A'OL. XIII. KO. 3}. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



291 



INDIAN CORN. 



To the Editor of the New Englnnd Farmer. 



Sir — Having lieeii oCten requested botli liy 

 scientific iuiil practical farmers, to ])ul)lisli my 

 iiictiiod of growiiig Indian Corn, I take the liberty 

 to offer tu the public, tliroiigli your useful .Tour- 

 iial, the J\'cw England Farmer, a few practical 

 Ijiiits to young corn-<;rowers. The reader will 

 readily perceive, that 1 am more used to handliiis; 

 tlie plough and hoe than the pen, consequently he 

 will excuse me, if I should now and then make a 

 haul/c with the latter. In this, I shall give the 

 result of my experience, in raising corn on green 

 sward, so called. 



I plough as late, or as near to ])lanting in the 

 spring as possible, so as to tin-n under as much 

 growth of green grass, as I possibly can, which 

 will immediately ferment, and help to decompose 

 the old fog and sward, which makes the best of 

 food for the latter growth of the corn. I usually 

 plough one day, and plant the next, in the follow- 

 ing manner ; I commence on the further side or 

 longest way of the field ; after ploughing one day 

 or so, I cart on to the furrows, and drop in 

 heaps, at the rate of about twenty ox cart loads of 

 ^'ood compost manure to the acre ; thirtyfive bush- | 

 ds I call a load: dropped into six heaps the 

 distance of the cart and oxen apart, each way, 

 from centre to centre, will about do it. After drop- 

 ling two rows of heaps, 1 spread the manure as 

 !ven as possible, then harrow it over twice with a 

 igbt harrow, then roll with a heavy roller, which 

 '. consider very important, as the harrow i)artially 

 noves the tnaunre with the soil, the roller levels 

 he surface, and presses the manure into the soil, 

 vhich prevents in a great measure its wasting, 

 dtber by evaporation or the wind. I then furrow 

 'ery sljullow, calculating my rows three feet and 

 I half from centre-to centre ; as sward land should 

 ilways be worked lengthwise of the furrow, it is 

 lot necessary to furrow but one way, as all bar- 

 owing, ploughing, and hoeing the cro|>, should 

 le done lengthwise, so as not to disturb the sod. 

 f I iiave a plenty of manure, I then drop into the 

 iirrow in the hills, about eighteen inches apart, a 

 mall quantity of manure. In dropping the corn 

 1 very nice operation) after leveling the manure 

 Kith my foot, I strew from six to eight kernels 

 ingthwise of the hill, in nearly a straight line, 

 taking the hill about ten inches long. The 

 dvautage of having the corn in a line is, you can 

 ass with the plough or cultivator, (the latter I 

 onsider much the best) near the corn, without 

 isturbiiig it, which I consider very important, 

 t the first dressing, I pass twice in a row with 

 le cultivator, taking care to shave close to the 

 irn each time, then follow with the lioc, and 

 top around the corn, for tlie purpose of killing 

 le weeds, and loosening the soil ; taking care not 

 ' draw any earth up. At the second and third 

 ■essing, 1 pass with the cultivator or plough 

 ithiu about eight inches of the corn, and chop 

 ith the hoe as before, earthing up a very little, 

 y about one inch each time ; taking care to thin 

 It the weakest plants, leaving from four to six 



each hill. Immediately after the last dressing 

 sow about one pound of turnip seed to the acre, 

 will state some of the advantages of plaining at 

 e time of ploughing. You make clean v.ork, 

 3 the old saying is among farmers) by beginning 

 I the further side of ti:e field, all the carting of 

 nnure, and passing, will be on the gra.ss, which 



easier and better, than passing over ploughed 



land. Likewise at that season of the year, cattle 

 !ire generally weaker than at any other time, there- 

 fin-e, ploughing, one day, and planting the next, 

 relieves them very much. Also by planting im- 

 mediately after ))loughing, the corn will get the 

 start of the weeds, (larticularly, if it has been 

 soaked twentyfour hours in a we.'ik sohition of 

 nitre, and then mixed with ashes, so .as to separate 

 thely before planting. 



I ]>lant the early twelve rowed kind, which J 

 name the Phinney corn, having first obtained the 

 seed from E. Phinney, Esq. a first rate farmer in 

 the town of Lexington, which I consider the best 

 I ever planted, although I presume I have planted 

 twenty different kinds, tliat I have received from 

 different parts of the country. The ears are long, 

 the kernels we]! set, and the cob better filled out 

 than any other kind I ever saw. Take two ears 

 of equal lengths, one a twelve, the other eight 

 rowed, the twelve rowed ear will contain nearly a 

 third more shelled corn than the eight. The 

 stalks are very small and short, particularly the 

 to|)s ; consequently the ground is not so much 

 shaded, which is a great advantage to the turnip 

 crop. 



