THE GENESEE FAEMEK. 



we cannot average more than fifty bushels of wheat per acre. By giving the maize 

 plant all the fertilizing food it could assimilate, it is probable that we might average one 

 hundred and ten bushels of shelled corn per acre. We can easily make a soil too rich 

 for wheat. It would, be rather difficult to give corn too much food, provided it is of the 

 proper kind. How far it might be profitable to manure highly for corn with guano is 

 yet a matter of uncertainty. There cannot be a doubt, however, that it is the interest 

 of every farmer to make and apply all the fertilizing matter he can. Many of our 

 Western farmers will tell us that it does not pay them to apply manure to corn. It 

 perhaps does not the first crop, but in the long run he who makes most manure, will 

 make most money. This is universal experience. We like to turn mider a good sod 

 fourteen inches deep in the fall for corn. If plowed in the spring the sod should be 

 well buried, so as not to interfere with the necessary hoeing, &c. As a general rule, 

 subsoiling answers better for spring crops than deep plowing. Many intelligent farmers 

 do not plow their corn land till just before planting ; they have thus considerable grass 

 to turn under, and the soil is in first-rate working order. It is also said-that the worm 

 will feast on this recently buried vegetable matter, and will not attack the corn plant 

 till it is well started, and so large as to receive little or no injury. 



Plant early — the earlier the better, if the weather is warm and the soil in good order. 

 More corn is injured from late ripening and early fall frosts than any other cause. 

 It is possible to plant corn too thick. We have seen crops materially injured in this 

 way, more especially in not ripening in proper time. Three feet apart each way, and 

 four plants in a hill is the usual practice. It is better to plant too much seed in the 

 hills than too little, as it is easy to thin them to the proper number the first hoeing. 

 In preparing the seed it is common in this neighborhood to smear the corn with tar and 

 dry it with plaster; this is said to prevent the crows from injuring it. Last year a 

 friend of ours who feared injury from worms, smeared his seed corn with tar, and then 

 put a half pound of flowers of sulphur, instead of plaster, to each peck of corn. The 

 worms, though the lot was full of them, did not injure it in the least, and he had an 

 excellent yield. Be careful not to cover the seed too deep ; the shallower all seed is 

 buried, so that light is excluded, the better. Mark out the lot both waysj so as to 

 insure straight rows ; the corn lot not only looks much better when the rows are straight 

 in all directions, but you can horse-hoe much closer without risk of cutting up the hills. 



You, of course, have saved a sufficient quantity of your own pumpkin seeds, selected 

 from the best pumpkin-s. Do not spare it. Mix, at least, a quart of pumpkin seed with 

 each peck of seed corn, and thin out if you think them too thick. Plant the corn in 

 four feet rows, rather than not have a good crop of pumpkins — if for nothing else, it 

 would pay to grow them to rot on the land for manui'e, but they are excellent food for 

 hogs and cows in the fall. If plaster is obtaiu,able for five dollars per ton it will pay 

 to scatter a table-spoonful on each hill, when the corn is just through the soil. The 

 beneficial eff'ects are often times astonishing. 



Will our intelligent practical correspondents give us their views in time for publica- 

 tion next month on the relative advantages of hilling up corn, or letting it remain as 

 planted, merely keeping it clear by horse and hand-hoeing? 



Mangel Wurzel deserve far greater attention from American farmers than they have 

 yet received ; they are as well adapted to the climate as any other root crop ; they are 

 not injured by insects or wcu'ms ; they require no hand-weeding ; and more nutritious 

 food can be obtained from an acre of mangel wurzel than any other crop we are 

 acquainted with. They should be planted in rows 30 inches apart, and from 12 to 15 

 inches in the rows. The seed can be dropped and covered with a hoe just as in planting 

 corn. It is advisable to drop four or five seeds in a hill, so as to insure one good plant. 

 Do not, on any account, be tempted to leave them too thick; have the rows, at least, 

 two feet a part, and only one plant each 12 or 15 inches in the rows. Like ladian 



