66 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



Feb. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 , THE BROWir, OR KING PHILIP CORN. 



In the A^^ew England Farmer of the 15th De- 

 cember, Mr. Stearns suggests some experience 

 and inquiries in regard to the Brown or King 

 Philip corn, which has been a sulyect of much 

 praise in the Patent Office Reports and other jjub- 

 iications. This wide spread praise of the merits 

 of this corn is not in accordance with my experi- 

 ence and observation. Many years ago, Mr. Hill, 

 in his Mnntlthj Vifiitor, was much interested in 

 this corn, and set forth its valuable properties in 

 his paper prominently. One of my neighbors, de- 

 sirous of obtaining it, employed me, through the 

 mail carriers, to get half a bushel of the seed from 

 Mr. Brown, of Moultonboro', N. H., for him, for 

 which I paid a high price. The kernels of corn 

 were very large and fair, as fine as I have ever 

 seen. My neighbor gave me a quart or two of the 

 corn, which I planted, and he the rest. It was 

 planted on good warm corn land, in good, but 

 not high cultivation. We were both much disap- 

 pointed that the corn did not come up well. From 

 ten to twenty, and perhaps twenty- five per cent, 

 of it, did not vegetate. The stalks grew tall, but 

 not stout, and the corn was not large or sound. 

 We found it late, compared with common seed, 

 and not well eared. A few years before, a Mr. 

 Chadbourne, of Cornish, gave me some corn to 

 plant, recommending it as productive and early. 

 I tried it, and it failed in both particulars. Mr, 

 Chadbourne subsequently informed me that his, 

 that year, did the same. I was not then acquaint- 

 ed with the Brown corn, now frequently called 

 the King Philip corn. After seeing and trying 

 the corn we got from Mr. Brown, I was satisfied 

 it was the same I had received of Mr. Chadbourne. 

 Some four or five years since, at our York county 

 agricultural and cattle show at Saco, some tresses 

 of corn raised, it was said, on light land in Saco, 

 were exhibited. Some of the King Philip corn 

 and some of the Dutton corn. There was a wide 

 difference against the King Philip kind, though 

 both were raised in the same field, and with the 

 same cultivation in every respect. 



These facts, and others of a similar character, 

 have produced a strong impression on my mind, 

 that the King Philip or Brown corn, which I be- 

 lieve to be the same, is neither early or produc- 

 tive. I cannot account for its failure to vegetate, 

 when it looked so full and fair ; but I afterwards 

 made the acquaintance of a Mr. Davis, I think his 

 name was, in Bangor, who had migrated from 

 New Hampshire, at the loMcr end of Winnipiseo- 

 gee Lake, who told me that, at his father's, whose 

 farm, I think, was on an island in the lake, they 

 got their seed corn one year from Mr. Brown, and 

 came near losing their crop in consequence of its 

 not vegetating. He spoke of the corn with much 

 disparagement, and I think he was correct. 



Corn, in a very few years, will change material- 

 ly and become acclimated, not only in time of 

 ripening, but in other particulars. I have noticed 

 this in many instances. The Canada corn, in a 

 short time, will lose its earliness, unless care is 

 taken to prevent it. The corn I now plant was 

 originally the Canada eight-rowed seed, planted 

 in Maine on the Passadumkeag, and thence on 

 the Aroostook, whence I obtained it nearly twen- 

 ty years ago. It has much improved in produc- 



tiveness, very little eight rows, but ten, mostly 

 twelve, some f(;urteen and some sixteen rows. I 

 have preserved, in a great measure, its earliness 

 by cutting up my seed from the best and earliest 

 stocks in August. This practice seems to have 

 the effect of short seasons in hastening the plant 

 to early maturity. A Mr. Friend, in Alfred, many 

 years ago, pursued this practice with our old- 

 fashioned eight-rowed yellow corn, till his became 

 about two weeks earlier than his neighbors, and 

 was known and sought for as the Friend corn. 



Mr. Stearns speaks of his corn changing color. 

 This I believe is common, and one of the changes 

 of climate. Some kinds seem to amalgamate or 

 hybridize with other varieties, and others mix on 

 the cob with different kernels of different colorand 

 composition. Probably corn is susceptible of 

 great improvements in a course of experiments in 

 hybridizing, carefully made with various varieties. 



I make these suggestions to put farmers on 

 their guard against high pretensions of specula- 

 tors in seeds of really no value. 



RuFUs McIntire. 



Parsonsjield, Me., Dec, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HARD TIMES— THE FARMER. 



Hard times ! hard times ! I don't know what 

 we are going to do, or what will become of us ! 

 These expressions I hear a dozen times a day, or 

 something of the same import. And truly the 

 times are hard, for our mechanics and most labor- 

 ing men feel the pressure to a greater or less ex- 

 tent. There ever will be dull and hard times to 

 those who depend upon the employment of others 

 for their daily bread. Still, wealth would not be 

 wealth, unless there were those willing to sell 

 their labor for the sake of obtaining some of it. 

 But I do not propose to discuss a question of po- 

 litical economy, but to remind the farmers who 

 take the New England Farmer of their happy lot. 



Every man likes to feel independent, to feel 

 that he is not dependent upon A, B, or C, for 

 his daily bread, and the comforts of a home, and 

 that the nod of a nabob conveys no fears to him 

 wiiether he shall have them or not ; and if there 

 is such a thing as a free and independent man, 

 it is he who owns and tills his own broad acres. 

 What cares he for the excitement and turmoil of 

 the political world ? Not that he feels no in- 

 terest in these things ; not that he does not love 

 his country and this glorious Union, founded as 

 it was by the tears, cares, wealth and blood of 

 his fathers, the best of all governments. No, not 

 these, for he feels and knows that he is one of 

 that great army which make up the "bone and 

 sinew" of all this greatness, which demagogues 

 of the present day would rashly tear in pieces ; 

 but ere it is done, this ••bone and sinew" must be 

 consulted, or they "boast in vain." Happy will 

 it be, if the present "excitement" and pressure of 

 the time, shall cause the thousands of young men, 

 who contem|)late, or have left their quiet farm- 

 home, to rush to our cities and larger towns for 

 the purpose of "making haste to be rich," to 

 pause and count the cost before the disappoint- 

 ments of life compel them to do so ; and when 

 they would fain do so, the good old homestead 

 has passed iuto other hands, and those who had 



