SECRETARY'S REPORT. 57 



harvesting, the stalks come more directly within reach of the 

 hand when growing compactly than when scattered over the hill. 



The cheapest way of harvesting is to cut up the corn and 

 stack it whenever it is sufficiently ripe to avoid the danger of 

 heating in the stack. Another advantage in cutting it up is to 

 save it from the early frosts. If you have a frost by the 20th 

 of September, if your corn is not pretty well ripened, it will 

 be injured ; if it is in stacks, you are very sure to save your 

 crop. The only objection to that way of harvesthig is the 

 extra labor of husking, but that is very little. Your corn is 

 then put up in bundles, and is ready for the pitchfork, and to 

 be packed away in any part of your barn. 



As to the value of corn fodder, I am not very sure about it. 

 I think, as a general thing, it has been overrated ; but I believe 

 the fodder from an acre of corn that will produce fifty bushels 

 is worth quite as much as a ton of English hay, and that will 

 pay the expense of cutting, carrying to the barn, and packing 

 away. 



With regard to the value of the corn crop, compared with 

 other products of the farm for feeding, it has been usually 

 estimated that fifty pounds of corn are worth one hundred 

 pounds of the best English hay ; but some farmers I have known 

 have had a disposition to abandon corn and go into barley, 

 thinking that they would save labor and get about as much 

 profit as they could from corn. I think they will abandon that 

 idea. I think the corn crop one of the best crops in New 

 England ; we know it is the great crop of the nation, and I 

 think that any New England farmer who abandons that crop 

 will be in a situation to impoverish his land. 



Rev. Mr. Dean. — Do you use phosphate, ashes, or plaster ? 



Dr. Hartwell. — No, sir, I have only used stable manure, and 

 that upon the surface, for the reason that I have had plenty of 

 manure for my land, and have not, therefore, used any of the 

 stimulating manures. For a great many years I have put no 

 manure in the hills. If the land is warm and well manured at 

 the rate of forty loads to the acre, it will need noner The 

 reason I have not put any manure in the hills is on account of 

 the expense and labor of doing it. It would be no injury to 

 the crop, and it might forward it in the month of June. But if 



