106 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



In the ash of cornstalks and cobs we invaria- 

 bly find a good deal of ])otash. Suppose your 

 soil possesses all the other ingredients required 

 to form a crop of 80 bushels per acre except tliis 

 alkali ; but of that the supply is equal to the de- 

 mands of 40 bushels per acre, and no more ? — 

 Barn-yard manure contains salts of potash, but 

 the per centage is small. If you have a goodly 

 quantity of manure and little land to plant in 

 corn, you will need no additional potash for this 

 crop. But suppose you have but 100 loads, to 

 ten acres of corn ground ? Ten loads will not 

 give your plants all the potash they need. — 

 Hence, the mixture of good wood ashes with 

 gypsum, bone dust, and salt, in addition to a small 

 dose of manure may give you a double crop. 



The relative proportions of ashes, salt, gypsum, 

 and bones boiled to powder in strong lye, or 

 ground, may be left to the good sense of the 

 corn-grower. If the bones can not be had, the 

 ashes, salt, and gypsum should still be used, where 

 the land is not so rich as it should be to give 60 

 or 70 bushels per acre. A bushel of salt and a 

 like quantity of gypsum to two bushels of un- 

 leached ashes, would be a fair proportion under 

 ordinary circumstances. In a soil that naturally 

 lacks lime, or where leached ashes are used in- 

 stead of unleached, we should invariably use 

 twice as much lime to the compost as salt. If 

 the compound is to be applied in considerable 

 quantity — and it should be ]f the soil is poor, and 

 the materials not too expensive — it may be spread 

 broad-cast over the field just before planting. 



From experience we are satisfied that it is much 

 better to apply ashes, salt, &c., on the hill im- 

 mediately on covering up the seed, than to wait 

 till the corn is up, or weeded. A single handful 

 should be spread over a square foot or more sur- 

 face. The rains and dews will dissolve these 

 salts and take them down within reach of the 

 needy roots of the plants cultivated. 



We advise deep and fine plowing for corn. — 

 The roots of this plant in a mellow, pervious soil, 

 will seek appropriate nourishment at the distance 

 of 30 or 40 inches from the upright stem. 



Mr. Editor : — May I be indulged wilh troubling yoa 

 with a few questions in relation to a field of about eight 

 acres, which I purpo:^o to plant with Corn the coming season. 

 ft has a clover sod of two years growth, on gravelly soil ; 

 about one-fourth of an acre however, and near the center 

 of the field is a hollow of black sand, which has never pro- 

 diiccd well — worms or something else have always been in 

 the way. The probability is, wilh ordinary usage the lield 

 would produce 30 bushels of corn per acre — I want more. 

 The soil is quick — lies warm — I mean to cultivate it well. 

 Shall 1 plow it more than 5 inches deep?— what time? — 

 What kind of seed, and how shall I prepare it? What 

 distance should it be planted, and how many kernels in the 

 hill? — with all the after process. 



Yours with esteem, Caleb K. Hobbie. 



Irondequoit, March, 1817. 



Remarks. — We should plow the field above 

 referred to, at least seven inches deep, so soon 

 as the ground gets settled and a little warmed by 

 the vernal sun. If we had any well rotted ma- 1 



nure, it should be evenly spread over the plowed 

 surface, and well harrowed to incorporate it with 

 the soil. And here let me suggest the impor- 

 tance of having long, sharp harrow teeth, drawn 

 by a strong, quick team, in order to pulverize 

 and mellow the ground to a considerable depth. 

 If our manure was long and very little rotted, 

 ue should prefer to cover it with the plow in the 

 first operation. 



Yellow corn is usually worth from 3 to 7 cts. 

 more a bushel in New York market than any va- 

 riety of white, and as it yields as well, it should 

 be preferred. We have never seen any variety 

 of yellow corn, so decidedly superior to all oth- 

 ers, as to warrant us in giving it our commenda- 

 tion. In this climate, 3 feet from hill to hill each 

 way is about the proper distance, with 3 or 4 

 good stalks in a hill. 



We have elsewhere endeavored to give the 

 reader some idea of the great value of a com- 

 pound of ashes, salt, and gypsum, to augment 

 the yield of this important crop. The value of 

 ashes and salt as fertilizers for most cultivated 

 plants has never been duly appreciated in this 

 country. We will state a case in point in the 

 culture of wheat : A light loamy soil in Scot- 

 land, with a clay sub-soil, gave without any fei*- 

 tilizers 30 bushels of wheat per acre. An ad- 

 joining acre, similar in all respects, received a 

 top dressing of 400 cwt. wood ashes and 200 cwt 

 sulphate of ammonia. This gave 39 bushels. — 

 The sulphate of ammonia was formed on the 

 farm, by pouring oil of vitriol into a reservoir of 

 the urine of cattle. Gypsum mixed with the 

 liquid excretions of all animalti will form sul- 

 phate of ammonia. Thinking that perhaps his 

 soil lacked to some extent both chlorine and so- 

 da, which neither the urine nor the ashes would 

 supply in sufficient quantity this scientific Scoth 

 farmer added to a third acre 200 cwt. of common 

 salt, to the ashes and sulphate of ammonia. The 

 result was not a gain fiom 30 to 39 bushels, but 

 a yield of 49 bushels ! 



What wheat grower in Western New York 

 would not rejoice to give 200 lbs. of salt for 10 

 busliels of wheat ? 



There is more common salt (chlorine and so- 

 dium) in an acre of corn than in an acre of 

 wlieat. This mineral being extremely solu- 

 ble, as every body knows, it is very likely to be 

 leached out of the surface soil, and of course de- 

 ficient in quantity to produce an extra growth of 

 any plant that requires it. 



If Mr. IIoBBiE wishes to increase his crop of 

 corn from 30 to 50 or 60 bushels per acre, he 

 must add those things to the earth which nature 

 uses, and must have to organize this most prolif- 

 ic plant. 



Draining and Deep Plowing have doubled 

 the product of wheat, in England, within t e 

 last 25 years— and quadrupled the annual yield 

 of manure. 



