434 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



Apricots generally grow very thriftily, and soon 

 make fine he:ids, and produce an abundance of blos- 

 soms and young fruit ; but the crop of the latter 

 frequently falls off wlien half-grown, from being 

 stung by the plum-weevil or curculio, to which the 

 smooth skin of this fruit seems highly attractive. 

 Seedling apricots are usually more hardy and pro- 

 ductive here, than the finer grafted sorts. 



This is a favorite tree for training on walls or cs- 

 paUers, and, in town gardens especially, we often 

 see it trained against the sides of brick houses, and 

 yielding most abundantly. As the apricot, howev- 

 er, expands its blossoms very early, it should not 

 be placed on an east wall, or in a situation where it 

 is too much exposed to the full morning sun." 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE CORN CROP. 



Mr. Editor : — In my summer rambles about the 

 country, no one object has afforded me more grati- 

 fication than the appearance of the corn crop. Not 

 only does that crop exhibit a high state of promise, 

 but it seems to nie that a much larger aggregate 

 breadth of soil than usual has been applied to it the 

 present season. This, in the face of the partial 

 failure of last year from the drought, indicates that 

 the value of the corn crop is compelling a proper 

 appreciation from our flirmers, despite of the seem- 

 ing heavy labor of its cultivation. I rejoice at this ; 

 for I honestly beheve that, with the decHne of the 

 corn crop, we may date the dechne of the great in- 

 terest of agriculture in this country. 



When I see a farmer figuring up the expense of 

 cultivating corn, and declaring that every bushel he 

 raises costs him more than it comes to — that he can 

 buy it cheaper than he can produce it — I set him 

 down as a man in great danger of cultivating a too 

 intimate acquaintance with the sheriff. It is true 

 that the proper adaptation and manuring of the soil 

 for corn, the hoeing, the harvesting, the husking 

 and the shelling of the crop, ordinarily involve a 

 good deal of labor ; but then it should be borne in 

 mind that no other croj) so well subdues the land, 

 or leaves it in so good a condition for other crops — 

 that none affords such indispensable food for both 

 man and beast, or can be adapted to so many pur- 

 poses. When hay is twenty dollars a ton, the stov- 

 er from the corn-field is no small item in the feed 

 of cattle, to say nothing of the one or two tons of 

 pumpkins per acre, which may be raised along with 

 the corn without sensibly diminishing the latter 

 crop. All observing farmers agree also, that not 

 only Indian meal, but the stover of corn, constitute 

 the very best food for cattle, and especially for 

 cows in milk. The milk, the butter, and the cheese, 

 made from "corn feed," are always superior to those 

 made from any other ; and it is not necessary for 

 me to say one word as to the superiority of "corn- 

 fed pork," for everybody knows of it. 



Again, corn is the safest crop that can be cultiva- 

 ted. Potatoes may rot — wheat may be destroyed 

 by the fly, the midge, the rust, the drought, or by 

 too much wet — rye may "winter-kill," and oats may 

 blast — but corn does not fail, on an average, once 

 in twenty years. Tliere may be partial failures 

 from di-ought or frost, but anytliing like a total 



fiiilurc has occurred but once in New England with- 

 in the present century, and that was during the 

 cold season of 181G. Last year there was very 

 nearly a failure of this crop in some of the western 

 States ; but if the newspaper accounts may be re- 

 lied on, the aggregate crop of the present season, 

 all over the country, bids fair to atone for the defi- 

 ciency of the last. This is the brightest indication 

 of the tiines ; for the prosperity of the country has 

 become so far identified with corn, that even the 

 fiiilure of cotton could scarcely affect it more. The 

 aggregate corn crop of the present season, from 

 present appearances, will be much greater than ev- 

 er before ; it may reach the enormous amount of 

 ft-om six to eight hundred millions of bushels — and 

 yet, I venture to assert that not one of those who 

 have contributed to swell this great aggregate is the 

 poorer for ha^ing cultivated com. It is all non- 

 sense to say that the crop, in any case, "costs more 

 than it comes to." 



As to the best mode of harvesting corn, I will 

 say a few words. Where the saving of the stover 

 is an oliject — and I do not know the place in New 

 England where it is not an object — nearly all good 

 practical fiirmers agree that the best way is to cut 

 it up as soon as the ears are out of the milk, and 

 while the leaves and husks are green, tie it in bun- 

 dles, and place those bundles in "stooks" to cure. 

 As soon as they become dry, the corn may be 

 husked, and the stover stowed away in the barn ; 

 and, thus cured, the cattle vnW eat it at any time in 

 winter in preference to the best English hay. One 

 good farmer tells me that the stover of his corn- 

 field is better than a ton of hay per acre, and that it 

 very nearly pays for the labor of cultivating the 

 crop, from the fact that such labor interferes very 

 little with the time necessary for haying, and for 

 harvesting other crops. Besides, he says, any other 

 crop, be it grass, grain, or potatoes, will rotate with 

 a corn crop better than with any other. 



As for the varieties of corn best adapted to par- 

 ticular localities — not to particular soils, for corn 

 will grow with manure on any soil — there need be 

 little said, for this grain has a wonderful faculty of 

 adapting itself to almost any climate. The large 

 southern corn, if planted at the North will gradu- 

 ally become smaller, until it attains a growth adapt- 

 ed to the climate ; and northern corn, planted at 

 the South, undergoes a corresponding change there. 

 It is true, however, that the varieties may be some- 

 what ameliorated. In a recent number of the Far- 

 mer, in answer to a correspondent, you stated the 

 "Early Jeflerson" to be the earUest corn. Now I 

 have cultivated for years the common kind of yel- 

 low "eight-row" corn, made earlier than usual by a 

 fortnight, by a farmer in Vermont, who for eight 

 years in succession plucked the very first ripening 

 ears in his field and preserved them for seed. I al- 

 ways have green corn of this variety from the middle 

 to the twentieth of July ; and year before last I gath- 

 ered a quantity of perfectly ripe ears on the 5th of 

 August. It is not "sweet corn" in the usual accepta- 

 tion of the term ; but it is much sweeter and more 

 palatable for cooking green than the "Early Jeffer- 

 son ;" which latter, in fact, is hardly M'orth the cook- 

 ing. This early variety of mine would be invalua- 

 ble for cultivating in more northern latitudes, for 

 three months of good weather are all that is want- 

 ed to grow and ripen it. 



I am inclined to think that there is no very great 

 difference in the varieties of corn, in regard to the 



