1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



535 



Concord lost not a berry, and is a truly glorious 

 sight. Take aU its qualities — its splendid larc;e 

 bunch and berry, its good quality, and its early 

 ripening — and we have a market grape which is 

 truly 'hard to beat.' " 



Mr. Samuel Miller, of Calmdale, Pa., says 

 that— 



"At the east and north they do not know what a 

 really good Concord !>■•, ard the further it is re- 

 moved south, the better it becomes in quality. 

 Such is the Concord, as I have found it, the last 

 two unfavorable seasons, and my firm belief is, 

 that it will never fail to bring a good crop here. I 

 hope that all your leaders who have a few feet of 

 ground to spare for a grape vine, will try it." 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HARVESTING COSN. 



The question as to which is the best mode of 

 harvesting corn seems to remain undecided. In 

 these parts, the old method of topping and leav- 

 ing the corn to ripen on the butts has been 

 mostly abandoned. Farmers now generally cut 

 up their corn and shock it as soon as it begins 

 to grow hard or gets glazed. 



In this way we avoid the labor of cutting the 

 stalks, which requires nearly as much time as it 

 does to cut up the whole at the roots and shock 

 it. 



The quality of the fodder is, also, much better. 

 When the butts are left standing in the hill, they 

 become hard and dry, and are worth but little 

 to feed out; but if cut when they are green and 

 properly cured, they make excellent food for cat- 

 tle, an acre being nearly equal in value to an acre 

 of hay. It is supposed by some that the quality 

 of the grain is not as good as it would be if it 

 was left to ripen in the hill, but, from my own 



when he "came away fully convinced that th^t 

 was not the best way to harvest corn.'' 



It seems to me that he must be very easily 

 "convinced," or he had no great desire to ascer- 

 tain the facts of the case. If we draw our con- 

 clusions from such slight premises, we shall sel- 

 dom arrive at the truth. I think if he would 

 carefully consider the quf^stion, and give it a fair 

 investigation, he would come to a different con- 

 clusion. E. H. H. 



Truij, Oct. 3, lS.5y. 



FALL. PLOVS/"ING. 

 We ask the attention of the reader long enough 

 to consider two or three reasons for plowing stub- 

 ble land in the fall. 



1. It makes the name work easier in the spring. 



2. It covers the grass and weeds that have 

 sprung up since the last hoeing, or on land that 

 brought a grain crop, and places them in a con- 

 dition to get rotted before planting or sowing the 

 land again. 



3. By plowing in the fall, a large quantity of 

 fresh soil is brought to the surface to he fertil- 

 ized, in si me degree, by atmospheric influences 

 through the winter. Then, when it is again 

 plowed in the spring, still another portion is 

 brought up to be in turn made richer in the same 

 manner. It may seem to some that little or no 

 benefit will be derived from this process, but we 

 feel quite confident that examination into the 

 subject will satisfy any inquirer that it will be of 

 especial advantage. 



4. The finer our soils are made, the more fer- 

 tile they will be, and the more easily they may 



experience and the testimony of many farmers 



in this neighborhood, I am s^^.tisfied that, when be wrought — so that if these objects alone were 



well secured in the shock, the corn will be 

 sound and bright, and will weigh full as much 

 as it would if allowed to mature in the hill. 



Another advantage secured by this mode, is 

 the protection v.'hich it ensures against fro^t. In 

 many paits of New England, frost often occurs 

 before ^orn is far enough advanced to be out of 

 danger ; and when left standing in the butts, it 

 is often seriously damaged. I know of several 

 cases this fall where farmers neglected to cut up 

 their corn in s?ason ; and it was so badly injured 

 by frost as to be nearly worthless. 



Notwithstanding the many and manifest ad- 

 vantages secured by this mode of harvesting, 

 some still continue to advocate the old method 

 of topping. 



sought, it would be advisable to plow in the fall. 

 5. The shortness of the time allowed us to get 

 in spring crops, makes it expedient to do every- 

 thing we can to expedite the spring work. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HORTI-AQRICULTUEAIi SH:0"W AT ISTEW- 

 BUSYPORT. 



This exhibition at Newburyport was made on 



Tuesday last, in their commodious City Hall ; one 



of the best rooms for a display of the various 



articles usually seen at such shows. One of the 



I noticed a casein the Farmer ofj features of the exhibition in the hall reminded 



Sept. 24th, which is a fair sample of the argu-'us of the annual festival of the American Insti- 



ments used by those who support this method, jtute at New York, in their admission of shop 



Mr. Underwood, writing from Lexington, says 

 "A few years ago I had occasion to pass along 

 the road by a neighbor's corn-field that had been 

 cut up at the roots and shocked about two weeks 

 previous. Some of it was standing up straight, 

 some leaning, some half-way over, and some 

 wholly prostrate." From this description the 

 corn was not well secured, and should not have 

 Deen taken as an example ; but he "selected a 



goods. The carpets, rugs, fancy pictures and 

 flowers were very tastefully arranged, which I 

 was told v,as due to the ladies of the city. The 

 fruits were fine. The most notable dishes of 

 pears were the Duchess of Angouleme, many 

 dishes of large size, Uvedale's St. Germain, Ca- 

 talac, Seckel and Beurre Diel. Of apples, the 

 Hubbardston Nonsuch and New York Pippin, of 

 r. C. Thurlow, of West Newbury, were very con- 



shock that had nearly fallen over," and examined spicuous. Fine dishes of the Moody, (a seed- 

 o;?e ear which happened to be in a bad condition, hing of Newlniry,) as well as the Gravenstein, 



