CORN, INDIAN. 



joint above the ear. I Ihonglit they 

 were somewhat more ripe tlian is 

 usual at tlie time of cutting ; a few 

 of them were nearly dry. The soil 

 was a sandy or gravelly loam, ancient- 

 ly covered with pine, oak, and chest- 

 nut. In hoeing the corn, no hills 

 were made, but some care was taken 

 that the surface of the ground should 

 remain as level as possible through 

 the season. 



"My estimate of the number of hills 

 on an acre was made in the following 

 manner ; and, if I am wrong in my 

 calculations, I shall be corrected by 

 some of your readers. 



" In an area of 200 feet square (or 

 40,000 square feet), there were sixty- 

 two rows, with tifty-four hills in a 

 row, making 3348 hills. This is equal 

 to 3646 hills per acre, each hill occu- 

 pying nearly twelve square feet of sur- 

 face. There were about four stalks 

 of corn in a hill. In estimating bush- 

 els, I have allowed the lawful weight 

 of fifty-six pounds to the bushel. 



"At the time of harvesting, the corn 

 was husked in the field. The forty- 

 six hills from which the stalks had 

 been cut gave forty-eight and a half 

 pounds of ears ; and the forty-six hills 

 on which the stalks had not heen cut 

 gave sixty-two pounds of ears. The 

 number of ears in the two cases was 

 about the same ; those from the un- 

 cut hills were evidently the best filled 

 out and the most hale ; on a large 

 proportion of them the kernels were 

 so closely wedged in as to make it 

 difficult to bend the ear at all with- 

 out breaking it. There was very lit- 

 tle mouldy corn in either case ; a few 

 ears were gathered, mostly from the 

 cut stalks, but the whole quantity 

 was so small as to make it question- 

 able whether cutting the stalks had 

 much effect in this particular. 



" Both parcels were carefully laid 

 aside in a dry chamber for about six 

 or eight weeks, at the expiration of 

 which time they were again weighed, 

 and the parcel of ears from the uncut 

 hills had lost in drying about two per 

 cent, more than tbe other, affording 

 some evidence that the sap continued 

 to circulate for a greater length of 

 1(^0 



time in the uncut than in the cut 

 stalks. The uncut hills gave 42 pounds 

 8 ounces dry shelled corn, equal to 14 

 ounces 12.V grains per hill, or 60 bush- 

 els and eight i)ounds per acre. The 

 parcel from the cut hills gave 33 

 pounds 7 ounces, equal to 11 ounces 

 10 grains per hill, or 47 bushels and 

 18 j)ounds per acre, making a loss of 

 12 bushels and 46 pounds per acre by 

 cutting the stalks ; conclusive evi- 

 dence that, while the sap is in circu- 

 lation, nature does not assign the 

 stalks an unprofitable office. The 

 product of this whole row, taken to- 

 gether, cut and uncut hills, was equal 

 to 53 bushels and 41 pounds per acre. 



"The product of row No. 3, taken 

 by itself (containing ninety-two hills, 

 on one half of whicli the stalks were 

 cut on the same day the others were), 

 would not show the practice of cut- 

 ting stalks quite so destructive in its 

 effects as that exhibited in row No. 2. 

 Its whole produce was 77 lbs. 9 oz. 

 dry corn, equal to 55 bushels and 10 

 pounds per acre, or 1 bushel and 25 

 pounds per acre more than row No. 2. 



" Not satisfied with resting the ex- 

 periment here, I gathered the corn 

 on rows Nos. 1 and 4, i. c, the rows 

 each side next adjoining Nos. 2 and 

 3, and on which none of the stalks 

 had been cut. These rows, taken 

 together, contained 186 hills, and 

 their product of dry shelled corn was 

 171 lbs. 13 oz., equal to 14 oz. 12^ 

 grs. per hill, or 60 bushels and 8 

 pounds per acre, precisely the same 

 average yield as that part of row No. 

 2 on which the stalks had not been 

 cut. This exact coincidence, howev- 

 er, I think, may be numbered among 

 those cases which rarely happen. 



'•The difference between the two 

 rows on which half tbe stalks were 

 cut and the two rows on which none 

 of the stalks were cut was 5 bushels 

 38| pounds per acre. If this differ- 

 ence arose from cutting half the 

 stalks (and I know of no other rea- 

 son), then cutting the whole would 

 have reduced the crop 11 bushels and 

 21 pounds per acre, or from 60 bush- 

 els and 8 pounds to 48 bushels and 

 43 pounds per acre. 



