PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at thk Amuculturai, Wari housk.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOT^. X. 



BOSTOIV, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1832. 



NO. 38. 



ORIGINAL AGRICULTURAL ESSAYS. 



CUTTING CORN STALKS. 



Mr Fessenden — I have made a small experi- 

 ment the past season, to ascertain the damage, if 

 any, that results to the corn crop, from topping the 

 stalks in the usual way. And, influenced by the 

 request of several individuals and tlie thouglit that, 

 perhaps, it iriiglit had to a hotter knowledge of 

 this im|)ortaiit branch oftagriculture, (the growing 

 of corn,) I am induced to forward the particulars 

 to you for publication. Although I am aware that 

 guessing enters largely, and [)erhaps necessarily, 

 into the calculations and business of the farmer, 

 I am also aw.ire that experiment cannot be con- 

 ducted with too much precision ; indeed, that e.v- 

 periment to he relied on, must be conducted en- 

 tirely without guessing. Therefore, I have been 

 somewhat particular in conducting tlii.s. And 

 lest some of your readers may be a httle scept- 

 ical in regard to the result, and perhaps unwilling 

 to allow that the course which has been pui-sued 

 by our ancestors, from time immemorial, is not the 

 best course, I will give the details ; and if au 

 apology be deemed necessary for being so very 

 minute, I can merely say, that as the e.\periinent 

 seems to me so deeply to involve the interests of 

 corn growers, it may he well to give a detailed 

 statement of the case, so that any interested may 

 be able to draw their own inferences. And if, in 

 your opinion, it is worthy a place in your useful 

 Journal, or likely to promote the interest of 

 New England Farmers, you are at liberty to pub- 

 lish all, or a part, as you shall think best. 



For a few years past, I have not cut my corn 

 stalks until the corn was harvested, guessing that 

 it was a course preferable to the one coimuonly 

 pursued in this part of the country, of topping the 

 stalks while in a green st.tte. But for the i)urpose 

 of settling this point more clearly and with as little 

 trouble as the case would admit, I selected, about 

 the 5th of Sej)tember, a row of corn in a field of 

 about five acres, intenduig to take one that would 

 average in quality equal to the field throughout, 

 that I might at the same time be able to ascertain 

 with tolerable certainty, the product of the whole 

 field. The manure having been spread on the 

 surface of the ground and harrowed in length- 

 ways of the furrows, and the corn planted across 

 the furrows, made it a])parently less diflicult to 

 select an average row. On this row I cut the stalks 

 fiom half the hills ; beginning at one end and cutting 

 the first hill, then leaving the next uncut, and so 

 proceeding alternately, cutting one and leaving the 

 next uncut, through the row. [ had intended to 

 confine the experiment to this row, but finally was 

 led to extend it so far as to include four rows, and 

 iiund)ering them agreeably to the order in which 

 they were standing in the field, this row may be 

 called No. 2. Thei-e were ninetytwo hills in the 

 row and the stalks were cut from fortysix hills, all 

 of them in the manner that is here termed joint- 

 ing, (i. e.) cut oft' between the ear and the first 

 joint above the ear. I thought they were some- 

 what more ripe than is usual at the time of cut- 

 ting ; a few of them were nearly dry. The soil 

 was a sandy or gravelly loam, anciently covered 

 with pine, oak, and chesuut. In hoeing the corn 



no hills were made, but some care was taken that 

 the surface of the groimd shoidd remahi as level 

 as possible, through the season. 



My estim.-ite of the number of hills on an acre, 

 was made in the following manner, and if I am 

 wrong in my calculations, I shall be corrected 

 by some of your readers: — 



In an area of 900 feet square (or 40,000 square 

 feet,) there were sixtytwo rows with tiftyfour hills 

 in a row, making 3.348 hiHs. This is equal to 

 .3tJ46 hills per acre, each hill occupying nearly 12 

 square feet of surface. There were about four 

 stalks of corn in a hill. In estimating bushels, I 

 have allowed the lawful weight of fiftysix pounds 

 to the bushel. 



At the time of harvesting, the corn was husked 

 in the field. The fortysix hills from which the 

 stalks had been cut, gave fortyeight and a half 

 pounds of ears ; and the fortysix hills on which 

 the stalks had not been cut, gave sixtytwo pounds 

 of ears. The number of ears in the two cases was 

 about the same ; those from the uncut hills were 

 evidently the best filled out and the most hale, on 

 a large proportion of them the kernels were so 

 closely wedged in, as to make- it difficult toibejid 

 the ear at all without breaking it. There was 

 very little mouldy corn in either case, a fi=w ears 

 were gathered, mostly from the out stalks, but the 

 whole quantity was so small as to make it ques- 

 tionable whether cutting the stalks had much ef- 

 fect in this particular. 



Both parcels were carefully laid aside in a dry 

 chamber for about six or eight weeks, at the ex- 

 piration of which time they were again weighed, 

 and the parcel of ears from the uncut hills had 

 lost in drying, about two per cent, more than the 

 other; aflibrding some evidence that the sap con- 

 tinued to circulate for a greater length of time, in 

 the uncut than in the cut stalks. The uncut hills 

 gave 49 lbs. 8 oz. dry shelled corn, equal to 14 oz. 

