NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



341 



From the London Farmers' Journal. 

 Sir — You probablj' know that farmers are in 

 he habit of Manuring land by tiie eye, and in 

 hat way are liable to mistakes. I have found, 

 a the Complete Grazier, a valuable table, and I 

 ircsuming the calculation to be accurate, I think 

 : ts publication may be very useful. 



i remain, your's, &c. 



East Greeimich, March 27. 



J'The following table for maauring land, is ex- 

 tracted from an English work entitled the 

 Complete Grazier: 



No. of loads per acre. 



Explanation of the first t'jso rows of figures in the 

 preceding table. 

 The number of heaps, consisting of one load 

 each, laid at five yards distance, is 193 to cover 

 DDe acre ; at two heaps to a load, 96 ; at three 

 fteaps, 64 ; at four heaps, 48 ; and so to the end. 

 •lach of the following rows is to be read in a 

 limilar manner. 



NEW ENGLAND FARxMER. 



SATURU.^Y, MAY 24, 1823. 



The Farmer^! and Gardener^ Remembrancer. 



M.\Y. 

 Indun Corn. — In our last, page 334, we gave 

 ome observations respecting the best mode ol 

 lanting this valuable article. We now propose 

 pursue the same subject. There has been 

 ome dispute among farmers whether it is best 

 plant it in ridges, or on single furrows. We 

 will just give some authorities in favour of the 

 idge cultivation, and then state what has been 

 irged against it. In the Reports of the Agricul- 

 ural Society of New Haven County we have 

 he following statements. 



Mr. Mallet, of Milford.—'-'- When I plough my 

 and for Indian corn, / always lay it in ridges, 

 whether it be sward or mellow, and plough the 

 >ialks up to the ridges, and those ridges I never 

 listurb by cross ploughing, while my corn is up- 

 on the land. 1 am fi.Uy convinced by my own 

 :xperience, and that of almost all my neigh- 

 Jours, who pursue the same method, that one 

 ifth more of corn, at least, will be raised in this 

 iDanner than in any other upon the same land." 

 Mr. Hulbruok, of Derby. — " Upon experiment, 

 . find the method of ploughing land for Indian 

 ;orn, heretofore recommended to the Society by 

 tfr. Mallet, to be the best 1 pursue. I lay all 

 ny-laod of every kind, in ridges, when I intend 

 t for Indian corn, and plough the balks clean, 

 laj them to the ridges, before planting ; I never 

 ■s disttirb those ridges by cross ploughing. Any 

 person can see by looking at the part of my 

 field, which 1 have treated in this way, and at 

 mother part, of the same field, that was cross 

 ploughed, that the part lying in ridges has much 

 ; '.he advantage. 1 have always had evidence the 

 jj! same way upon experiment." 

 jj.) Judge ChauHcy, of Xexi> Haven. — " I have 

 ,,'■ planted two acres of Indian corn this year. I 

 ,. ploughed iu the maoner recommended by Wr. 



Mallet. The land has been mowed for five 

 years past, and the sward is very tough. My 

 crop is better than any of my neighbours have ; 

 and they agree with me that this method has in- 

 creased it one third. From three years experi- 

 ence of this mode of ploughing Indian corn, I 

 am fully confirmed in the opuiion that its ten- 

 dency is highly beneficial." 



S. W. Pomeroy, Esq. in an able treatise on 

 " Indian Corn, and its Culture^'''' expresses his 

 opinion in favour of ridge cultivation as follows. 

