INDIAN CORN. 119 



EXPERIMENTS IN HARVESTING CORN. 



Andrew Nicol has given in the Farmers' Register 

 a statement of some experiments he made last year 

 with his corn crop, the substance of which we ab- 

 stract. 



1. He spread 32 loads of pine leaves on a piece of 

 corn land, planted very close for the climate of Vir- 

 ginia, so as to give an average thickness of four 

 inches/ The crop received no after culture. The 

 product was 75 bushels per acre, considered there a 

 very large return. The pine leaves counteracted 

 the effect of drought ; and Mr. N. thinks that, had the 

 covering been thicker, the product would have been 

 greater. 



2. The second experiment was made to ascertain 

 the effect of topping, cutting up, and leaving the grain 

 to ripen upon the standing stalk. Eighteen rows of 

 150 yards in length were stripped of the fodder; that 

 is, all the leaves, except two above the ears, were 

 taken off on the llth September; the tops were cut 

 from six of these rows on the 20th September ; six 

 other rows of the 18 were cut by the ground the 

 same day ; and the third six rows were left to stand, 

 .ogether with the first six, until the corn ripened ; 

 other six rows, from which neither fodder was 

 pulled nor tops cut, were, on the same 20th Septem- 

 ber, cut off by the ground and set up in small shocks. 

 " The corn from each was gathered on the 2d De- 

 cember, and on the 7th February shelled and accu- 

 rately weighed. The following are the results i& 

 measure and in weight : 



1st C rows measured 8 bushels, weight per bushel 58 Ibs. 

 2d 6 " " 7f " " 57 " 



3d 6 " " 7| " 66J " 



4th 6 " " 8i " " 59J " 



These results go to show, 



1. That leaves are essential, even after corn is cut 

 off at the ground, in increasing the quantity and 

 weight of the crop. And, 



