754 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The value of this grain, by actual experiment in feeding, 

 clearly shows the worth of the crop to the farmer. 1 have for 

 many years fed from twelve to fifteen hundred bushels a year, 

 and some years more, preferring it to any other grain at the 

 market price. The flavor of the meat, when fed on corn, is 

 better, and the flesh has more solidity, notwithstanding the 

 large amount of oil it possesses. 



Probably, there is no plant which possesses so much nutri- 

 ment as the leaf of corn. I would not be understood as saying 

 that the main stalk possesses much nutriment, other than, 

 when suitably prepared for the animal by being cut or mashed, 

 it serves as a retainer of the more nutritious food. 



I have sometimes fed a lot of sheep on corn stalks, giving 

 them nothing else for several weeks in the commencement of 

 winter, and then changed them to good hay, but could never 

 have them do as well, and sometimes have been under the 

 necessity of giving grain for some time after the change. 



Cultivators are apt to think their own way the best ; and 

 true it may be, to some extent, for different soils require differ- 

 ent treatment ; and the man who knows nothing of any soil 

 except the one he tills, is unable to judge of other soils, or how 

 they should be managed. Yet there is a law fixed by Him 

 who made the soil, and that should be well understood by the 

 husbandman to render him successful. 



The use of manures in growing corn is quite important, and 

 much depends upon the manner of application. For instance, 

 should there be warm, coarse, active manures, put on dry sandy 

 land, the plant would soon dry up, (unless the season should 

 be very wet,) and the manure would spend itself without 

 benefiting either land or plant. "Whereas, if the same manures 

 were applied to cold, retentive lands, both crop and soil would 

 be benefited, in proportion to the quantity used and manner 

 applied. 



This grain has many peculiar qualifies, and requires all 

 those properties in the soil, which the grain possesses. 



The time to plough for this crop depends much upon the 

 kind of soil. If the land has a strong mixture of clay, with a 

 heavy sod, I think it should be ploughed early in the fall — say 

 the last of September or first of Oc^tober — preceding the spring 