 191 gis. per hill, or 60 bushels and 8 poimds per 

 acre. The parcel from the cut liills gave 33 lbs. 

 7 oz. equal to 11 oz. 10 grs. per hill, or 47 bushels 

 and 18 pounds per acre. Making a loss of 19 

 bushels and 46 pounds per acre, by cutting the 

 stalks. Conclusive evidence, thiit while the sap 

 is iu circulation, nature does not assign the stalks 

 an unprofitable oflice. The product of this whole 

 row, taken together, cut and uncut hills, was equal 

 to .53 bushels and 41 pounds per acre. 



The product of row No. 3, taken by itself (con- 

 taining ninetytwo hills, on one half of which the 

 stalks were cut on the same day tiie others were,) 

 would not show the practice of cutting stalks 

 quite so destructive in its eflects, as that exhibited 

 in row No. 9, its whole produce was 77 lbs. 9 oz. 

 dry corn, equal to 55 bushels and 10 jiounils per 

 acre, or 1 bushel and 9.5 pounds per acre more 

 than row No. 9. 



Not satisfied with resting the experiment here, 

 I gathered the corn on the rows Ncs. 1 and 4, (i.e.) 

 the rows each side, next adjoining No. 9 and 3, 

 luid on which none of the stalks had been cut. 

 These rows, taken together, contained 186 hills, 

 and their product of dry shelled corn was 171 lbs. 

 13 oz. equal to 14 oz. 19J. grs. per hill, or 60 

 bushels and 8 pounds per acre, precisely the same 

 average yield as that part of row No. 9, on which 



the stalks had not lieen cut ; this exact coincidence, 

 however, I think may be numbered among thosB 

 cases which rarely happen. 



The (liflTcrence between the two rows <!n which 

 half the stalks were cut, and the two rows on which 

 none of the stalks were cut, was 5 bushels 38J- 

 poiMids per acre. If this difference arose from 

 cutting half the stalks (and I know of no other 

 reason,) then cutting the whole, would have re- 

 duced the croj) 11 bushels and 91 pounds per acre, 

 or from 60 bushels and 8 pounds to 48 bushels and 

 43 |)ounds per acre. 



To recapitulate row No. 2, on which the exper- 

 iment was commenced, taken by itself, is as fol- 

 lows, viz. 46 hills on which the stalks had not 

 been cut, gave 49 lbs. 8 ozs. dry shelled corn, equal 

 to, per acre, GO bush. 8 lbs. 



46 hills from which the stalks had 

 been cut, gave 33 lbs. 7 ozs. dry 

 shelled corn, equal to, per acre, 47 " 18 " 



Loss by cutting the stalks, per acre, 12 bush. 46 lbs. 

 The four rows, taken tagether, stand as follows : 

 Nos. 1 and 4, on which no stalks were cut, gave an 

 average of, per acre, 60 bu. 8 lbs. 



No. 2 and 3, from which half the 

 stalks were cut, gave an average of, 

 per acre, 54 " 25^ " 



Loss by cutting ^ the stalks per acre, 5 bu. 38J^ lbs. 

 on cuUing .;dl the stalks, would I 9 



make a loss, equal to; per 



acre, 11 bu. 21 lbs. 



The difference in the result of the two cases, is 

 1 bushel and 25 pounds per acre ; or, in the' two 

 exj)eriments (if it may be so termed,) there is an 

 average loss by cutting the stalks, of 12 bushels 

 51 pounds per acre ; a loss quite equal to all the 

 expense of hoeing and harvesting, especially when 

 we consider that in hoeing, the labor of making 

 hills was dispensed with. 



If I had cut all the stalks and obtained a crop of 

 fortyeight bushels to the acre, the very fact o 

 having fortyeight bushels, would, I think, be con- 

 sidered by fariijers generally, in this section of the 

 country, as ju-oof positive that the stalks were cut 

 without injury to the crop. Or if I had gone one 

 step fiuther and made large hills, at an additional 

 expense of one dollar per acre, and thereby re- 

 duced the crop to forty five bushels per acre, the 

 fortyfive bushels would be considered sufficient 

 proof, that making hills (which, by the way, are 

 usually made equally large and high on wet or 

 dry land, without regard to soil or situation,) was 

 labor well laid out. For although you occasion- 

 ally give us a large corn story, swollen a little, 

 perliap.s, by guessing it oft'in baskets ; yet, judging 

 from what we see and know about raising coi-n, 

 we call fortyfive bushels per acre, a good crop. 



A measured bushel, from the cut hills, weighed 

 57 lbs. 6 ozs. — one pound less than from the uncnt ; 

 the shrinkage being very near equal to the whole 

 loss in weight. 



If this experiment is a fair test, it seems that 

 about twenty per cent, or one Jiflh part of tite crop is 

 destroyed, by cutting the stalks in tltc way they are 

 usually cut. If further experiment should estab- 



