No. 8. 



Agricrdtural Meeting. — Indian Corn. 



259 



dinary extent, — there may be no getting rid 

 of it but by actually loosening and tearing 

 it out ; but where it is a mere clover ley, or 

 an old grass pasture or meadow, the taking 

 out and removuig the vegetable matter seems 

 to be a serious waste. Even the twitch 

 might be managed where the crop is to be 

 hoed, though in grain crops, its presence is 

 extremely prejudicial. — Colmmi's Agricul- 

 tural Tour, No. 5. 



Agricultural Meeting. 



At a stated meeting of the Philadelphia 

 Society for promoting Agriculture, held on 

 the 4th instant, Alexander Johnson and T. 

 J. Corbyn were elected members, and Wil- 

 liam A. Hayes, of Maine, an honorary mem- 

 ber. A committee of three members was 

 appointed to prepare a list of crops, for 

 which premiums will be offered the ap- 

 proaching season. 



After which Dr. Emerson remarked, that 

 be was desirous of obtaining information on 

 the subject of sowing timothy seed, and 

 what season of the year it was most likely 

 to succeed best. Mr. M. S. Powell stated 

 that the farmers of New .Jersey were very 

 generally in the practice of sowing it on 

 their wheat during the winter and spring, 

 and found it to answer well. Many of the 

 members present were in favour of sowing 

 it at the time of sowing wheat, particularly 

 on clay soils. 



Dr. Elwyn stated that niany farmers have 

 sowed clover and timothy seeds with oats, 

 with success. Mr. I. VV. Roberts always 

 cuts his oats before they are ripe, for the pur- 

 pose of making fodder, and finds the young 

 grass more likely to do well, than if the oats 

 be allowed to ripen. Dr. Emerson, Mr. Har- 

 rison, Mr. Ford and others, stated that their 

 trials of guano had resulted favourably. Dr. 

 E. stated that seventy bushels of corn per 

 acre had been produced on his fields, that 

 formerly produced but seventeen to twenty 

 bushels; the expense of manuring was from 

 five to six dollars per acre. Wheat had 

 been greatly benefited at a cost of $3 75 

 per acre, on Mr. Harrison's farm. 



Mr. R. T. Potts expressed himself favour- 

 ably towards the use of concentrated ma- 

 nures, but thought, nevertheless, we should 

 husband all the resources of our farms. He 

 stated that he had raised over ninety bushels 

 of corn per acre, last year, by putting in the 

 hills a small portion of the manure from his 

 hen-house, mixed with lime and rich mould. 

 Ground bones were admitted to be an excel- 

 lent manure. Dr. Emerson stated that he 

 had found great difficulty in obtaining a suf- 

 ficient supply for his mill, erected in the 



State of Delaware; such is the demand for 

 them abroad, that agents are employed to 

 purchase tiiem here from a class of persons 

 who traverse the country for a great dis- 

 tance, and gather them for this market. 

 Hundreds, he might say thousands of tons, 

 were shipped annually to Great Britain — 

 such is tlie estimation they are held in there, 

 that their agents here monopolize nearly all 

 that can be gatliered. Mr. Gowen had seen 

 them busily engaged receiving bones at Har- 

 risburg, which had been collected in the 

 country far above that place. 

 Extract from the minutes. 



Aaron Clement, Rec. Sec. 



Philad., March Olh, 1846. 



Is Indian Corn — Maize— a Native of this 

 Country ? 



This question, a highly interesting one in natural 

 history, is sometimes asked, and without having par- 

 ticularly or critically Io(^kiHl into the matte r, wc liave 

 always answered that it was. Such has been our gene- 

 ral and undoubting imjjression. Wc believe that all 

 along our atlantic borders, it was found by the first 

 European visitors, as constituting the staple upon 

 which the natives depended, when the products of the 

 chase failed. It was limited to bo sure in its cultiva- 

 tion, not only because the forecast of the Indian was 

 proverbially deficient, but also because his implements 

 were necessarily of the rudest kind. Theuseof iron, we 

 must recollect, was unknown, and the spade could only 

 have been formed by chiselling the stone into some- 

 thing like a shape, that would admit of its penetrating 

 the earth. VVe make the following extract from the 

 Farmers' Encyclopedia. 



Although America is doubtless the na- 

 tive country of a plant so important to her 

 interests, still this has been a disputed point. 

 Fuchs very early maintained that it came 

 from the East; and Mathioli affirmed that it 

 was from America. Regmir and Gregory 

 have presented fresh arguments in favour of 

 its Eastern origin. Among tliem is the 

 name by which it has long been known in 

 Europe, Ble de Turquie; and varieties, it 

 is said, have been brought from tlie Isle of 

 France, or from China. Moreau de Jonnes, 

 on the contrary, has recently maintained, in 

 a meiTioir read before the Academy of Sci- 

 ence, that its origin was in America. The 

 name Ble de Turquie, no more proves it to 

 be of Turkish origin, than the name of the 

 Italian Poplar or Irish potatoe, proves that 

 the tree and the plant grew wild in Italy 

 and Ireland. It can only signify that it 

 spread from Turkey into the neighbouring 

 countries. Its general cultivation in South- 

 ern Europe, and the production of some new 

 varieties, proves nothing with regard to the 

 country of the species. In favour of its 



