FARMERS* REGISTER— INDIAN CORN; 



841 



On a light, clean, and well pulverized soil, we of- 

 ten see a mark made to plant the grains of corn, 

 by a plough suited to make the only lurrow through 

 a new cleared soil : and to cover the grains, dropped 

 in the trench so opened, three or four strokes of a 

 heavy hand hoe will be applied. If such unneces- 

 sary motions are forbidden, the negro will still 

 lose more time in letting them alone, than it would 

 require to perform them. But with most persons 

 there is no disposition to escape Irom the slavery 

 to old habits. To cause any process to pass un- 

 questioned, it is enough that it has been always 

 performed. 



The subjection to old opinions and to experience 

 (as it is called,) is by no means the only bar to im- 

 proved cultivation. Many have completely sliaken 

 off the yoke, and not a few of them have published 

 their new opinions for the guidance of their lel- 

 lows. Some of these plans have been found to be 

 altogether visionary and unprotitable, and have 

 served to increase the existing prejudice against 

 all changes. Others were founded on correct view s, 

 and were judicious and profitable for particular ca- 

 ses ; but like quack medicines, each new mode of 

 cultivation has been pronounced, by its advocates, 

 as proper under all circumstances ; and it is there- 

 fore not strange, that more of loss than profit should 

 attend its general adoption. There can be no rea- 

 son to doubt the value of Taylor's ridge and fur- 

 row mode of cultivating corn, on deep, sandy soils, 

 having a level surface, and where wheat was com- 

 paratively an unimportant crop — but no more ru- 

 inous plan could have been adopted on the thin and 

 poor soils with hilly surface, or on broken wheat 

 lands. 



It has been said, that the whole theory of tillage, 

 or the objects of agriculture in general, may be 

 expressed in these few directions — keep the soil 

 dry, (or free from superfluous water,) rich, in tilth, 

 (or loose and open,) and clear of weeds. Apply- 

 ing the same to corn, it may be said, that whether 

 the soil be rich or poor, sound theory merely re- 

 *quires that the soil should be dry enough, clean 

 enough, and sufficiently broken and pulverized. — 

 The dilliculty is in fixing the degrees of sufficien- 

 cy, and in varying the means for producing them 

 according to every change of soil and other circum- 

 stances. Nothing is more ridiculous than the 

 quackery of giving precise directions for the til- 

 lage process of corn, even to prescribing the num- 

 ber of furrows, and the particular implements to 

 cut them, without regard to the difference of soil. 

 Yet we have often known the most implicit obedi- 

 ence given (or attempted to be given) to such 

 rules, and in situations entirely unlike. Even if 

 the best possible mode for cultivating corn, in any 

 one situation, could be discovered, it would require 

 to be varied with every considerable change of soil: 

 and even on the same soil, an alteration of its fer- 

 tility, and its growth of weeds, might make a par- 

 ticular mode of cultivation good at one time, and 

 very improper ten years after. It is not only that 

 different cultivation is required by sandy, clayey, 

 and stony soils — level and hilly — in a dry or moist 

 climate — infected with indestructible weeds, or 

 free from them — but the succeeding crop, and the 

 general rotation must also be considered. For ex- 

 ample — after corn arrives at a certain state of for- 

 wardness, it becomes doubtful whether additional 

 ploughing will do more harm, by breaking the 

 roots, or good, by killing weeds and pulverizing 



the soil. Under this doubt, we who follow corn 

 by wheat, must risk the damage of ploughing, to 

 secure the benefit of having a cleaner seed bed for 

 wheat; and it would be proper to let alone that 

 ploughing, wherever corn was not the preparing 

 crop for winter grain. Again — tlie blade and top 

 fodder of corn arc important and indispensable pro- 

 ducts in Lower and JNliddle Virginia, but are not 

 much valued in our best grass countries. In the 

 former case, it is proper to gather the fodder as soon 

 as the grain will bear the operation — and in the 

 latter circumstances, no risk to the grain should be 

 encountered for such an object. For want of know- 

 ing when this operation may be safely performed, 

 or for neglect in enforcing what he thought a safe 

 rule, every farmer among us is a yearly loser in 

 grain : and sometimes to an extent not much short 

 of the whole nett profit of the fodder harvest. — 

 However, no one has thought of estimating losses 

 of this kind, nor the profits of the fodder crop, be- 

 cause we have been always used to the practice 

 and its losses. We spend from three to four weeks 

 without grudging, in securing our fodder, even 

 when we cannot spare a fourth of the time to cut- 

 ting hay on our meadows, and leave fields of fine 

 clover to rot, (not intentionally to manure the soil, 

 but) for want of time to mow even a small part of 

 them. We submit, without complaining, and 

 without thinking of seeking relief, to the heaviest 

 burthens that we have been used to, and will not 

 bear the lightest, not already experienced. 



I hope, that every reader of the Farmers' Re- 

 gister, who can give useful information on this sub- 

 ject, (and there are very many who can,) will do 

 so — and in stating or recommending his plan, that 

 each one will also state on wiiat kind of soil, and 

 under what circumstances it has been found advan- 

 tageous. It does not follow that a mode of culti- 

 vation is admissible only in one situation : but if 

 we are told the precise circumstances under which 

 it succeeded best, we may judge, with something 

 like coiTectness, what other circumstances will 

 suit as well. Few novices consider that they need 

 this information more than I do, after twenty years 

 of experience as a corn raiser, and nearly as many 

 changes in some part of my mode of cultivation. 

 At one time, and for a continuance of five or six 

 years, I thought that I had fixed on the best kind 

 of tillage — and I still think so, for the circum- 

 stances then existing — but later circumstances 

 have compelled me to change my cultivation, and 

 have left me to preach what I no longer practice. 

 This confession is not calculated to attract confi- 

 dence. Nevertheless I will proceed to describe 

 my plan. 



The greater part of my farm was poor, sandy, 

 and hilly — had been much injured in former times 

 by the v.ashing of heavy rains, and still more by 

 the adoption of Taylor's mode of cultivation, al- 

 though care had been used to direct the ridges 

 and furrows in the best manner to lessen the dan- 

 ger from heavy rains. The injury sustained from 

 tills cause was enormous^and with every subse- 

 quent care, has not been, aiid perhaps will never 

 be, entirely remedied. To avoid the washing away 

 of the soil, now became my main object, and that 

 object led to the plan of perfectly flat tillage. 



The old practice on my farm, (and which still 

 prevails through a great part of Lower Virginia,) 

 was to break up the land so as to leave the surface 

 level — to mark off the distances for plaiiting by 



