348 



Cultivation of Corn. 



Vol. VL 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Cultivation of Corn. 



Mr. Editor, — The Louisville .Tournal piib- 

 lishi^s a letter over the signature of Waiter 

 C. YounfT, that seems at length to contain 

 Bomething new relating to that hackneyed 

 Bubject, the cultivation of corn. In this region 

 of country, to talk of ploughing the land in 

 the tall of the year, and again in the spring 

 as deep as circumstances will admit, sounds 

 rather heterodox; but it strikes me thi^re is 

 something in it, although whenever I have 

 proposed it to my agricultural friends, they 

 have given me to understand that I was no 

 farmer. Now, that is true enough, but if 

 my prayers are heard, I shall some day be 

 one in this country, as I was in the old one, 

 and then I will not thank any for their opinion, 

 as I mean to have one of my own, and of my 

 own framing too, from experiment. I have 

 often wondered what would be the result of 

 a thorough fall and winter working of land 

 for corn, so that it should be clean and pul- 

 verized ; and although I have been told the 

 corn would not grow, or if it did, that it would 

 never stand to ripen, but fall down for want 

 of support at the root, I have not hesitated to 

 express my belief to the contrary. And here 

 at length, is the testimony of a man who, in 

 the estimation of the Editor, comes nearer to 

 perfection than any one else that he knows 

 in the culture of corn, having produced 195 

 bushels (ears, I presume) of corn to the acre, 

 and in the dryest seasons, not less than 100 

 bushels; growing larger crops than anyone 

 else; his mode of management admitting the 

 cultivation of a large number of acres to the 

 hand. But I beg leave to extract some ob- 

 servations from Mr. Young's letter, for publi- 

 cation in the Cabinet. He says: 



" My universal rule is, to plough my corn- 

 land the fall preceding the spring when I 

 plant; and as early in the spring as possible, 

 1 cross-plough as deep as circumstances will 

 permit, and as soon as this is done, I com- 

 mence checking off the first way with my 

 large ploughs and the second with my small 

 ones, the checks, three feet by three, admit- 

 ting of working the land both ways. And 

 then, I plant my corn from the 20lh to the 

 25th of March — a rule to which I adhere 

 with scrupulous exactness; planting from 

 eight to twelve grains in each hill, covering 

 the same from four to six inches deep, great- 

 ly preferring the latter depth; and in this 

 particular 1 take more pride and more pains 

 than any other farmer in Kentucky, holding 

 it as my ruling principle, that the product of 

 the corn-crop depends very much upon its 

 being properly covered, and much on its being 

 properly ploughed the fir.st time. So soon as 

 my com is up of sufficient height, I start the 



large hairow directly over the rows, allowing 

 a horse to walk each side, harrowing the way 

 the corn was planted ; and f)n land prepared 

 as above and harrowed as directed, the hoemg 

 part will be so completely performed by this 

 process, that it will satisfy the most skeptical. 

 Then, allowing the corn thus harrowed to re- 

 main a few days, 1 start my small ploughs 

 with the bar next the corn; and so nicely 

 will this be done, that when a row is thus 

 ploughed, v'io completely will the intermediate 

 spaces, hills, &c., be lapped in by the loose 

 earth occasioned by this system of close 

 ploughing, as to render any other work use- 

 less for a time. 1 thin to four stalks upon a 

 hill, never having to transplant, the second 

 ploughing being performed with the mould- 

 board towards the rows of corn; and so rapid 

 has been the growth of the corn between the 

 first and second ploughings, that this is per- 

 formed with ease; and when in this stage, I 

 consider my crop safe ; my general rule being, 

 never to plough my corn more than four times, 

 and harrow once. My practice is, to put a 

 field in corn two successive years, then grass 

 it, and let lie eight years, a rule from which 

 I never deviate. Now, 1 do not pretend that 

 the labour bestowed upon a sod-field to put it 

 in a state of thorough cultivation does not 

 meet with a fair equivalent from one crop, 

 but I presume no farmer will doubt when I 

 say, the second year's crop from sod-land is 

 better than the first, with not more than one 

 half the labour. The best system of farming 

 is, to produce the greatest amount of profit 

 from the smallest amount of labour. 



" I lay it down as an axiom incontrovertible 

 in the cultivation of corn, that whenever a 

 large crop has been raised, it was the result 

 of cloie and early planting; and I defy proof 

 to the contrary. 1 plant my corn three feet 

 by three, four stalks in a hill, and allow but 

 one ear to a stalk, and one hundred ears to a 

 bushel, and then ascertain how many hills 

 there are in a shock, sixteen hills square, 

 which is the usual custom to put it up. My 

 present crop, planted on the 20lh of March, 

 bids fair to outstrip any preceding one; I am 

 now ploughing and thinning the first planting. 

 Walter C. Jones. 

 " Jessamine Co., Ky., April 2(), 1842." 



It is novel, indeed, to plant on the 20th of 

 March to the depth of six inches; but without 

 this deep planting, it would be ruinous to the 

 crop to harrow with the two-horse drag the 

 way the corn was planted ; and it is a very 

 interesting question, whether by means of 

 early and deep planting, the ravages of the 

 cut-worm might not be arrested, as also, whe- 

 ther they would not be entirely destroyed by 

 a careful autumnal ploughing and a cross- 

 ploughing m the spring " as deep as circum- 



