INDIAN CORN. 



165 



south, three and a half feet apart. I cut out the suckers as 

 food for cows. I have not found that cutting the suckers affects 

 the crop materially, unless the corn is very stout, and then it 

 improves the crop by letting in more sun. Some farmers im- 

 agine that when the sucker is fully grown its nutriment returns 

 to the main stock, and so to the ear. No experiment has satis- 

 factorily proved this point, any more than that the nutriment 

 which supported a limb returns to the trunk when the limb has 

 decayed. Three-fifths of the acre were in corn last year, the 

 remainder in pease and potatoes. That part which was in corn 

 did as well this year as last. The whole was ploughed in the 

 spring. I spread and ploughed in six cords of common barn- 

 yard manure, made chiefly by cows — then harrowed. After a 

 few days I ploughed again, and let it remain in the furrow, that 

 it might lie more loose than it would be if harrowed after the 

 last ploughing. I put four cords of manure in the drills, two 

 of piggery manure and two of barn-yard, mixed together by 

 shovelling over two or three times. Planted on the 18th and 

 20th of May, leaving the soil as light as possible over the seed. 

 The seed was soaked three clays ; and if the corn was sprouted 

 a little, so much the better — it would get up the sooner. Hoed 

 twice — the first time I ploughed, the last time I merely went 

 through with the hoe. I cut the suckers soon after the silk 

 appeared, and the stalks after the corn turned hard. The corn 

 was the variety called smutty white. 



Expenses : — 



Interest on cost of land, 

 Taxes, .... 



Manure, two-thirds exhausted, 

 Seed, .... 



Drawing and spreading manure, 

 Ploughing and manuring in drills, 

 Planting and hoeing eight days, 

 Cutting suckers and stalks, . 

 Husking and getting in fodder, 



$76 92 



