38 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



Kensington. — Joseph Brown, Stephen Brown. 



Chester. — Thos. J. Melvin, S. F. Learnard. 



Derry. — David Currier, Richard JMelvin. 



Brentwood. — Winthrop H. Dudley, T. S.Robin- 

 son, Frederick Robinson. 



Hampton Falls. — Geo. H. Dodge, John W. 

 Dodge, Wells W. Healey, John Weare, Jos. H. 

 Weare, Jos Cram. 



Hampton. — Robert F. Williams. 



For the New England Fanner. 

 A FARMER'S FIRESIDE TALK— GROW- 

 ING CORN— HILLING UP. - 



Now that the hard work is through, the corn 

 in the crib, "the deposits removed" from the barn 

 yard to the old field, and the turf, mulch and 

 scrapings hauled and spread into the cattle yard, 

 we have leisure for a little talk among ourselves ; 

 and as I have come over to spend this evening with 

 you, Mr. Brown, by the fireside, I want to talk 

 with you about corn. That, I think, is one of the 

 best crops that I have commonly raised on my 

 poor fiirm, and I want to get at the best way of 

 working it. I follow the old plan. I work now 

 pretty much as they have worked corn in this 

 neighborhood, as long as I remember. I am one 

 of those, as you know, who havn't thought much 

 of science, in farming business, and havn't believed 

 in the benefits of book farming; but I like to talk 

 with my neighbors and find out whose way is the 

 best. When I was up to the fair, a few days ago, 

 I heard a man, he v/as a stranger to me, talking 

 some about corn. He had a good deal to say 

 against hilling up and topping, in particular. He 

 talked as near as I can recollect, about in this 

 way. 



"'One of the great troubles against which the 

 English farmer has to guard, is too much wet. — 

 The climate of England is a very moist one. To 

 prevent injury from this excess of moisture, the 

 English farmer hills up his vegetables, in some 

 cases, or in others, makes a ridge, which serves 

 of course to shed the water, in some measure, and 

 thus preserves the crop from too much excess of 

 wet. Our fathers, when they came from Eng- 

 land and made farms in this country, did not know 



is not only absolutely essential to the sprouting of 

 the seed, but it furnishes ammonia to the plant in 

 its aftergrowth, and in this it does the same office 

 as the manure." 



"Well," says I, "neighbor, I don't know as it is 

 going to raalii so much difference ; but I should'nt 

 like to raise corn without hilling up ; and I don't 

 believe it can be done either, so as to come to any 

 thing. Why corn couldn't stand up, unless itwas 

 hilled. It grows in such a way, throwing out 

 roots to the side of the stalk, and these roots will 

 be above ground and have nothing to hold to if 

 they are not hilled." 



"Have you tried that?" said he. 

 "No, I have not," said I. 



"Well, if you try it, sir," said he, "you will 

 find it to be a mistake. The corn which is raised 

 in the Southern and Western States is about dou- 

 ble, or more than double, the weight of that which 

 we raise here. It grows ten to twelve feet high, 

 and the stalk is nearly or quite double in size to 

 ours ; and in the West, they raise that kind of 

 corn without hilling, and it stands up well. There 

 are commonly a great many roots bare where they 

 put out from tlie stalk, but they get hold of the 

 ground, and there is no trouble ; and that in alight 

 soil, too. 



"Itis abadplan,too,"saidhe, "to coverthe roots 

 of anything too deep. The roots must have air. 

 While they are pushing into the ground and draw- 

 ing nourishment from that, they draw it too, at 

 the same time from the air, and if the roots are 

 covered too deep, they will be smothered, and the 

 growth of the plant checked. I have seen farm- 

 ers cover three inches, and then hill up five or six. 

 Now it is quite deep enough to cover from one to 

 two inches ; and there should be no hilhng over 

 this in our climate. The hoeing should be only to 

 kill the Aveeds and to stir the ground ; and when 

 stirred, the ground should be left as flat as pos- 

 sible around the corn, so that the water should 

 not be shed from it, and never more than two inch- 

 es over the roots. In this climate, dishing would 

 be better than hilling." 



He said it was some years since he had raised 

 corn. Since he had lost his wife, and having oth- 



the great difference in the climate, and inconsid- T^" business, he had let his f:\rm. He used to raise 



erately, no doubt, followed the same course here, 

 that they had there. When, after some trial of 

 the climate, they came to perceive that this was 

 the opposite of that of England, and that here 

 the farmer had to combat the drought, as he had 

 there the wet, they had already become fixed in 

 their mode of cultivation. And you know when a 

 farmer has got fixed, it is easier to get out a load- 

 ed wagon that is hub up in the mud, than to un- 

 fix him^ espeeially if he is one of the English or 

 Anglo Saxon breed. Our crops hero seldom suffer 

 from too much moisture, but they frequently are 

 injured by drought ; sometimes wholly destroyed 

 by it. Now there cannot be a question that hill- 

 ing up aggravates the drought. Hilling or ridg- 

 ing sheds the water, and turns it away from the 

 roots, and when the rain is a liglit one, it will fre- 

 quently wholly prevent the roots from feeling it, 

 whileif^not hilled up, the wet would go to the roots. 

 Now moisture is of^as much benefit to the roots as 

 manure is, especially in the early part of the sea- 

 son, before the plant begins to take in moisture by 

 the leaves, which is not till near midsummer. It 



corn in the old fiishioned New England way. But 

 if he ever tried it again, it would be in the way he 

 spoke of. 



He had a good deal to say, too, about topping 

 corn. Some of it, I have heard before, and some 

 of it T never heard before. What he said about the 

 ear being nourished by the leaves, from the air, 

 and not by the roots from the ground, seemed to 

 me to be curious. But it would take a considera- 

 ble time to tell all he said about this ; and as I 

 want, after I have heard what you think about 

 his ideas of planting and hilling up, to talk about 

 some other things, some neighborhood matters-, I 

 will not now say anything more on corn at present. 

 I should like to know what you think about this 

 hilling up, for it did seem to me to be reasonable 

 that heaping up the ground about corn as I and 

 my neighbors do, must have the effect to turn off 

 the rain fi-om the roots, — and we never have too 

 much rain,, that's a fact. We hardly ever get so 

 much rain as the corn wants ; and some years it 

 gets pretty well pinched by drought. I want to 

 know what you think of this, and I shall be iq 



