1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



189 



This is a subject that needs to be urged upon the 

 community. Every improvement in agriculture 

 meets with opposition, and works its way slowly in- 

 to use, especially if it does not yield immediate 

 profit. Editors of agricultural papers have a work 

 to do with regard to this matter. They must press 

 it upon the attention of the cultivators of the soil. 

 Every man of taste should seek to interest his neigh- 

 bors, and especially the younger portion of them, 

 in the subject. By-and-bye it will take hold upon 

 the public mind, and add greatly to the beauty of 

 our land, and increase our attachment to our be- 

 loved country. It will surround our homes with as- 

 sociations of beauty, and memories of pleasure and 

 joy, that we shall carry with us wherever we roam, 

 and that will never forsake us, till we lie down to 

 our final repose in the bosom of the earth. K. 



Concord, February 20th, 1856. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SMALL MATTERS WORTH KNOWING. 



BY PROF. J. A. NASH. 



Corn planted three feet apart each way, gives 30^ 

 hills to the rod, 4840 to the acre, and 48,400 to a 

 ten-acre field. Allowing 5i hills to the rod for the 

 worms and crows, it would leave 25 hills to the rod, 

 4000 to the acre, and 40,000 to a ten-acre field. 



Planting four feet apart each way, gives 19 9-64 

 hills to the rod, 3062| to the acre, and 30,625 to 

 a ten-acre field. Whether the crows and worms 

 would find as many hills four feet apart, is not a 

 matter for mathematical calculation, but supposing 

 they should destroy 62i hills to the acre, thei-e 

 would be left 19 hills to the rod, 3000 to the acre, 

 and 30,000 to a ten-acre field. 



It is manifest that about 4000 hills are to be ex- 

 pected from 3 feet planting, and about 3000 from 

 4 feet. A pint to a hill on the 3 feet planting, will 

 give 62i bushels to the acre. A quart to the hill, 

 (and I would quite as soon undertake to get a quart 

 from 4 feet planting as a pint from 3 feet,) will give 

 93| bushels, allowing 4000 hills to have escaped 

 all accidents in one case, and 3000 in the other. 

 The corn plant seems to have no objection to 

 two or three very near neighbors; but it wants 

 all others to be remote : — as if it would say to any- 

 thing within less than four feet, except its bosom 

 companion of the same hill, as Diogenes in his tub 

 said to King Philip — "out of my sunlight." 



Owing to this strange sort of propensity, if I may 

 so call it, or rather owing to unknown causes-^pos- 

 sibly to the generation of vegetable warmth, as pigs 

 profit by each others' animal heat in a cold winter's 

 night — four stalks of corn will grow quite as luxu- 

 riantly in the smallest space possible, as one of them 

 would have grown alone ; but are annoyed and put 

 back if other hills are too near. Nothing is lost by 

 planting the kernels in a hill thickly together. I 

 would as soon have a corn-planter that should leave 

 them in actual contact, as one that would scatter 

 them over a square foot. Whether, like the pigs, 

 they keep each other warm, by close packing, each 

 generating a kind of vital heat, by which all the 

 others are benefited, or what maybe the true cause, 

 I know not ; but the fact is certain, that three or 

 four stalks in a circular inch will do as well, and 

 each will put forth as extended roots and as broad 

 leaves and as long stalks, and just about as many 

 and as full ears as if there were but one. 



It would seem, as if there was an influence of 

 corn plants upon each other, calorific, electrical or 

 some other, not yet known, favorable within short 

 distances only, and that for this reason, whatever it 

 may be, nothing is lost by putting the seed in jux- 

 taposition. But much has been lost in this country, 

 both in the increase of labor and in the diminution 

 of crop, by planting the hills too thickly. Four feet 

 each way, giving in round numbers, 3000 hills to 

 the acre, is the best distance. If the corn be of a 

 very small kind, it may be nearer together. But 

 who wishes to raise such corn, unless it be in some 

 cold mountain region, much exposed to May and 

 September frosts ? Or if you wish to grow a corn 

 crop on hard, uncomfortable land to till, it may be 

 well to fill the soil with manure and plant 3J feet 

 instead of 4, calculating to raise the heat of the 

 soil by the fermenting manure as a sort of compen- 

 sation for shutting out the sun, and so to get your 

 allowance of corn by the cultivation of as small a 

 piece as possible. But in proper corn land, ordina- 

 rily manured, 4 feet planting will give more corn 

 with less labor. 



In 3 feet planting, the length of row is 5i rods 

 to the square rod, 880 rods to the acre, and 8800 

 rods to a ten-acre field. In 4 feet planting, the 

 length of row is 4 J rods to the square rod, 660 rods 

 to the acre, and 6600 to a ten-acre field. To plow 

 out, or to cultivate a ten-acre field, planted at 3 feet, 

 twice to a row, the horse walks 55 miles ; in plow- 

 ing ten acres, at 4 feet, he walks 41 miles, SO rods. ' 



In planting a ten-acre lot, at 3 feet, the planter 

 walks 27^ miles. In planting the same, at 4 feet, 

 he walks 20 miles, 200 rods. If in planting in the 

 old way with the hoe and pouch, it requires five 

 distinct motions to a hill, it will require 242,000 for 

 a ten-acre lot, at 3 feet; and 153,625 for planting 

 the same at 4 feet. On land not uncommonly fea- 

 sible, the latter would be ten good days' work ; 

 and the former, at the same rate of time per hill 

 would be upwards of sixteen ; but as one would 

 plant hills near each other in a little less time, say 

 fifteen. 



If there should ever be brought into use a horse- 

 planter, which would plant two rows at a time, and 

 be so light of draft as to be easily drawn by one 

 horse, and would yet do its work well, this work 

 could be done in one day by a single horse and a 

 man. The travel, in case of 3 feet planting would 

 be 14J miles ; and, in case of 4 feet, would be 10 

 miles, 100 rods. 



The expectations of such a planter would appear 

 visionary to most men ; and so did that of a steam- 

 boat to the cotemporaries of Robert Fulton. 



J. N. 



For the New England Farmer. 



WILLOW FENCES. 



Mr. Editor: — "A. B." inquires through your 

 paper concerning willow fences. Now I have had 

 some experience that way, and am willing to tell 

 him what little I know about it. I should say that 

 some varieties of the basket willow are good for 

 fences, — the strongest growing sorts that are used 

 for osiers, such as the "Beveridge ;" I think they 

 will do well in land that is tolerably moist. The 

 ground should be prepared by spading and manur- 

 ing, and the willows should be kept free of weeds 

 and grass until they get a good start. I put them 

 about twenty inches to two feet apart, though I 



