into the barn 

 for that purpose, but not until it had been exposed 

 to the rain for several hours. Began the first 

 pen, in the barn — on a floor of fence-rails — the 

 pen nine feet square, inside measure, and divided 

 as formerly into two parts, by a central flue of four 

 inches between the rails which formed it. The 

 separate bulks of corn were nine feet long, and 

 lour wide, the construction of the flue taking up 

 about twelve inches width. 



18th. Very damp air, and the corn also clamp to 

 an alarming degree. Light drizzle, with driving 

 south wind: increase of rain in the evening. The 

 shucking and penning proceeding. 



19th. Cloudy, and more rain threatening, for 

 some hours of the morning — but sunshine beibre 

 noon, and heat oppressive. 



20th. A few more loads of corn pulled and 

 hauled in. Three pens partly filled, as high as 

 five or six feet each, making about seventy-five 

 barrels of com. 



21st. Sunday. Cloudy, and frequent showers 

 throughout the day. 



22d. The overseer reported that a warm steam 

 from the corn was noticed early in the morning — 

 but as it was not perceptible to me at 9 o'clock, 

 I supposed that it was merely the effect of the dry- 

 ing of the corn, and made evident by the differ- 

 ence of the internal and external temperature of 

 the air. Cloudy. — Gathering corn again, and be- 



sued. The latter part of the growing season had j gan a fourth pen — avoiding as yet to fill any more 

 been attended by a long and severe drought, which than six feet deep. At night, and until next morn- 

 parched the leaves of the corn and dried the shucks, ing after day-break, a steady rain, of which a 

 so as to produce an appearance of greater matu- t large quantity fell. Nearly all the corn crathered 