 " Having a large bed of Beets planted in narrow 

 rows, or drills, in the usual way, and a severe 

 drought ensuing, the leaves were observed, in 

 the middle of the day, to wilt and fall down, in 

 all but the out-side rows, which remained erect 

 and flourishing; and when the crop was taken 

 up, were nearly double the size of those from 

 the centre of the bed. That a greater expo- 

 sure to the atmosphere was the principal cause 

 could not be doubted; and the idea immediate- 

 ly presented, that if they had been cultivated on 

 ridges, so far apart as to permit a plough to pass, 

 it would in effect, be making the whole crop 

 out side rows : and for upwards of fifteen years 

 since, all the arable crops upon my farm have 

 been cultivated on ridges, with manifest advan- 

 tage — as to product, labour, and the unquestiona- 

 ble improvement of the soil."* 



On the other hand. Judge Peters, of Pennsyl- 

 vania, in his " JVoticcs for a young Farmer,^^ first 

 published in the "Memoirs of the Philadelphia 

 Agricultural Society," says — " Unless its situa- 

 tion and circumstances forbid lay your cornfield 

 level rather than iyi ridges, that moisture, in light 

 soils especially, may be retained, instead of pas 

 sing away, and if necessary, draw water-furrows, 

 lo carry off accidental flooding, by rains or other 

 causes." Col. Powell, of Philadelphia, a very 

 able practical as well as scientific cultivator, 

 says, " Among the various practices into which 

 we have been seduced by the plausible theories 

 of the advocates of British systems of husbandry, 

 there is none which appears to me more absurd, 

 than that which has led us to drill, or dibble our 

 crops on ridges. The English farmer wisely 

 contends with the evils produced by too much 

 rain — the American husbandman should as anx- 

 iously guard against his most formidable enemy 

 drought. 1 am inclined to think there is no crop 

 cultivated in this state, which ought not to be put 

 upon a flat surface.''''] In England, we believe 

 the ridge cultivation is less used than formerly, 

 notwithstanding the dampness of the climate. J 



Notwithstanding the above mentioned appa- 

 rent clashing of opinions, we believe that both 

 parties may be correct. An able writer of a 

 " Treatise o» Jigriculture^'' originally published 

 in the Albany Argus, in discussing the question 

 of the different modes of ploughing [level or 

 ridge ploughing] which is to be preferred, ob- 

 serves that " This question admits of no abso- 

 lute answer. Stiff, heavy, wet clays, and in our 

 opinion, all ground in which clay predominates, 

 whatever be the culture should be made to take 

 this ybrm ;" [that of ridge ploughing] "because 

 it powerfully tends to drain the soil and carry 

 off from the roots of the growing plants, that su- 

 perfluous water, which, left to itself, would se- 

 riously affect both the quality and the quantity 



of their products.* In sandy, porous, dry soils, 

 on the other hand, level ploughing is to be pre- 

 ferred, because ridging such soils would but in- 

 crease that want of cohesion, which is their nat- 

 ural defect. 



"A loamy soil [which is a medium between 

 these two extremes] ought, in a dry climate, to 

 be cultivated in a fiat way, that it may better 

 retain the moisture ; and in a wet climate, in 

 ridges, that it may the sooner become dry." 



Wc perceive that some writers on this sub- 

 ject have confounded the distinction between 

 the cultivation of corn in rows or drills, and in 

 ridges. We have before observed that corn 

 planted in drills will yield a greater product 

 than that which is planted in hills. This fact 

 was establihcd by an experiment made by Oli- 

 ver Fiske, Esq. and detailed in the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Repository, vol. vi, p. 224. 

 Mr. Pomeroy says, " If the land is in good heart 

 and the manure abundant, the kernels may be 

 six inches apart [the rows being five and an half 

 feet apart] or as many dropped together [in 

 each hill] as to insure four stalks to remain two 

 feet apart, [from hill to hill] in which case the 

 manure is deposited conformably, either meth- 

 od will give the same number of plants to the 

 acre ; I think four stalks together afford support to 

 each other against winds, and are not so apt to send 

 up Slickers as when single.] In putting the seed 

 corn into the hills be careful that the kernels 

 do not stand very near together lest the roots 

 interfere too much with each other. Dr. Sam- 

 uel Black, of Delaware, advises to plant corn in 

 such a manner that the rows may run directly 

 north and south. In Gen. Hull's mode as detailed 

 page 265 of our paper, furrows were drawn 

 north and south three and an half feet apart. JVo 

 ridges were formed. Hills were then made with 

 the hoe in these furrows two feet apart, not 

 flat but descending to the south with a small bank 

 on the north sidt of each hill for the purpose of 

 giving the young plants a fairer exposure to the 

 sun. 



Mr. John Stevens, of Hoboken, N. Jersey, 

 raised on an acre 118 bushels and two quarts: 

 and was confident that he should have had a still 

 larger crop, had it not been beaten down by a 

 thunder storm. He ploughed his land three 

 times before planting, and before the last plant- 

 ing, put on, (as report says) no less than 700 

 horse cart loads of street manure ; and planted in 

 double rows at 5j feet between each set of doub- 

 le rows, and dibbled in each kernel in such a 

 manner that the plants were 8 inches apart in 

 the rows, and stood diagonally. In order to per- 

 form this with expedition he bored two rows of 

 holes in a piece of board four feet long, so as to 

 form equilateral triangles the sides of which 

 were 8 inches thus 



Into these holes he drove pegs about 3^ inch- 

 es long, fitted a handle to the board, and, with 

 this simple machine dibbled the holes, in which 

 the corn was dropped. A man followed with a 

 basket of well rotted dung, with which he filled 

 the holes. Then came on the carts, out of 



*Ma3S. Agricultural Repository, vol. vi, p. 156, 157. 

 t See page 277. 



X See an article headed Mangel Wurtzel, New Eug- 

 laad Farmer, page 28. 



* " It has been objected to ridge ploughing, that it 

 accumulates the good soil on the crowns of the ridgcj, 

 and iojpoTerishes the sides and furrows. These objec- 

 tions are obviated by narrow and low ridges, which 

 alternate every crop with the furrows." 



t Haas. Agricultural Itepository, vol. vi, p. 150 



