A."«D HORTICUX.TURAL RKGISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, Apbil 3, 1839. 



GREAT PRODUCT OF CORN. 



Wfi publish wiih much pleasure, the fnllowing ac- 

 count of a rHmnrkflble produce of corn in Upper C° nn- 

 da,— reinarkablB and e.Mranrdinary it would be for any 

 latitude or location. The authority is undoubted. We 

 invite the piirlicuhir atieniionof the farmers to the opin- 

 ion expressed, that corn may be forwarded tlir.'e weeks 

 by frequent hoeing?. We believe for g.neral utility, 

 there never was a inon: valunbh: plant came out of the 

 earth, than Indian Corn ; ami we have b,en always 

 anxious thai its cullivation should be rendered as per- 

 fect as possible. We arc yet far from having reached 

 that point. We have novr for two or three years been 

 urging upon our friends Ihe miitler of hoeing their corn 

 very frequently, until the ear in perfectly formed, and 

 keeping the ground, by ploughing and culiivaiing one 

 way, always loose and fresh. We hope some one will 

 at least make the experiment upon a small scale, and 

 for reasons which we have not lime or room at this mo- 

 ment to give, we have no do'jbt tr/at it would be at- 

 tendefl^with the best effecU. We have heard tirat in 

 some parts of the West, forty acres or more of corn are 

 allotted to the care of a man; and as soon as it comes 

 up, he is sent into it with hi.s horse and kept there daily 

 until the ears are perfectly formed ; and this with Ihe 

 greatest advantag.!. We much wish ihat the experi- 

 ment of such cultivation might be tried ; which may as 

 well be done on one quarter of an acre, as on fortv 

 acres. We have the strongest fuiih iu ils success. 



H.C. 

 Montreal, Dee. 20, 1838. 

 Sir,— Yours relatin'r to corn, is duly received —My 

 corn field is •2i)2 by 222 feel, soil gravelly, sliirhtlv tinc- 

 tured with (lay, dry ; old land; this is the seventh crop 

 in succession. Manured each year ; the last spring we 

 spilt the hills, and gathered the roots, and burnt them 

 of the previous ye.ir, ihen put on a good coat of ma- 

 nure, ploughed it in, harrowed and opened the drills 

 wiih a light ploush, 2 1-2 feet apart. 



On the 19lh May, put 1 1-2 bushels of seed in a tub, 

 poured hot wal.-r on until it became loo hot to stir with 

 my hand. 1 let itstee|. about two hours, and then stir- 

 red 111 as much plaster as would adh.ie to the kernels, 

 anil planted the smue day, in hills IG lo Id inches apart' 

 five to seven kernels in a hill. On the 5lh June, the 

 corn was fairly above ihe ground. On the lllh, passed 

 a sinnll plough between Ihe rows lightly, turning the 

 litlle mould that we raised, to the middle, and look 

 great care th:,t every stalk should stand iiprio-ht, care 

 also being taken to move the whole surface" of the 

 ground. 



We harrowed and hoed it, the week following, and 

 again, the week after that. I would here observe, that 

 corn can be brought to maturity {I b. lieve) twoor three 

 weeks earlier, by frequent hoeinp, than liy the old way 

 of hoeing twice. I do not make h gh liill.s, but lightly 

 displace the earth near the corn, and supply ils place 

 with earth from the middle of the rows, leaving ihe sur- 

 face nearly flat. The harrow that I use, is triangular; 

 the sides about three feet long, wilh five teeth or pins, 

 .").8ofan inch square, iron, and a scraper or hoe, 1.5 

 inches long, extending across the heel of the harrow, 1 

 3.4 inch wide, diawn to an edge, turned up at each 

 end, long enough 10 cut the same depth as the pins ; 10 

 steady and give it weight, I put a small plough upon it, 

 making it harrow and cut earth two to ihiee inches 

 deep; the hoe acting same as a Dutch wcedinn- hoe, but 

 by slight hilling, you obtain ihe full benefit of the sun 

 and air lo the roots. 



On the 1st day of September, we cut up at the roots, 

 a quantity for seed ; and on the Gtli ihe remainder of 

 the field, and set it up in stacks to dry or ripen We 

 liusked it out the last week of Sept(;mber, and found 

 wo had four hundred and ten bushels of cars of I'nod 

 sound corn, and thiity bushels ofsn.all ears and^soft 



corn, nearly all of which was dry enough I., grind, 

 making 440 bushels of ears, exelusive of the quaniily 

 gathered for seed, the half of which I sent you in cask 

 Number 1. 



