THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



31 



man in a hundred, will ever eat yellow corn-bread. I high. The prround wns fresh, nnd of good qiialiiy, 

 when he can get white. To 'our tasie, there is but not such as could be cnlled rich : yet the pro- 

 nearly or quilc'^as mucii dili'erence between the! dure was at tlie rate of 302 bu-slicls per acre, of 

 two, as there is betweeu a choUe pear and a fine I tubers more uniform l)ofh in f?ize nnd shape, than 

 Sec!<el or bcrgamot. any which I ever raised, either from whole or cut 



Permit me here to call your attention to ano- 1 potatoes, in the common way, and there were 

 ther circumstance relative to thiff invaluable grain fewer small ones among them— the general size 



—Indian corn— as it serves to confirm certain 

 opinions which I have heretofore expressed in re- 

 gard to its culture, that many have deemed very 

 heterodox. In the Farmers' Register for last 

 month, there is a letter from Mr. W. \V. Steven- 

 son, dated Little Rock, Arkansas, wherein he 

 states, that in IS34 he planted a small lot of corn, 

 in a liijht, silioious soil, with a red clay subsoil, 

 the hills 4 feet apart. This he cultivated solely 

 with the single coulter, running it both ways, 

 seven or eight inches deep, the strokes 8 inches 

 apart, and wMlhin 4 inches of the plants. The 

 summer, he says, was very dry and warm, bu 



being quite as large as usual. Indeed. I thought 

 it larger, if there was any diderence. The around 

 was v/orked twice with the hand-hoe. In this 

 method tlierc is a manifest and considerable saving 

 of seed, whilst the labor is not greater than that 

 of the common modes, nor indeed quite po great, 

 while the produce is fully equal to any but that of 

 my second experiment, whieh I now proceed to 

 slate. This was made wiih the common, round, 

 yellow potato, some of whirh had skins of a red- 

 dish purple color. I planted them whole on a level 

 surface, about 3 inches deep, 15 inches apart each 

 way. and then covered them with dead vines of 



his corn '' never twisted at any iime,''^ although I the Lima beans, garden-flags cut green for the 

 the coulter was used 4 times. In September he j purpose, and lastly, dead grass scraped from the 

 cut off' some of the corn to make room lor a build- I irarden walks — the whole forming a cover about 5 

 ing, and Ibund roots more than 20 inches below, or 6 inches thick. This remained undi?turbed, 

 the surface. 'until the potatoes were taken up. The spot of 



Now supposing this statem.ent to be true, and j land measured only 24 square yards, and produced 

 we have reason to presume that it is so as the ,2| bushels of very fine roots, which is at the rate 

 writer has given his name, it affords a strong con- of .504^ bushels per acre. It was an old straw- 

 firmation of what I have often asserted, that the i berry-bed, so thiokly matted with green-sward 

 cutting of corn roots to a considerable degree, du- i that I had it spaded up last fall ; and this spring, 

 ring its growth, does not injure the crop (if at all) just before plamincr, I scattered over it about a 

 to any thing like the extent to which the advo- ! bushel and a half of the scrapings from a lime- 

 cates of mere surface cuUure contend that it does. ! kiln of shells burnt on the ground, which scrapings 

 I certainly would neither adopt nor fully recom- } were chopped in previous to planting the potatoes 



mend JMr. Stevenson's practice. But I have often 

 seen the most conclusive proofs that the free use 

 of the coulter, particularly in all stiff land, u'as 

 highly beneficial to corn in the early stages of its 

 growth, and that no other implement could so vvcl' 



1 think I may safely affirm (hat the produce would 

 have been greater, but for five garden trees. One 

 of these grew at each end of the bed, and the 

 other three lo the west, distant from it only the 

 breadth of a garden-walk about five feet wide. 



secure it against the effects of severe drought. It i This is the third trial I have made of raising Irish 

 is equally advantageous to various other plants — ! potatoes in this way, and it has convinced me 

 for instance, a friend of mine tells n)e, that during I that it is by fiir the best method, both for saving 

 the late very dry weather he coultered his turnips,, j land and labor, at the same time that the potatoes 

 and they remained perfectly green, when every ( are certainly of equal, if not superior qualit}?^, and 

 other patch that he saw v/as much fired. Against ! exceeding, in quantitjr any other mode yet tried 

 these facts we have noihing but the theoreti- 1 among us. To these advanta.ges we must add, 

 cal reasoning on the subject of cutting the roots [that it greatly improves the soil, and prepares it 

 of growing plants. But plausible as it may seem finely for any other crop. 



to many, 1 must think that we should always be I have again tried the sugar-beet, but shall not 

 guided and governed by the former, when we find ! make much more than half a crop. This failure 



any difficulty in reconciling them with each other 

 That there should still be controversies in regard 

 to almost every particular connected with the In- 

 dian corn crop, so that the best methods of man- 

 aging it are matters yet undetermincii among us, 

 is much to be regretted. Nor is it le>s surprising 

 when we consider that, at least in Virginia, corn 

 has been our chief staple ever since i he country 

 was settled. But ignorance of the best methods 

 must still be our portion, unless each corn-grower 

 of our country, instead of conceiting his own ways 

 to be best, (as too many of us constantly do,) 

 would impartially and diligently pursue a course 

 of comparative experiments between the modes 

 most generally recommended, solely v/ith a view 

 to ascertain which was preferable. * * * * 



I have repeated two experiments with Irish po- 

 tatoes, both oj' which contribute to confirm opi- 

 nions deduced fi-ora my previous trials. The first 

 was by planting in hills, the shoots from growing 

 roots, after these shoots were six or seven inches 



has proceeded from two causes. A severe drought 

 in September and October was one cause ; and 

 the almost entire destruction of the leaves in Sep- 

 tember, by some insect which I could not discover, 

 was the other. They took, however, a seconcl 

 growth, which saved the roots from destruction. 

 But if a late writer in the Albany Cultivator may 

 be credited, this crop is worth little or nothing ; for 

 he asserts that he fed away last winter and spring, 

 some fifty-odd ton to hogs and cattle, without per- 

 ceiving any benefit, except some increase of milk 

 in his cows. It is true, that there are, I believe, 

 some hundreds of well authenticated experiments, 

 accompanied by results very minutely detailed, of 

 most manifest benefila from the use of the sugar- 

 beet, in feeding both cows and hogs ; so that we 

 may venture, u'ithout at all impugning this gen- 

 ileman's veracity, at least to pay very little regard 

 to his solitary authority, until more gainsayers 

 may join him. We may, I think, go a liitie ffir- 

 ther, and suspect him of belonging to that class of 



