FARMS. 149 



the practices of the best farmers in the county, and with differ- 

 ent results, we may be excused for offering one or two hints, 

 not of things new but of things neglected. Every one knows 

 that corn is a rank feeder, extending its roots in all directions 

 where it finds nutriment. Hence the necessity of deep plough- 

 ing and thorough pulverization of the soil. Subsoil ploughing 

 has been found l)cneficial by supplying moisture in dry weather, 

 and furnishing room for the extension of the roots. The more 

 thoroughly the manure is mixed with the soil, the better chance 

 has the corn of exhausting its benefits. We have noticed several 

 fields, this season, that yielded on good ground scarcely twenty 

 bushels to the acre, owing to imperfect ploughing, which left 

 the soil in lumps, and to coarse, unreduced manure. It was 

 difiicult to cover the manure, and much of it was exposed to the 

 air and sun. " Pulverization of the earth, and the mingling 

 and perfect incorporation of the manures with the soil, may be 

 regarded as the fundamental principle of judicious and success- 

 ful culture " of this crop. Under any circumstances, in the 

 barnyard or in the field, it must be considered bad management 

 to let manure lie unsheltered. Its exposure to sun, rain, frost 

 and wind, must diminish its value by carrying away its most 

 fertilizing properties. The use of coarse manure for corn, so 

 coarse that it must be partially wasted, is the more to be regret- 

 ted because that which is best adapted to this crop, barn- 

 yard and pigsty manure, is produced at great cost, and but 

 few farmers have more of it than they need for this very 

 purpose. 



When guano is used with corn, the necessity of the finest 

 pulverization of the soil is obvions, that the manure may come 

 into the closest possible contact with all the soil ; and thus 

 while more nutriment is drawn from the atmosphere, less is 

 wasted from that which we apply to the earth. When we 

 remember that ploughing is the primary step in the whole busi- 

 ness, and that it is of the first importance that the air, and the 

 rain, and the heat of the sun may thoroughly and easily find 

 access to the soil, — that crops having tubers may have ample 

 room and facilities of expansion, and that corn will grow nearly 

 as far beneath the surface as above it if permitted, it will not 

 be easy to overestimate the attention that should be given to 

 this subject. 



