1076 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



drietl corn. All along the stage wei'e sam- 

 ples of prothifts from Indian corn and corn- 

 stalks: a big chunk of india-rubber, samples 

 of different kinds of sugar, all made from 

 corn: and. tinally. when he spoke of maple 

 molasses made entirely from corn, there was 

 a rather large manifestation from the au- 

 dience. 



Now may God help me to recollect, and 

 tell in a way that will make it plain to you 

 all, some of the grand truths our good 

 friend and Christian brother (thank the Lord 

 that he is a devoted Christian) gave us. as he 

 tried to lift up and encourage the farmers 

 and their Iwys — yes. farmers" wives and 

 farmers' girls as well — in his talk. Besides 

 the specimens that loaded down the platform 

 and tables, he had wonderful charts hung 

 up just back of him. I can not i'ememl)er 

 the statistics very well, and I did not think 

 to put it down with my pencil: Init the lirst 

 chart that Avas hung up before us read some- 

 thing like this: "Value of the corn crop in 

 Ohio, per annum. $185,000,000: value of the 

 hav crop of Ohio. $115,000,000: wheat, per- 

 haps $90,000,000: potatoes. $75.000.000:"' and 

 I must confess this was the tirst time my at- 

 tention had been called to the fact that corn 

 stood so far away above every thing else. 

 Then other charts were unfolded. The 

 speaker had been over our eornlields to see 

 how many missing hills there were. Then 

 he counted the hills that had only one stalk, 

 those that had two, and those that had three 

 stalks. Then he brought specimens and held 

 them up before the audience — little spindling 

 stalks from a foot high, all the way up to a 

 stalk full height, perhaps without an ear of 

 corn on it at all. He asked the audience 

 what per cent the missing, small, and empty 

 stalks probably made in our average corn- 

 fields. He did not discuss soils nor cultiva- 

 tion very much. I think it takes about four 

 lectures to take up the whole subject. He 

 gave us the most important one. Now, 

 many farmers seem to have the idea that it 

 is poor ground or lack of cultivation that is 

 responsible for the small yield. A good 

 many seem to think the lack of rain at just 

 the right time is one of the troubles that can 

 not be surmounted. Then he called atten- 

 tion to the fact that we have fields yielding 

 big crops side by side of poor miserable 

 crops of less than half a yield, with nothing 

 but a wire fence between the two. Is it 

 likely the raindrops stop JHst as they get up 

 to that wire fence, and do not fall on the 

 poor ground? Then he gave us a most pun- 

 gent moral against shouldering the blame on 

 the kind Father above. Why is it we have 

 vacant hills — hills with little bits ot stalks, 

 and stalks that do not bear any corn? Prof. 

 Holden said he was talking to a ci'owd of 

 farmers not long ago, and a boy pushed his 

 way up and looked as if he wanted to say 

 something. Mr. Holden loves boys (and 



girls too) or he would not be the great man 

 e is. After a little encouragement the boy 

 got off something like this: 



"Why, Prof. Holden, it looks to me as if 

 there were a great lot of stalks in almost 



every cornfield that just fool around all 

 summer doin" nothin".'" 



This boy gave him the text for a grand 

 sermon. He said it was not only stalks of 

 earn that fool ai'ound all su)nmer "doin' 

 nothin", ■' but there are human l»eings just 

 like the cornstalks. They live and die stand- 

 ing around "doin" nothin" when God has 

 placed such wonderful opportunities before 

 them. 



Now. then, friends, if it is not poor soil 

 nor lack of cultivation, nor even a lack of 

 i-ain, that is responsilile for the large num- 

 l)er of stalks of corn standing around "doin' 

 nothin", '■ what is the trouble? It is largely 

 jioor seed. "Whatsoever a man soweth. that 

 shall he also reap."" Yes, I know you think 

 you have the best seed: and when I told Mrs. 

 Root about it she said her father always had 

 the very best seed corn that could be pro- 

 duced. ' He picked out the ears before the 

 corn was cut: watched them till they were 

 just right, picked them, and hung them up 

 in the garret where they would lie thorough- 

 ly dried out before freezing could harm 

 them. Yes, that is all very good — tiptop: 

 but, dear me I it is not half of it. I wonder 

 if I can explain the matter with sufficient 

 emphasis so some boy or girl or mother, 

 perhaps, or may be some old farmer, will see 

 the point and get right at it. Pick out your 

 best ears, just as Mrs. Root"s father did. 

 Get them from the best field of corn in your 

 vicinity, no matter what you have to pay for 

 the privilege. But get enough ears — at least 

 six times as many as you will need to plant. 

 I think Prof. Holden told us six nice big 

 ears would plant an acre. So you will want 

 forty or fifty ears for every acre you wish to 

 plant next season. Tie them up with strings, 

 and hang them up in the driest room in your 

 house where there is a good current of air 

 passing through, so as to strike them on all 

 sides. Tie a string around one ear of corn, 

 then lay another alxjve it; tie: another; tie, 

 and so on. He said the women-folks would 

 beat the men all out in tying up corn. Put 

 about a dozen ears in each bunch, and hang 

 it on a wire stretched across the room. Do 

 not put it over a pole or any thing else that 

 a mouse can walk on. Do not omit this part 

 of it. About the middle of March lay these 

 ears on a floor or table where they will not 

 be disturbed. Push them up tight together, 

 and drive a big nail between every ten 

 ears. This is to prevent their getting out of 

 place. Then pick up the ears one at a time, 

 and with your knife pick out six kernels 

 from each ear, going over the ears so as to 

 make an average of the whole. Lay these 

 six kernels at tne butt of the ear of corn. 

 With a pencil, mark opposite the nails — 1, 

 10, 20, 30, 40. and so on: that is so you can 

 number the ears of corn and number these 

 little piles of corn. Now get a shallow box 

 or tray two inches deep, large enough to 

 give a space two inches square for every six 

 grains of corn. As this tray is to be kept 

 among the house-plants, and cared for just 

 like the house-plants, he said it should be 

 made of some nice clean boards, so the good 