1 have disposed of the pioduct as follows : 

 Shelled 78 bushels, of which 48 bushels meal, •) 

 and 30 in corn equal to 100 bushels, j 



SObushels sent you, ' '*-'■ 



100 bushels sold for se<,d, !" ''"^h- 



85 bushels on hand, I els. 



30 busliels fed to pigs, J 



We attempted lo take off the suckers, but found that 

 we broke down so much corn, that we let them take 

 iheir chance with the rest. 



J^ule.— The gentleman who has been kind enough to 

 hand us the above communication states, that though he 

 put from five to seven kernels in a hill, yet where they 

 came up well, they were selecte.1 and thinned out so as 

 to leave only three remaining, which were deemed suf- 

 ficient, considering thai the rows were only two and a 

 half feet apart ; and the hills only 18 inches. Tlie crop 

 fell a little short of lot) bushels to the acre. 



A quantity of this corn has been received, and is for 

 sale at the Agricultural Warehouse and N. E. Farmer 

 Office, No. 52 North Market Street. Coming so far 

 from the north, it must be a highly valuable acquisition. 



ERRORS. 



"The Rev. Mr Colman who reports for the New Eno-- 

 land Farmer, the lalkings of the farmers who meet at 

 the State House weekly, has greatly mistook our words 

 and our meaning \\\ presume this is all uniuten'ion- 

 al — but we are reported as saying " the tap-root (of ap- 

 ple tree.s) must not be " headed down !" We said the 

 top, or leading shoot should never be headed down alter 

 the tree was taken from the nurseiy at two or three 

 years growth— that the lap-root served to strengthen and 

 support the tree and we saw no advantage in hipping it 



Again, he reports us as saying " that it would be well 

 to take them up and keep them a mouth before setting 

 out, (he did not say that they might get Used to beine 

 kept up all the time.") 



Now could Ihe Rev. gentleman understand us to say 

 any such tiling? If he could it must be because lie is 

 not lamiliar with nursery terms, or nursery practices 



If his reports for the use ol the stale are of Ibis char 

 acter we must go elsewhere for facts." 



The above is from the Boston Cultivator of tho last 

 week and IS sufficiently complimentaiy. iNow we will 

 not be drawn into a controversy with tliis belligerent 

 editor, who seems to have his hands full iu taking care 

 of olheis of his contemporaries. The insinuation how- 

 ever in the last paragraph is such that we shall at least 

 ilive our friends the means of properly estiinatino its 

 force In respect lo many things which are said, It is 

 desirable to know, who says I hem. 



First then, in regard to the " tap root of a tree beiuf 

 headed down" an expression in our report ascribed to 

 Mr B. We have no doubt that he ntleied these words, 

 for Ihe simple reason that our notes of his speech were 

 laken at 'he moment of its delivery ; and without any 

 inclination, indeed with an utter repugnance, to misrep- 

 resent liim, we can only say that we meant to write 

 the identirril words, which fell from his mouth. What 

 his denial of having useil this hinguaf;e is worth will 

 appear in the sequel. We confess that with our " igno- 

 rance of nursery terms and nursery practices" we con- 

 sidered it a pleasant Hiberuianism. We remembered 

 likewise ilrat one of the towns in Middlesex co. some 

 years since voted " to crcet a welt on the town hill ; " 

 arid it was n.U for us lo debati^ wiih any of Ihvliterati of 

 Middlesex in regard either lo mailers of grammar or 

 tasle. Whelher however this was Irish or Gibberish 

 we aiuied to report the gentleman truly ; and have quite 

 as- much confidence in cnt own notes taken at the time 

 as in his recollections of some days old. ' 



In respect to the second charge of misrepresentation, 

 that " it would be well lo take tip trees which were to 

 be transplanted and keep them a month befi)re settinir 

 out," the gentleman on Friday night expressly admit" 

 ted that he used this very language. How does he pre- 

 sume thou to como forward and deny it .' He says that 

 he added thai the roots of the trees should be protected 

 and Ihe trees kepi in a daiiij. cellar until ready to be 



I lamed. Well, we neiiher affirmed nor denied lb, 

 vvuich every child in the country of ten years old ,m' 

 know. Nor did we add that he did not say that tl 

 trees must not be baked, nor boiled, nor rua^led befo 

 selling out. It was n.il nece.-sary that we should eith 

 afhrniordenyanyofihis. He expres..ely stated that it w 

 best 10 lake the tree up and keep it a month beljre 

 s^iould be replanted '■ wu/, fl WCM, /o e/,rck ils eroiclh 

 «ow It we had the presumption to think that in 01 

 homely way we could make him understand the cis, 

 vve should say that this is the point of the whole mane 

 that a tree will flourish better for haziiig its ^roict 

 checked liij removal. We yield entirely his right 10 hi 

 opinion in this case ; but why should he refuse tons ih 

 liberty ol conscientious dissent.' 



