830 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pa:it III. 



5152. Soil and climate. 



732 



733 



A rich loamy soil, which will grow good wheat, tobacco, or potatoes, will 

 grow the strongest 

 plants ; but the corn 

 on such plants will be 

 much less likely to 

 ripen than that pro- 

 duced on a dry, warm, 

 sandy, or calcareous 

 soil. It must be ob- 

 vious, from what has 

 been before advanced, 

 that there are few, if 

 any, parts of Britain 

 north of York where 

 the climate will be at 

 all suitable to this 

 grain. 



5153. Culture. This 

 grain is almost every 

 where sown or planted 

 in rows, placed at such 

 a width as to admit of 

 horse-hoeing the in- 

 tervals. "When this is 

 practised, as the grain 

 contains very little 

 gluten, the crop may 

 bs considered as a 

 good preparation for 

 wheat in very rich 

 soils ; it accordingly 

 precedes that grain in 

 the best cultivated 

 parts of North Ame- 

 rica ; but we question if 

 it would be advisable 

 to follow this practice 

 in old cultivated coun- 

 tries, notwithstanding 

 that maize and wheat 

 differ so much in re- 

 gard to gluten. 



nl'A. The preparation of the soil may be the same as for a crop of 

 barley, according to Cobbett ; but we should say, the same as for a 

 crop of turnips on the raised ridglet or Northumberland system. 



5155. Sowing. The quantity of seed required is from one bushel 

 to three bushels per acre. In Long Island, near New York, the time of 

 sowing is from the 10th to the 20th of May; in France, from the 15th of April to the 15th of May ; in 

 England, from tlie 15th of April to the 20th of the same month, according to Cobbett ; but we have no 

 doubt that, in situations where the earliest varieties will succeed at all, they will succeed if sown a week . 

 or ten days later. The grain will retain its vegetative powers for at least six years. {Gard. Mag. 

 vol. vi. p. 44k) 



5156. The 7node of planting the corn in America is by drawing shallow drills, commonly three or four feet 

 distant from each other, and dropping the seeds by hand, at eight inches apart, in the row. This distance 

 is evidently too great for the early dwarf varieties; and we think three furrows, or twenty-seven inches, the 

 ordinary width between rows of potatoes and turnips, much more suitable. We should decidedly prefer 

 dibbling, either by hand or by a machine, to opening a drill and depositing the seeds. In several places in 

 France the seeds are sown broad-cast and harrowed in, and the after-culture consists in hand-hoeing 

 between them. By sowing on raised drills the horse-hoeing system may be applied as effectually as in the 

 culture of turnips or beans. Cobbett recommends intervals between the rows of five feet, and the plants 

 at six inches' distance in the row, with a view to admit a superior degree of tillage between, with a view 

 to the wheat crop. He also describes the mode of planting in hills. The situations of these hills having 

 been marked out by a light plough, or even by trailing a log of wood, first in lines five feet apart in one 

 direction, and next in lines in tlie opposite direction at right angles to the former, so as to leave the sur- 

 face in squares, the planter takes a hoe, and at every intersection of the lines makes a little hole about an 

 inch and a half deep, and about six inches in diameter, and in this hole five or six seeds are regularly dis- 

 tributed, and covered over with fine earth to the depth of an inch and a half. It is evident that by this 

 mode of planting the ground may be very thoroughly worked during the growth of the crop ; but it is 

 evident also that it could only be adopted in this country on dry soils, that would admit of being kept 

 during spring and autumn without water furrows. 



5157. Transplanting maize may be adopted on a small scale, the advantages of which are that the 

 ground may be better prepared before planting, and that the crop may be made to come in in succession 

 with one which has stood in the ground during winter. The plants may be raised in a hotbed, and pro- 

 tected by mats ; or they may be raised in a warm border of dry rich soil, covered with straw or straw 

 mats during nights til! the common ash, the mulberry, or the walnut are in leaf: they may then be care- 

 fully raised and transferred to the field, with a small portion of earth attached to each, planted with a 

 spade or trowel, and watered unless it should happen to rain. 



5158. The after culture, according to Cobbett, commences with scaring away birds and destroying slugs, 

 and afterwards in removing weeds and stirring the soil. The plants will be one foot and a half high in 

 July ; and no one at that season, Cobbett says, need be afraid of tearing about the roots with the plough as 

 much as he will. One thing is certain, he says, that if the ground between the rows be not ploughed at 

 all, there will be no crop at all. The last process with the plough is earthing up, which is said to be useful 

 for two purposes : first, to keep the plants steady, in case of very rough winds ; and, second, to give it a 

 fresh stock of roots. " Leave a corn-plant with nothing but flat hoeing, and without earthing up, and you 

 will see all around its roots coming out just above the ground, and going immediately down into the 

 ground." 



5159. Topping the plants. The male and female blossoms being on diiFerent parts of the plant, have 

 given rise to this operation. The male flowers are always situated on the top oi- summit of the stem, and 

 the female flowers below, near the bottom. " The flowers at the top having performed their function, and 

 deposited the pollen on the stigma beneath, become no longer necessary to the plant ; and they, accord- 

 ingly, with all the elevated part of the stem which supports them, may be wholly removed. This process 

 IS termed topping by the Americans, and is delayed until the blades or leaves may be also stripped off 



