Vol. 8. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — MAY, 1847. 



No. 5. 



THE GENESEE FARMER : 



Issued the first of each month, in Rochester, N, Y., by 



D. D. T. MOORE, PROPRIETOR. 



DANIEL LEE. EDITOR. 



p. BARRY, Conductor of the Horticultural Department. 



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Corn Culture. 



According to the census of 1845, there were 

 595,135 acres planted with corn the preceding 

 year, in this State, wliich gave an aggregate oi' 

 14,722,115 bushels. The average was a frac- 

 tion less than 25 bushels per acre. Small as this 

 crop appears, it was larger by 3,636,973 bushels 

 than that returned at the census of 1840. This 

 is a large gain in five years, and will be taken 

 as evidence that still greater improvement in tha 

 culture of this great American staple is attainable. 



We have long entertained the opinion that 

 New York soil can be made to yield an average 

 of 50 bushels per acre ; or twice as much as it 

 now does, with a three -fold larger profit. How 

 is this result to be attained ? 



First, by manuring well with those elements 

 that nature uses in making a large crop of corn, 

 so far as they are lacking in the soil to be plant- 

 ed. This application of fertilizers is indispensa- 

 ble ; for no amount of hard work with the plow, 

 hoe, and cultivator, can possibly create one par- 

 ticle of the ingredients that form the substance 

 of corn plants. A soil may contain in an avila- 

 ble form, 99 parts in 100 of all the elements 

 necessary to produce 80 bushels of corn per acre ; 



yet the lacking 1 per cent, will limit tho crop to 

 one-half that amount. No one has ever seen 

 kernels of this grain that did not contain some 45 

 or 50 per cent, of phosphoric acid in the ash left 

 when tlie kernels were burnt. Suppose your 

 cornfield possesses enough ofthis substance, com- 

 bined with lime and other bases, and in an avail- 

 able shape, to form the stems, leaves, roots, and 

 cobs, as well as the seeds of this plant, up to the 

 limit of 40 bushels per acre 1 Unless nature can 

 organize kernels of corn v.ithout the presence of 

 hone earth or phosphate of lime, it is obvious that 

 the presence of every othor ingredient in never 

 so great abundance, to form 80 bushels of grain» 

 must all go for nothing at the harvest ! In this 

 case, without any additional plowing, hoeing, or 

 manuring, the addition of a few pounds of bone 

 dust would double the crop. 



Suppose your soil was deficient in gypsum, as 

 well as in the ingredients that form the bones of 

 your doinestic animals. Then bone dust alone 

 would not answer the great purposes of nature. 

 As no animal can elaborate its brain without 

 plaster or sulphur, nature, with infinite wisdom 

 and foresight, refuses to cheat animals by the 

 production of cereal plants in which sulphur is 

 not a constituent eleinent. If then your soil con- 

 tains enough of sulpliates to give 30 bushels of 

 corn, and no more, how much tillage will it re- 

 quire to create one grain of sulphur out of noth- 

 ing, that nature may have all the materials neces- 

 sary to form a crop of 60 bushels per acre ? 



Suppose that common salt, (chloride of sodi- 

 um,) be lacking? Your land may furnish enough 

 for two-thirds of a large crop. How will you 

 supply the absent chlorine so indispensable alike 

 in the economy of vegetables and animals ? It 

 may happen that your corn plants need five tiine« 

 more chlorine than your stable or barn yard ma- 

 nure will furnish. Will you foolishly waste four- 

 fifths of your most valuable manure to supply 

 what chlorine your crop requires ; or will you 

 add a little of "the salt of the earth" to your 

 dung heap and thus give it a nve-fold greater 

 productive power ? 



