86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



prevent its drying. There can be no doubt, also, that the 

 exposure to the sun, wind and rain, greatly injures it by remov- 

 ing much of its sweetness, or changing it to woody fibre, while 

 it takes from it its beautiful fresh green color. 



To avoid the losses necessarily attending these modes of 

 curing, some have suggested kiln drying as far preferable, and 

 on the whole, as economical. I have known the experiment tried 

 in one or two instances with complete success, the fodder coming 

 out with its fresh green color, and apparently better relished by 

 cattle than that dried in the ordinary way. This method 

 appears to me to be worthy of much more extended and careful 

 experiment. The kiln need not be elaborately or expensively 

 contrived. The process of drying would be short and the labor 

 light. 



Another mode which has been suggested is to hang it up in 

 sheds open to the air, precisely as tobacco is cured in the west- 

 ern part of the State. This process would be longer, but the 

 nutritive qualities of the plant would probably be better preserved 

 than if cured in the open air with the exposure to the frequent 

 changes of the weather. It is hardly necessary to say that if it 

 is proposed to cure in this way, it should be hung up thinly and 

 the air should be allowed to circulate through it. After being 

 well dried it is taken down and stowed away in the barn for use. 

 This method avoids the trouble of stooking and the liability to 

 injury from rains and dews, which blacken the stalks, though it 

 requires considerable room, and is, of course, attended with 

 some additional labor. 



The modes of cultivating Indian corn as a field crop are too 

 familiar to need explanation. The yield will generally be in 

 proportion to the thoroughness of the tillage. It is enough to 

 say, that the ground, after being properly ploughed and planted, 

 should be hoed and stirred often enough, at least, to keep it 

 free from weeds, and to refer the reader again to the full and 

 detailed statements of practical farmers which have appeared in 

 the annual reports. It was not my purpose to repeat what I 

 considered well said and sufficiently settled in the more recent 

 reports, but only to call attention to those points which had not 

 been touched upon to any extent, either in the statements of 

 practical cultivators or in the reports of committees of agricul- 

 tural societies. Nor would it be proper to designate in this 



