124 Extracts from the Journals. [J 



an.. 



most every cranberry bog and yard in the county, and have care- 

 fully compared the information thus obtained, and we know that 

 our opinions are corroborated and supported by all who have had 

 the largest experience in the business. We do not wish to dis- 

 courage any from planting vines. Far from it. We say, go 

 ahead. All we wish is to discourage men from running blindfold 

 into a business, respecting which all the necessary information 

 can be so easily and so readily obtained. — Yarmouth Register. 



INDIAN CORN. 



[Communicated for the Albany Cultivator, by Lardner Vanuxum] 



Of all the crops which are raised in the middle states of 

 the Union, none are of so much importance to the farmer 

 as the corn plant, not only for its valuable grain, but its leaves, 

 husks, and stalks, for fodder and manure; no plant w^hich he cul- 

 tivates being so well adapted to hold the valuable parts of the 

 faeces and urine of the barn-yard from the pithy structure of its 

 interior. 



Corn, for success, requires a loose and rich soil, by which a ra- 

 pid growth is obtained, and is thus enabled to overcome the 

 changes incident to spring and its two ordinary and most power- 

 ful enemies, the wire-worm and the grub. The ravages of the 

 former, are, as we all know, below the surface, appear to be pro- 

 portioned to the hardiness and probable poverty of the soil, 

 preying on the main root, effectually preventing all production of 

 the grain, if not destroying the plant. The grub, on the contra- 

 ry, cuts off the stem near the surface; its range of destruction 

 more general as regards soil, but evidently feeding from preference 

 upon the more feeble plants, and therefore by complying with the 

 conditions requisite for a vigorous growth, its action is but feeble. 

 So also when corn is planted upon a sod recently turned under, 

 the grub finding still its accustomed food. 



There is also another observation which I wish to have record- 

 ed, being important to prove, if true, or to set aside, if false. It 

 is the belief that the tendency of the corn plant is to produce a 

 greater yield of grain in northern climates, and less grain and 

 more leaf and stalk in southern ones; no state in the Union pro- 

 ducing such prodigious crops, per acre, as New- York, for exam- 

 ple. Should this be the fact, it will lead the farmers here, and 

 further south, not to force the plant after it has escaped its early 

 enemies, but to reserve its strength and that of the soil, to near 

 the time of setting; merely giving a healthy growth by moderate, 



