THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. IX. 



APRIL 30, 1841. 



No. 4. 



EDMUND RUFPIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



AK ISSSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF CORN.* 



, From the Kentucky Fanner. 



Iiulian corn is a grain so necessary in raisinii 

 and fatieninii stocit, that it must ever be regardeil 

 as very imporiant, in any system of agriculture, 

 suitable for tlie western country. Tliough an ex- 

 hausting crop, it may be raised, for a succession 

 of years, upon the san)e ground. But although 

 a rotation does not appear so essentially necessary 

 in this, as in some other crops, yet the fact of a 

 continued cultivation of this grain, even upon 

 our richest land, (or a succession of years, gra- 

 dually deterioratmg the soil, and diminipjiing the 

 annual product, should admonish the husband- 

 man, that a different system ought to be pursued. 

 It should be a settled principle, with every farmer, 

 so to cuhiva'e his land, as never to deteriorate his 

 soil. He should constantly aim at improvement, 

 as the best and most certain means of preventing 

 deterioration. The first consideration, therelbre, 

 with every farmer, shouITi be to adopt such a sys- 

 tem, in the cultivatjon of corn, as will not only 

 prevent his soil from being reduced, but will trra- 

 dually increase its (eriility, and the product of his 

 crop. The means, by which this may be accom- 

 plished, depend very much upon the native qua- 

 lities of the soil, and the degree of deterioration 

 it has undergone. 



To treat this subject in a practical and useful 

 manner, it is necessary that we should distinguish 

 between the white oak lands, of the west, having 

 a clay soil, with little or no vegetable mould on its 

 Burlace, and the rich calcareous soils, having a 

 deep vegetable mould, with a sub-soil of clay, 

 founded on limestone rock. The latter, in its 

 native state, is extremely fertile, and very pro- 

 ductive in corn. But most of the lands, of this 

 clescription, in Kentucky, have been so lontr, and 

 60 unskilfully cultivated, as to have considerably 

 reduced their Jeriility. Yet experience has 

 shown that they may (when the soil has not been 

 too much washed oti',) be restored to their origi- 

 nal (ertilily, by a proper system of cultivaiion. 

 This renovation may be accomplished bf a judi- 

 cious system of grassirjo: the land, and restoring 

 to it, in the form of manure, as nearly as practi- 

 cable, every thing which .is taken from it by the 

 growing crops.' Ground which has been much 

 exhausted, should, altera wheat crop, beset in 

 clover, by sowing, about the middle of February 

 or between that and the first of iVIarch, among 

 the growing wheat, one-tenth of a bushel of clo- 

 ver seed per acre. It should be suffered to remain 

 three summers under pasture, exclusive of the 

 one in which the wheat is harvested. In the 

 third year the clover should be permitted to go 

 unpastured from the first of July until about 



* This is one of four essays on different subjects 

 to all of which were awarded the highest prize offer- 

 ed by the Kentucky State Agricultural Society. The 

 author, Judge Beatty, is one of the most judicioojs and 

 successful practical farmers in Kentucky.— Ed. F. E. 

 Vol. IX.- 13 



the time the clover ripens,* when it should be turn- 

 ed under by a well-constructed plough, so as to 

 bury every part of it. The belter to accomplish 

 this, a harrow, with the teeth reversed or a heavy 

 brush should be, drawn over the clover so as to lay 

 it flat, in the direction the ploughs are to run. A 

 harrow should follow the ploughs to fill all the 

 interstices, in order the more completely to cover 

 up the clover. During the winter, while the 

 ground is frozen, a dressing of manure (as far as 

 the farm will furnish it,) should be hauled over the 

 ground, but left in heaps till the proper lime for 

 ploughing, when it should be spread and imme- 

 diately |)loughed in. The field, thus improved, 

 might now grow two crops of cornin succession, 

 and then be again sowed in wheat and clover, 

 and treated as in the first instance. 



A second field, in the mean lime, might under- 

 ffo the same system of improvement, and so on 

 in succession, till all the cultivated land shall 

 have been renovated. If the soil is naturally rich, 

 and has not been much reduced by cultivation, 

 instead of three crops of clover in succession, two 

 might be adopted, when the rotation would he as 

 follows, clover, clover, corn, corn, wheat. This 

 rotation would require five fitlds, two of which 

 would be annually in corn, two' in clover, and one 

 in wheat ; so that in every five years each field 

 would produce two crops pf corn, two of clover, 

 and one of wheat. 



But if the soil has been much reduced, a shift 

 of six fields would be necessary, and the rotation 

 as recommended above, to wit: three years in 

 clover, two in corn, and one in wheat, which 

 would leave three fields annually in clover, two 

 in corn, and one in wheat. This rotation, with 

 a judicious application of manure, would gra- 

 dually renovate any of our naturally rich calca- 

 reous land, where the soil has not been washed 

 ofT. When land is naturally rich, and has not 

 been much reduced by bad husbandry, the follow- 

 ing rotation will be found very convenient and 

 profitable, particularly for small farms. Corn, 

 wheat, clover and so on in succession. This will 

 require but three fields, and the farmer will every 

 year have one field in corn, one in wheat, and 

 one in clover, besides the advantage of pasturing 

 the clover after his wheat comes off'. But the 

 clover must be suffered to <ro unpastured alter the 

 first of July, and be ploughed in, as herein before 

 directed. This will not only provide/a good 

 dressing of manure for the succeeding corn crop, 

 but will cover up such a (]uantity of clover seed 

 as will furnish an abundant supply for the wheat 

 crop, which is to succeed the corn crop. One 



* In a letter addressed to the Rev. H. Colman, agri- 

 cultural commissioner of Ma.«sachusetts, by Professor 

 Samuel L. Dana, and published in the 48tii and 49lh 

 numbers of the Franklin Farmer, for the year 1840, 

 it is shown, very satisfactorily, that ploughing in 

 green crops is not as beneficial to land, ss ploughing 

 them in after they become thoroutrhly dry. This is a 

 recent and important discovery. The ploughing in of 

 the second crop of clover shcwdd, th--refore, be delayed. 

 I until it is not only ripe, but cojnpletely cured. 



