164 ESSAY OIC INDIAN COBS'. 



take the ten c^^is o2 barn manure that was applied to one acre of 

 carrots, and compost it well with meadow mud and soil, this will ma- 

 nure four acres of corn, which will probably yield fifty bushels to 

 the acre. This, for the farmer who has grass land that needs plough- 

 ing, would be better than to put it all on one acre for carrots. 



I have found that the same land, manured alike, will yield about 

 one third as many bushels of corn on the ear as of carrots ; or, in 

 other words, we can get a peck of cob meal as cheap as a bushel of 

 carrots. The question then arises, which is worth the most, — the 

 peck of meal or a bushel of carrots, for stock ? My opinion is, that 

 if we cut the hay, the meal will be worth the most ;— but if we feed 

 on dry hay, not chopped, the carrots. 



On Ploughing Land for Corn. 



The best time for breaking up a stiff, hard soil, is late in the au- 

 tumn, that it may be more exposed to the action of the frost. For 

 a light soil, it is better to defer the ploughing till about the time for 

 planting. It is often more convenient to plough early in the spring, 

 as soon as the frost is out, when the land can be ploughed much 

 easier than at any other season ; but it injures most land to plough 

 it then ; it hardens like mortar as it dries, and it will require more 

 labor to keep it properly cultivated. 



On warm, loamy land, where the corn is often injured by the cut 

 worm, it is well to plough the land in August, then cross plough in 

 the spring ; this will destroy the worms. 



The yellow wire, or stick worm, which often injures the corn 

 about the low places in our fields, is not killed by ploughing. Some 

 recommend carting sand or gravel on to such places, to destroy the 

 worms ; if it does not kill them, it will probably help the soil. 



The proper depth for Ploughing. 

 The old adage says, " plough deep, and you will have corn to sell 

 and to keep." It may appear presumptuous to question the truth 

 of anything that has passed into a proverb, but I think this assertion 

 much too broad. Deep ploughing is an important requisite, yet this 

 alone will never secure a good crop. If our quantity of manure is 

 small, and the soil a cold one, which has never been ploughed more 

 than five inches deep, if we were literally to adopt the adage, and 

 plough deep, we prol^ably should have corn neither to sell Ror to 



