514 [ASSEMBLT 



corn is still better. Americans better understand the culture of corn 

 than any other people. The corn grown in Europe is but in small 

 quantities; England will have to take her supplies from us chiefly. 

 The best mode of culture owAit to be better known amonff us. The 

 best soil is rich sandy loam, in which the roots of corn can readily 

 extend themselves, for they seek to penetrate not only deep but far 

 horizontally. The soil should be very mellow, that the corn may ac- 

 quire large stalks and of course large ears, for the size of the stalks 

 and the ears will be proportioned to each other; as to manures, sod 

 is excellent for corn. Put upon the sod barn yard unfermented ma- 

 nure, then plow the field, turning the manure and sod completely. 

 The sod and manure together will make a rich soil for the growth 

 of corn. 



Put some manure also in the hills. Take one bushel of lime and 

 plaster, mix with five bushels of ashes, of this put a table spoonful, 

 in each hill of corn. By this method one farmer got 108 bushels 

 of shelled corn per acre and this planted in the hill, and 110, 115, 

 and 130 have been got. The last was by putting twenty-five loads, 

 after plowing (wagon) on an acre. This was done in our Broome 

 county; we are yet unacquainted with the proper use of guano: it 

 gives excellent corn crops in South America; we ought to try expe- 

 riments with it. There is, however, a probability that the supply of 

 guano will before long be exhausted, the price will become too high. 

 Corn stalks make an excellent manure for corn; there seems to me to 

 be (if I may so express myself) something homogeneous m manures. 

 It is so of grass, which forms one of the most perfect manures for 

 grass crops; and there is analogy also in the growth of animals, 

 which do best on parent milk. I have seen the experiment tried of 

 feeding animals on other milk than the purest. They do not thrive 

 so well as upon parent milk. 



Col. Skinner — Read extracts from letters from Maryland and De- 

 laware, on the corn question. The ii telligent writers speak of the 

 necessity of preparing corn for exportation by kiln drying as indis- 

 pensable. Without that process corn is very liable to become heat- 

 ed and musty, so as to be unfit for food for either man or beast. The 

 kiln dried corn meal from the Brandywine mills, &c. made from the 

 yellow corn, has almost monopolized the West India trade. The 

 yellow is preferable to the white corn for this purpose. This pro- 

 cess is indispensable if we export corn to Europe. James Candy 

 says that from fifty years experience he has learned the necessity of 

 this process with corn intended for exportation. 



