No. 10. 



Experiments in Soaking Seed-corn, SfC. 



305 



From the New England Farmer. 



Experiments in Soaking Seed-corn in 

 Muriate of Ammonia. 



Some time last May, I accidentally saw a 

 notice of some mode of preparing seed for 

 planting, discovered in Germany, which was 

 said to ensure good crops, even upon poor 

 and barren land, at a very trifling cost. 

 What the preparation was, the discoverer 

 refused to make known. While thinking 

 over the various substances that had been 

 or might be used with advantage, it oc- 

 curred to me that muriate of ammonia, the 

 common sal ammoniac of the druggists, 

 might answer well for the purpose required, 

 both from the nature of its base and its acid; 

 and I determined to try the experiment. 



I accordingly dissolved a small piece, 

 weighing by estimate four or five grains, in 

 about half a coffee-cup of water. Into this 

 a small handful of good sound corn was 

 thrown, and suffered to remain four or five 

 hours, and then planted. By the side of 

 each hill, at a proper distance, was planted 

 another hill with corn from the same ear, 

 but unsoaked. Generally in each spot only 

 one hill of each kind was planted ; but in 

 one place a hill of the soaked was planted 

 on each side of the unsoaked. The particu- 

 lars and results were as follow : 



No. 1. Planted in a good light soil, into 

 which a fair dressing of coarse long stable 

 manure had been ploughed; about five ker- 

 nels were planted in each hill. 



Soaked. Unsoaked. 



8 ears, 6 good, 2 small. 4 ears. 



No. 2. Three hills — two of soaked, and 

 between them one of unsoaked corn. Soil 

 dry, sandy, and close to the edge of a path 

 where little or no manure fell in the spread- 

 in 2: of it : 



Soaked. 



3 large good ears, and 



3 abortive ears. 



Unsoaked. 

 2 rather poor ears. 



No. 4. Two hills — on the edge of a 

 sandy square, reserved for several years 

 past for squashes, which were manured in 

 the hill, so that the place where the corn 

 was planted, had no benefit from it, being 

 at least four feet from the nearest hill : 



Soaked. 

 3 good ears. 



Unsoaked. 

 3 poor ears. 



Soaked. 

 5 ears, 3 of them good. 

 5 » 3 " 



Unsoaked. 

 3 good ears. 



No. 3. Two hills — in a dry sandy bed, 

 occupied for a dozen years by gooseberry 

 bushes, which were rooted up about two 

 years before. During all that time, the 

 ground had never been manured, otherwise 

 than that a dressing of rotten chips had se- 

 veral times been put about the bushes, 

 which were well trimmed and kept clear 

 of weeds. During the last two years, it 

 had borne cabbages, which were watered a 

 number of times, with soap-suds and the 

 drainings of a sink where dishes were 

 washed : 



No. .5. Three hills — in a moister piece of 

 ground, into which a light dressing of coarse 

 stable manure had been dug with a spade, 

 but just under the edge of the boughs of 

 some large honey locusts, the roots of which 

 filled the ground and exhausted the soil, so 

 that I have found it difficult to make any 

 thing valuable grow there but early bush 

 beans : 



Soaked. 

 4 good ears. 



Unsoaked. 

 3 poor ears. 



The land where all the first four experi- 

 ments were tried, was light and dry, and 

 suffered considerably from drought about 

 the time the ears were forming. Potatoes 

 for early use, in the immediate vicinity, 

 were completely stopped in their growth 

 about the last of July, the hills being per- 

 fectly dry to the bottom, and not getting 

 fairly moist again for a period of three 

 weeks. Owing to this, the produce of the 

 corn was less than it would have been with 

 seasonable rains ; but in all cases, the hills, 

 the seed of which had been soaked, manifested 

 superiority, not only in productiveness, but 

 in the size and vigor of the stalk and leaves; 

 as was remarked by several of my friends, 

 whose opinion I asked without informing 

 them of any difference in the seed. For all 

 the trials but the first mentioned, poor spots 

 were taken purposely, that the effect of the 

 soaking might be observed free fiom the in- 

 fluence of manure. 



Three or four soaked kernels were also 

 planted in a spot near the door of a shed, 

 where the sprouted cuttings of grape vines 

 had been several times set, and all which 

 had perished from the united effects of 

 drought, barrenness and heat. Even here 

 I obtained three good stalks and two good 

 ears. Samuel Webber, M. D. 



Charlestown, N. H., Feb. 19th, 1844. 



By driving your business before you, and . 

 not permitting it to drive you, you will have 

 opportunities to indulge in the luxury of 

 well applied leisure. 



