340 



FARMERS' REGISTER— INDIAN CORN. 



if the earth did not contain too much clay, it will 

 dry perfectly without the least crack, and be very 

 nearly as hard as stone. A wall sutlicient to en- 

 close a field or garden, &c. may be made of the 

 earth taken out of a ditch along side of it, taking 

 care to throw away the surface that contains ve- 

 getable matter. So that a wall of this kind is made 

 certainly at a less expense than would be required 

 to dig clay, temper it, and mould it into bricks for 

 the same wall; besides which, the expense of 

 burning the bricks, hauling them, and laying them 

 are all saved. It is much more convenient to have 

 the foundation of such a wall laid ^vith brick or 

 stone for tour to six inches above the surfiice of the 

 ground ; but I have little doubt that a way may be 

 contrived to build it altogether with pise. Such 

 a wall should have a coping of stone, brick, tiles, 

 slates, shingles, or thatch, or boards; but expe- 

 rience will no doubt discover some cheap method 

 of covering it, though by shaping the termination 

 of it like a roof it would last many years without 

 any covering. For building a house of tiiis sort, 

 if a cellar is wanted under it, dig the tbundation 

 the depth intended for the cellar, build it up with 

 brick or stone to about one ibot above the surface 

 of the earth, and take the middle part of the earth 

 for the purpose of raising your walls on the brick 

 or stone foundation, and by a little exi)erience it 

 will be found that a very good house may be con- 

 structed at a very small cost, saving hauling, &c. 

 A house built in this manner, if intended for a 

 dwelling house, may be rough-cast outside, and 

 plastered inside, and may be made as handsome 

 and elegant as any house built of any material. 

 Forout houses, such as barns, stables, &c. as also 

 for walls of enclosure, a thick white wash of lime 

 is sufficient. This is applied with a broom, begin- 

 ning at the top. This looks rough, but it makes a 

 very durable coating. I have read an account of 

 such an enclosure of several miles in length, in 

 South America, that had no coping, and had lasted 

 so long that the oldest man in tlic country declared 

 that when a boy the wall was then an old structure. 

 Although it was not very sightly at the time it 

 was seen by the inquiring traveller, it was yet an 

 effectual fence, notwithstanding the want of^ a co- 

 ■ vering to protect it from the very great rains of 

 that country. It appears to me from the truth of 

 the above remarks, that v/here rail timber is not 

 abundant, and has to be hauled any distance to the 

 field to be enclosed, that a pise wall would be 

 the cheapest, and that it will be found so, particu- 

 larly after the hands have acquired some expert- 

 ness in this kind of work. 



!V. HERBEMONT. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



Indian corn is the most valuable crop made in 

 every part of the United States, both on account of 

 the superior qualities of that grain, and of the grea- 

 ter quantities in which it is made. It is remarka- 

 ble that this plant should grow to such perfection 

 over so many degrees of latitude, and through such 

 various climates. But though every farmer, or 

 tiller of the soil, in our country, is a cultivator of 

 corn, and though it forms the principal crop of 

 most of them, still the proper mode of cultivation 

 is as little known, and the opinions thereon as much 

 disputed, as almost any agricultural question that 



can be named. Operations the most opposite find 

 advocates and practitioners, and success in the re- 

 sult has been boasted as the proof of the value ofevery 

 method practised. Deep or shallow ploughing — a 

 ridged or level surface — and various other peculiar 

 practices, have each been considered by some as in- 

 dispensable, and by others as injurious, to the great- 

 est product of corn. Our ignorance does not arise 

 fiom the want of instructions in sufficient num- 

 ber : our agricultural publications offer to our 

 choice scores of opinions and methods, and in the 

 practices of farmers, we may find a still greater va- 

 riety. I shall not attempt to point out the best 

 mode of cultivation — but rather to seek it, by in- 

 quiring into the causes of this diversity of opinion 

 and practice, and endeavoring to show, and to re- 

 move some of the impediments to the forming of a 

 sound theory, and thence deducing correct practice 

 on this subject. 



When a man is thrown into a situation altoge- 

 ther different from what he has been acquainted 

 with before — whether liom a change of country 

 and climate — of products — or, of his own habits — 

 he, from necessity, yields to his new circumstances, 

 and endeavors to accommodate his habits to them. 

 He loses all the benefit of experience — but he takes 

 reftso;i instead, as his guide; and it often happens, 

 that this guide leads to truth and correct practice, 

 more surely than all others. When our English 

 Ibrefathers first began to cultivate the forests of Vir- 

 ginia, they found every thing so entirely different, 

 that they were obliged to abandon all their former 

 practices, and learn anew, from the exercise of 

 judgment and the instruction afforded by necessity. 

 They adopted a mode of cultivation well suited to 

 their new circumstances, in which they showed far 

 more judgment than have their descendants in ad- 

 hering to the same, after all those circumstances 

 had changed, or disappeared. Under the like ne- 

 cessity, the new settlers of the western states now 

 act, who never think of contiiming the practices 

 on the long worn and poor fields which they left in 

 the land of their birlh. 



Eut, in general, farmers do not thus exercise 

 their reason, except under the compulsion of ne- 

 cessity ; and when circumstances change gradu- 

 ally and slowly, they do not change their practice 

 in conformity, but cling to their old (and once ju- 

 dicious) practice, until it has become maniliestly 

 unprofitable, and absurd, to every one who is not 

 thusblinded by the light of experience. 



AV hen our forefathers had to plant corn entirely 

 on newly cleared forest land, incumbered with 

 stumps, and filled with roots, they wisely made the 

 tillage very superficial, made but little use of the 

 plough con)pared to the hoe, and heaped the scanty 

 loose soil in hills around the stalks, in preference 

 to a more laborious breaking of the whole surface. 

 The soil being kept open, and in some degree of tilth, 

 by the rotting roots of trees, did not much require 

 more periect tillage — and for the labor expended, 

 (the land costing nothing,) this was the most eco- 

 nomical and most profitable culture. But these 

 habits gradually became fixed : and before the pub- 

 lication of Ara{or, the general mode of cultivating 

 corn through lower Virginia, did not vary very 

 much from the okl new-ground practices. Indeed 

 much of it is still remaining every where: and, 

 even after a farmer has adopted a different theory, 

 he will not be able in many years to get his over- 

 seers and negroes out of all the old movements. — 



