1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



709 



incubators, and four or five hundred chick- 

 ens already hatched, we forgot all abijut that 

 cold rainy spell in the latter part of April. 



As I looked out over the wheattieids of 

 that region I uttered an exclamation of sur- 

 prise. I knew already that that was a great 

 wheat region; but I never in my life saw so 

 good a stand of such strong thrifty plants as 

 met my view that afternoon. As we went 

 right on to friend Hunter's I did not stop to 

 see the chickens, but promised to do so be- 

 fore my return next day. 



Friend Hunter has a large tine country 

 home right on top of a beautiful natural 

 mound. You can look over his acres of 

 cornfield extending off in every direction. 

 While corn is the main crop, and has been 

 for many years past, the fertility of the fields 

 is kept up by proper rotation, something 

 on the plan followed by Terry. The home 

 farm has perhaps 400 acres, and one of his 

 sons has about 000 acres more. The friend 

 who drove me over to the place said he be- 

 lieved they rented some land besides on 

 which to grow corn. Of course, with this 

 tremendous acreage it would be impossible 

 to keep up the fertility by producing or pur- 

 chasing stable manure. The main reliance, 

 if I am correct, is clover. In order to get 

 this heavy growth of clover they grow wheat 

 and oats; but corn is their principal crop, 

 and oats and wheat are only a side issue. 



Some might say that Mr. Hunter is a lucky 

 man in having ground so favorable for this 

 great corn crop; but it would not be favora- 

 ble without this splendid management; and 

 another thing, I presume he selected corn, at 

 least to some extent; because the environ- 

 ments left him by his ancestors were favora- 

 ble for corn. 



Now, I shall have to give a good deal from 

 memory, and may be 1 shall get my figures 

 wrong. If I am correct, the average corn 

 crop for the State of Ohio is something less 

 than 40 bushels per acre. Mr. Hunter and 

 his sons made an average last year of over 

 98 bushels per acre. There were places in 

 many of the fields where the yield was, no 

 doubt, close to 200 bushels per acre; and re- 

 peated tests by measuring a part of some of 

 the best rows showed at the rate of more than 

 240 bushels per acre. A report of this enor- 

 mous yield reached the editor of the Indiana 

 Farmer some time in October, 1905. He 

 said to the students who gave him the infor- 

 mation that if this were true he was going 

 to see that cornfield "before he slept." He 

 accordingly made a visit on the 27th of Oc- 

 tober, 1905, went out into the field, and mea- 

 sured off a part of one of the rows of corn, 

 husked it himself, and weighed the corn him- 

 self, and the result was the astonishing fig- 

 ures of 247.57 bushels per acre, counting 

 70 lbs. to the bushel. He said in his report 

 in the Indiana Farmer lov'^oy, 11, 1905, that 

 there were, no doubt, places in the field that 

 would do still better. 



While I was there, one of his sons was 

 loading up a big high-topped wagon with ears 

 of corn to carry to market. I think the whole 

 load would average more than 1 lb. to the 



ear. The picture accompanying gives an ex- 

 cellent view of friend Hunter himself stand- 

 ing among the corn he has been so many 

 years in developing. 



Somebody said of Prof. Holden that he had 

 succeeded in putting corn on the witness- 

 stand, and in making the corn answer ques- 

 tions. Friend Hunter has been doing this, 

 and what he has succeeded in doing with 



SOME EARS OF COKN THAT ARE TO BE KEPT 

 FOR SEED. 



corn, and the particulars of the experiments 

 he has made during the past fifty years, would 

 make quite a book, and I have been urging 

 him to write that book. The basket of corn 

 in the illustration (see next page) was sent 



