84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Drills 3 feet apart, and 6 stalks 1 inch apart in the drills, will 

 give 29,040 stalks. 



Drills 3 feet 9 inches apart, 2 rows in a drill 6 inches apart, 

 and stalks 9 inches apart in the drills, will give 30,970 stalks. 



Drills 3 feet apart, 3 rows in a drill 6 inches apart, and 

 stalks 9 inches apart in the drills, will give 43,560 stalks. 



Whether planted in hills or drills, it is now pretty well settled 

 among farmers, that it should not be hilled, as was the custom 

 but a few years since. There seem to be several reasons for 

 this. If the earth is drawn up around the stalk at the last 

 hoeing, it sends out new roots which divert much of the 

 nourishment which would otherwise have gone into the stalk 

 and the ear. It is not unfrcquently the case that aerial or 

 "prop" roots, even, are emitted from the lower joints of the 

 stem above the ground, and descending, fix themselves in the 

 soil. This takes place on a very much larger scale, if these 

 joints are surrounded Avith earth. If the earth is taken from 

 the intermediate spaces, so as to leave hollows, the long branch- 

 ing roots become exposed to the sun, and cause the plant to feel 

 the drought too severely. 



A level surface on a cornfield does not wash so badly as an 

 uneven one. The custom of hilling corn Avas derived from the 

 Indians, who planted it so, and even occupied the same hills or 

 mounds year after year successively, raising three clusters of 

 stalks on each large hill, and scraping fresh soil upon thou, so 

 that they remain to our day. The similar cultivation now even 

 sometimes followed, is called planting in Indian hills. 



For fodder, corn is usually sown in drills by hand at the rate 

 of about three bushels an acre. Forty stalks to a foot, it is 

 said, will produce one-third more than twenty stalks to a foot, 

 in furrows wide enough apart for a one-horse cultivator to go 

 through once, as it should do, when the corn is a foot high. 



The practice of raising corn to cut and feed out green by way 

 of partial soiling, is very common. This culture has been car- 

 ried still farther by many farmers, and many acres are raised 

 in various parts of the State of Massachusetts for the purpose of 

 cutting and curing for winter use. 



The common practice with regard to this crop, is to sow in 

 drills from two and a half to three feet apart, on land well tilled 

 and thoroughly manured, making the drills from six to ten 



