No. 9. 



Hie Corn crop in Succession. 



271 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Corn crop in Succession. 



Messrs. Editors, — I have perused the 

 " Dialogue founded on fact," in the Feb. num- 

 ber of the Cabinet, with great interest ; for 

 although I may fall under the denomination 

 of those who find it easy to direct the labours 

 of the agriculturist, themselves being unen- 

 gaged in the practice — for I am in trade in 

 a crowded part of the city — yet a great por- 

 tion of my life having been spent in the ac- 

 tive pursuits of husbandry, and as I continue 

 to partake of its pleasures, by the perusal of 

 the agricultural publications of the day, I 

 am almost inclined to believe, that from the 

 position in which I now stand, I am enabled 

 to take a view, retrospective as well as pro- 

 spective, favourable, rather than otherwise, 

 to the developement of the science — just as 

 the man who stands by, and looks on while 

 others labour, is admitted to possess the 

 power of discrimination, above those who 

 are engaged in the manual part of the busi- 

 ness, if our practical friends will allow me 

 to make use of such invidious reasoning. 



But my present purpose is to say, I am 

 pleased with the mode proposed to raise 

 corn every year on the same land, and have 

 no doubt that by such means it might be ac- 

 complished with success. And here, if I 

 may be allowed to theorise a little, I would 

 ask, whether a plan might not be adopted, 

 by which the manuring by foreign substances 

 may be done away, and the crop itself be 

 made to perform that office, with little la- 

 bour and less expense? I am aware that 

 our agricultural friends will have cause to 

 smile at the notion, and hint that it " smells 

 of the shop;" but if they will permit the 

 suggestion to pass for as much as it is worth, 

 it is all I ask ! Well then, at pages 125 and 

 364, of the sixth volume of the Cabinet, are 

 two very interesting articles, on the power 

 of renovation, with which nature has been 

 endowed by the all-wise Creator ; and I re- 

 member at the time when I read them, I 

 became convinced that it must be so, accord- 

 ing to the fitness of things, by the following 

 extract from the French publication cited on 

 the subject. " In observing nature unassisted, 

 or unthwarted rather, by the hand of man, 

 in vegetable reproduction, it is found that 

 when the seed is ripe, it falls upon the 

 ground ; and then the plant which has pro- 

 duced it, sheds its leaves, or falls itself upon 

 it in decay, and covers and protects it from the 

 weather, until germination has commenced 

 and the young plant is able to grow up in 

 health and strength, and full developement, 

 to recommence the same routine of seeding 

 and of reproduction ; and from this it follows, 



that in nature, every plant produces its own 

 soil or humus, and the earth only serves to 

 bear the plant, and not to nourish it in ve- 

 getation." Now then, to carry the theory 

 into practice, I would propose to your cor- 

 respondent, J. P., a mode of renovating the 

 corn-crop, without the aid of any foreign 

 article of manure, and ask his opinion of 

 the probable success of the undertaking. I 

 say then, so soon as the corn is ripe enough 

 to admit of the operation, cut off the tops in 

 the customary way and secure them for fod- 

 der; afterwards, pluck the corn in its envel- 

 ope when fully ripe, and husk in the barn at 

 leisure, preserving the husks also for cattle 

 feed ; then in the autumn, pull up the stalks, 

 cut the roots in pieces with sharp hooks, 

 letting them fall into the deep furrows be- 

 tween the beds, and upon them lay the 

 stalks, straight and at length, and bury them 

 by turning two furrows over them, taking 

 one from each side of the beds ; allow them 

 so to remain during the winter, and upon 

 these ridges plant the corn in the spring, 

 loosening the surface-earth, if need be, but 

 not turning up the stalks; following the 

 mode of after-culture laid down in the Dia- 

 logue : and I would venture to predict suc- 

 cess to the enterprise. Now, if the land is 

 thrown into five feet beds, with one row of 

 corn on the centre of each, I would plant at 

 the distance of two feet only, in the rows ; 

 so that, supposing the corn-stalks to be six 

 feet in length when pulled up, there would 

 be three thicknesses of stalks, besides the 

 roots and the mould adhering to them, in 

 every row. 



In the same number of the Cabinet, I find 

 a very interesting account of Bommer's me- 

 thod of making manure ; could not this me- 

 thod, whatever it may be, be adopted for 

 the purpose of aiding in the decomposition 

 of the stalks and roots of the corn, and add- 

 ing somewhat to their quantity, and perhaps 

 quality? if so, there would then be no ob- 

 jection to turning them up in the spring, by 

 splitting the ridges with the plough and re- 

 turning them before planting, with the earth 

 sweetened and pulverized ; an operation equal 

 in value to an extra manuring; according to 

 what is recorded by Jethro Tull, quoted from 

 Evelyn, who says, "If the most barren earth 

 be taken and pulverized, and exposed abroad 

 for a year and stirred often, it will become 

 so fertile, as to receive an exotic plant from 

 the farthest Indies, and cause all vegetables 

 to prosper in the most exalted degree." It 

 is also added, "when part of a field has been 

 better tilled only for one year, than the rest, 

 and the after management of the whole has 

 been alike for six or seven years, the part 

 once only better tilled, produced a crop to 



