STATEMENTS ON CORN. 



Statement of cm Experiment to Ascertain the Difference between 

 Level and Hill Culture for Corn, by James Comins. 



Committee on Chops, Gentlemen : — 



To enable an intelligent and interested reader to 

 judge fairl}- of the resnlt of this experiment, it is necessary to state 

 some of the circumstances in which the trial was made ; such as kind 

 of soil, former management, and manner of doing the labor and ascer- 

 taining the result. 



The soil is a fine sandj' loam, moderately heavj' and not liable to 

 be injured by heavy rainfall, or long, continued dry weather. It is a 

 little rolling and what would be called a good lay for corn. The land 

 was cleared of forest about fifty years ago, and for the last forty years 

 has been cultivated in a four years' rotation of corn, rye, and two 

 crops of grass. Previous to eighteen hundred and fift}' the only fertil- 

 izer used was seven bushels of ashes mixed with one of plaster, per 

 acre, and applied in the hill for corn. It produced very good crops 

 with this light application till the land was nearly cleared of the natu- 

 ral fertility- ; but this was a reducing process, and the pasturing of cows 

 on the grass and driving them home for the night so reduced the fer- 



2 