The practice of spreading the manm-e on the 

 sod, before ploughing, I do not approve of. I 

 give my reasons : in 1828 or 9, I i)Ianted a field of 

 about four acres, in the way and manner I have 

 described, exce))t a strip or band about two rods 

 wide through tlie middle of the field, on which 

 I spread the same kind and quantity of manure 

 before iiloughing, that I did on the other ; and the 

 after management was the same as the rest of the 

 field. You could see the difference in the corn, 



cut his two tons of hay to the acre, for three or 

 foiu- years to come; which will more than pay 

 him for the trouble of reading this and trying the 

 expirimcnt. Daniel Chandler. 



B , Jilarch IClh, 1S35. 



N. B. If you [daiit fallow ground, either spread 

 the manure on the furrows, or harrow it in, or 

 put the corn muler the dung. D. C. 



in every stage of its growth. Come to harvesting, 

 the ears were not so large nor so well filled out. 

 The next spring I sowed the field down to grass 

 without disturbing the sod ; the seed took well, 

 and I had a fine crop for several years after. For 

 two or three years after, the grass vv'as smaller on 

 the strij) where the manure was ploughed in, after 

 which you could not perceive much difference in 

 the crop. The experiment led me to observe 

 more particularly the difference between spreading 

 manure on or near the surface, or burying it deep. 

 I am aware that it is said by some, and some very 

 good practical farmers, too, that you cannot bury 

 animal manure ; that the gases will always rise to 

 the surface, which I will admit they do in some 

 measure ; but the juices, the most important part, 

 which way do they go ? up or down? I say 

 down ; and a good ways down, in some soils. 

 For instance, where a large heap of manure lies 

 over winter in the field, after moving the same in 

 the spring, if you take it U|), and then manage the 

 spot the same as other parts of the field, without 

 ploughing or putting on any manure, you will 

 have a large crop. On the other hand, if you 

 plough the spot deep, after moving the heap of 

 manure, the crop will be small, comparatively 

 speaking, tmless you manure the same as you do 

 other parts of the field. 



Now, Mr Editor, if any of your .subscribers will 

 try my method of raising Indian corn, with a 

 good kind of seed, on a tolerable good soil, and 

 manage the whole process skilfully, in a good 

 husbandlike manner, and the season should be as 

 fiivorable as the hist was, if he don't rai.se from 75 

 to 100 bushels of corn to the acre, and 200 bushels 

 of turnips, besides pum|ikins and beans if he 

 plants them, I will tell him how to make compost 

 and manage his field ncit season, so that he can 



Turkey Track.s. — A slab of red sandstone was 

 pointed cut to us the other day, which had im- 

 pressed upon it to the depth of about Iialf on 

 inch, four imkiitations, bearing a precise resem- 

 blance to the tracks of a turkey. The correspond- 

 ing upper slab was .-ilso shown us, which also 

 bore fiiur tracks standing out from the surface, 

 and which evidently had fitted in to the indenta, 

 tions of its in.ite with the utmost accuracy. The 

 fair inference was-, that two antediluvian turkeys 

 or other birds of similar structure, had raced over 

 this stone at some period in one of the earliest of 

 the long ages which were consiuned in iis deposi- 

 tion and consolidation ; thus leaving a trace 

 which remained iiiiiiijuied while the whole earth's 

 poles were unfixed, and continents were buried 

 in the tide. 



The slabs we have been describing were found 

 at Montague, two or three miles this side of Sun- 

 derland, on the bank of Connecticut River, a 

 hnndrcd feet above the water. 



Indications of the kind above mentioned arp 

 Ibund quite often in the new red sandstone forma- 

 tions extending through that part of the valley of 

 the Connecticut River which lies between New 

 Haven and the north line of Massachusetts. Fos- 

 sil plants have been found in if, according to 

 Hitchcock, at Hadley, at Sunderland, at Hoyt's 

 quarries in Deerfield, and a few rods south of the 

 County jail in this town. 



About thirteen years since, the bones of a ver- 

 tebral animal, aboutfive feet long, were discovered 

 imbedded in the thickness of eighteen feet of sand- 

 stone, at East Windsor, in Connecticut. The 

 remains of fish have been discovered in the shale 

 on the banks of the Connecticut at West Spring- 

 field, Deerfield and Sunderland. Sunderland 19 

 the only place where they can still be procured, 

 and there are found in vast quantities. These fish 

 are such as dwelt neither in lakes, rivers, nor 

 fresh water ; but such as are only found in tropical 

 oceans. 



The same remarkable fact holds true as to the 

 vegetable fossil remains discovered at Westfield, 

 &c. All go to prove, in the language of the dis- 

 tinguished author of the Massachusetts Geological 

 Report, that "this delightful valley, which now 

 forms .so cheering a resilience for man, once con- 

 stituted, and for an immense period, the bottom of 

 a tropical ocean, where gigantic Gorgonete, cer- 

 tainly ten, and perhaps tv/enty feet high, formed 

 coral groves, and Fiicoida; more numerous, flour- 

 ished." — Franklin Mercury. 



Medical Prize Qdestion. — The Medical 



Society of the state of New York at its recent 

 meeting, adopted the following as its prize ques- 

 tion, for tho current year: — The ivfluence of 

 trades, professions, and oceupations, in the United 

 Stales, in the production of disease. A premium 

 of $50 is offered for the best Dissertation, to b<i 

 aeut in by the Isl December, 1835. 



