134 [Assembly 



plowed but three or four inches deep. Suppose, instead of going 

 over such an Atlantic of domain, tha gentleman had properly cul- 

 tivated one thousand acres, plowed them deep, and manured it. 

 He would have derived much more corn — say 130 bushels to the 

 acre, instead of forty — with less labor and far greater satisfaction, 

 saving more than three square miles of plowing, handling and 

 hauling the grain when harvested. In growing this crop it would 

 be well to remember that to plant it later than the 1st of June is 

 H waste of seed and ground generally — for the reason tliat the blue 

 rays of the sun, which are the most favorable to the germination 

 of seeds, give way at this season to the yellow rays, during the 

 action of which the leaves are formed and increased. The red rays 

 follow in the fall, and ripen the golden grain. 



Were it not for the expense, I would confidently recommend 

 all farmers to form their manures into a liquid for this crop, and 

 indeed for all others, as we know every plant that grows — from 

 the most minute fivefinger vine to the gigantic forest tree — is 

 composed of distinct cells, every one of which is a separate struc- 

 ture and has an independent vitality, depending upon external 

 gaseous nourishment and other food in a liquid form, which per- 

 meates through the entire plant in the same manner that moisture 

 spreads through a sponge; when one extremity of it comes in 

 contact with water, soon the whole mass will be wet. You may 

 try a pretty experiment thus, if you doubt: Sprinkle the soil in 

 which a white hyacinth is growing, with the liquid of the Phyto- 

 tolacca decandra, and in less than two and a half hours, the flowers 

 will be red, and no injury will accrue to the plant. In three 

 days, if the sun is permitted to shine upon it, the purity of its 

 former appearance will return. 



Corn should be sown broadcast f )r soiling, and fodder fur win- 

 ter. Last June I sowed twenty-four bushels on six acres, and 

 ploughed it under, after which the brush harrow was run over it, 

 followed by the roller. It grew finely, when half the field was 

 turned down. It was cut the second day after turned, the fourth 

 day raked into winrowSj and the fifth day carted into the barns 

 and salted. The yield was estimated at 5^ tons to the acre. Cows 



