310 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



EXPERIMENTS 



OF THE INJURY TO CORN CAUSED BY GATHER- 

 ING THE FODDER. 



Several publications in the Register have stated 

 the increase of Indian corn, matured with the blades 

 and tops. The common usage in this county, 

 which I have followed, is to gather the blades as 

 soon as they begin to spot, and to cut out the tops 

 immediately on securing the blades. About the 

 first of September last, I stript the blades from sev- 

 eral rows in one of my corn fields, leaving a row 

 alternately undisturbed; and cut the tops about the 

 7lh of the month, in like manner. As I designed to 

 make a fair and satisfactory experiment, I suffered 

 both blades and tops to be much withered before I 

 took them from the stalks. The last of November 

 I gathered the coin from the stripped and un- 

 stripped rows, when it was dry, and in good con- 

 dition, and put it away in my barn in separate par- 

 cels, in the shucks, from both of which I husked 

 out on tlie sixth of the present month one hundred 

 ears, without particular selection, and now subjoin 

 their weight and measurement. I am sensible that 

 this experiment will not precisely correspond with 

 others v/hich may be made. The result of such 

 experiments will be influenced by the quality of 

 the soil, the goodness of the crop, the manner of 

 planting, and the maturity of the corn at the time 

 the blades and tops are gathered. My experiment 

 was made from a field planted four feet each way, 

 which had an early vigorous growth, unchecked 

 by insects or drought, and which produced more 

 than forty-five bushels to the acre. I made other 

 different trials upon the parcels I have mentioned, 

 both by weight and measurement, which 1 think 

 unnecessary to state, as they all tended to the same 

 result; but perhaps I ought not to omit to mention 

 that the weight of the cobs of the unstript corn was 

 double the weight of the stript, as it proves that 

 subtracting the blades and tops dries up that part 

 of the plant which immediately supplies the ali- 

 ment to the grain. To this cause I attribute the 

 perfection of the grain to the end of the cob of the 

 unstript corn, whilst that on the stript had, for the 

 most part, withered or perished. 



100 ears of Indian Corn, matured with blades and 



tops — weight on cob 64 lbs. 



Do. shelled 54 lbs. 



Do. measurement 26 quarts, 1 pint. 



100 ears of Indian Corn stript of blades and tops, 



weight on cob 50 lbs. 



Do. shelled 41 lbs. 



Do. measurement 21 quarts. 



I have long desired to abandon gathering fodder; 

 but it is hard to depart from common usage, espec- 

 ially if the deviation has the appearance of negli- 

 gence. The month of September is usually de- 

 voted by farmers to this work; the dews are then 

 heavy, and highly injurious to laborers; it is the 

 season for intermittent fevers, which I believe are 

 often contracted by this employment. The month 

 of September might be most usefully employed in 

 drawing out marl and other manures, and prepar- 

 ing fallows for wheat. When the wheat is sown 

 and the corn gathered at full maturity, the corn- 

 stalks, with the blades and tops, afford some proven- 

 der and excellent litter for cattle. Few farmers 

 have such floating capital, as justify them in enter- 

 ing upon the schemes of improvement without cal- 

 culating the co.st and probable result. The pro- 

 vender afforded by Indian corn cannot be abandoned, 

 ,'.^i"Qa o" ^nnivolont hp snnplied. A farm divided 



into four or five fields, of forty acres each, and one 

 of them annually in Indian corn, will not produce 

 fodder, even if the land is in an improved state, 

 beyond five hundred pounds to the acre — equal to 

 ten tons. Four acres set in orchard-grass and 

 clover, will, if marled and manured, in two cut- 

 lings yield ten tons of hay. A gentleman in an 

 adjoining county, in whom I have entire confidence, 

 assured me that from one acre, very highly im- 

 proved, he gathered six tons in one year. I esti- 

 mate the enclosing, marling, manuring and setting 

 in grass four acres, at one hundred dollars per acre, 

 and the land thus diverted from the usual purposes 

 of agriculture, at twenty-five dollars per acre, 

 amounting in the whole to five hundred dollars. 

 The capital thus invested is not sunk, but is safe 

 and sound, and the interest on this sum, together 

 with the cost of cutting and securing the hay, 

 which I estimate at forty-five dollars, is the price 

 to be paid annually for hay in lieu of tops and 

 blades. A field of forty acres of Indian corn which 

 now yields, under the old system of gathering, for- 

 ty bushels to the acre — equal to one thousand 

 bushels, if my experiment, or that of others, be not 

 entirely fallacious, will produce an additional fifth, 

 amounting to one thousand nine hundred and thirty- 

 three and a third bushels — equal, at fifty cents a 

 bushel, to one hundred and sixty-six dollars and 

 two-thirds, to which is to be added the value of the 

 labor saved, and the grazing after the hay is se- 

 cured, which is worth something. If a lot be once 

 well set in orchard-grass and occasionally dressed 

 with manure from the stable, where the grass is 

 fed, it will remain in a state of undiminished produc- 

 tion for many years — in this I feel confidence, 

 from my own observation. 



Wm. Carmichael. 

 Wye, Queen Ann Co., Md. 



Since the above was in type we find the follow- 

 ing article in the Farmer's Register, which we sub- 

 join.— Eds. F. & P. 



"I have this year made an experiment to ascer- 

 tain the loss occasioned to the corn crop by taking 

 off the tops and blades at the usual time. Eight 

 rows at the gathering the fodder (September) were 

 left untouched, extending from one end to the oth- 

 er of a field of fifty acres. Four rows on each side 

 of the eight extending in the same manner through 

 the field, and on ground in every respect the same, 

 had the blades pulled off and the tops cut. The 

 corn when matured was carefully gathered, put in 

 separate paicels, stripped of the shuck and mea- 

 sured. The corn which retained its blades and 

 tops to the last, furnished 17 3-4 barrels of mea- 

 sured ears; the other eight rows, which had been 

 stripped, yielded 16 barrels. A bushel of each 

 was weighed, but there was no apparent difference 

 by the steelyard. The loss sustained by taking 

 away the blades 'and tops is by this experiment 

 witliin a fraction of 12 per cent., being 11 barrels 

 and fifteen-sixteenths. This, however, is not all; 

 the land is deprived of an exceedingly rich manure 

 in the blades and tops, as will occur at once to 

 those who have observed the places where blade 

 and top stacks have stood; a manure that goes far 

 towards affording an equivalent for the draft made 

 from the land by the crop. I have a field on the 

 Scioto, in Ohio, from which forty successive crops 

 of corn have been taken, nothing but the grain, 

 however, having ever been removed. The ground 