From motives of convenience trees are often lakei 

 up in the fall after vegetation has ceased, their 

 carefii ly packed with clay and soil, and Ihey are ke'i^ 

 securely until spring. When trees are to he sent a con 

 sideruble distance, or where the land is not in readnes 

 10 receive, as early as ii is desirable to remove them 

 It IS best to take thein up before vegetation in th, 

 spring commences; and taking care to secure thei 

 roots from injury from light, heal, drought, or frost the 

 may be kept with safety unlil ihe'proper lime of plant" 

 mg Who docs not know this? who denies? who 

 doubts It.' But that as a general principle a tree wil, 

 j^row better 'Jot harini; its growth checked • by beina lak 

 en nut of the ground and not planted again for a month dc 

 wh,at you may with the roots, we cannot without 

 further light admit even upon this oracular authority 

 We have set out with our own hands many hundreds 

 ot trees and with as good success as our neighbors ; and 

 we biiieve that whenever circumstances admit of it 

 It IS decidedly best to replant the tree as soon as may 

 be alter being taken up. So far from its beinu^ neces- 

 sary to check lis growth, we should be glad so'speedily 

 and carefully to remove the tree, that it should not be 

 conscious of getting out of one bed into another : or as 

 the excellent orchaidisl from Watertown, said the 

 other nighi, that " the tree should be removed and nev- 

 Kiiow it." 



We promised lo show in conclusion how, from his 

 w.wi statements, the aulhorily of this writer is to be es- 

 limaled. We have no disposition to question his ve- 

 racity V\ e have no disposition or reason to suggest or 

 tlurik, that he is not a man of truth. We know very 

 well likewise, that iu extempore speaking, a man is 

 sometimes led to say what he does not mean to say 

 and liable to forget what he has said. Where a man 

 however, cannot remember for five minutes what he 

 has said. It is hardly safe fot such an individual to 

 charge others wiih misrepresenting him. 



Now we do distinctly stale, that on Friday evenine 

 last Mr B. did make certain particular statements ai 

 to the depth of ploughing which he deemed advisable- 

 and that when these siatemeiits, in language as near as 

 possible to that which he used, were referred to by the 

 Conimissuner in five minutes alter he had uttered ihem 

 he, Mr B , peremptorily denied having used any such 

 e.xpressions or conveyed any such meaning. Unfortu- 

 nately however, for his recollection, two gentlemen of 

 unquestionable intelligence and veracity, rose at once 

 and declared that lliey understood him to s.ay precise- 

 ly what the Commissioner slated that lie had said. We 

 have likewise the assurance of two other gentlemen of 

 equal respectability, who.^e names are at his service 

 that they also so understood him. We have no doubt 

 we can give him the authority <.f twenty others to the 

 .same effect, if these arc not sufficient. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, we respectfully suggest to him iliat a little 

 more diffidence in charging others with misiepresenla- 

 lion, would not be out of place. We should re"ret to 

 fail in any proper respect towards him. He has^given 

 a go(.d deal of interest to our agricultural meeiinos ; 

 and we have often listened lo him with pleasure .-md' 

 instrucliori. We wish him all pos.-^ible success in his 

 new vocation, and as wide a circulation to his paper as 

 its merits may justly claim. But we give him disiinct- 

 ly to understand, that such insinuations as are contained 

 in the last paragraph of ilie above quotation, are not to 

 be tolerated among gentlemen ; and unretracled, will 

 as far as our humble selves are concerned, effectually 

 secure him from all misrepresentaiion, and from anv 

 representation or notice whatevei. H. C. ' 



The communication from .^gricola, relative lo the 

 Report of the Alassachusetts Agricultural Society on 

 Farms, will appear in our next, together with an an- 

 swer from one of tho committee. 



