1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARjMER. 



193 



For the New England Farmer. 

 12 KOWED AND 8 KOWED CORN. 



Mr. Editor : — In the N. E. Farmer of Janua- 

 ry 19th, I find an article by "Massapoag" giving 

 the results of some experiments, from which he 

 infers that 12 rowed corn v/ill yield 30 bushels to 

 the acre more than 8 rowed. 



If I understand his figures, his estimate would 

 make the yield of the larger variety 175 bushels 

 to the acre, at 50 pounds to the bushel, as he es- 

 timates it, or 146 at 60 pounds to the bushel, 

 (the weight of such corn as we grow here,) a crop 

 which I should rather see than hear of. Again, 

 he allows no more room for a large 12 rowed va- 

 riety, than for a small 8 rowed, when, in fact, it 

 requires wider planting nearly in proportion to 

 its size. 



The proper method of comparing the two, 

 would be by shelling a bushel of ears of each 

 kind and weighing the product, or if they v/ere 

 grown separately, by measuring and weighing the 

 product of an equal area of each. 



So far as my experience goes, the 12 rowed va- 

 rieties will not, here in Massachusetts, mature as 

 many bushels of ears as some of the 8 rowed, and 

 I have never found them to yield any larger pro- 

 portion of shelled corn than some of the latter, 

 the King Philip, for instance, while the larger 

 cobs, which they almost always have, require con- 

 siderably longer time to dry, and of course, there 

 is more danger from early frosts before harvest- 

 ing, and warm damp weather after it is got into 

 the crib, and this I think without any compensat- 

 ing advantage, unless it be that the 12 rowed is 

 ■worse to shell. 



There is one point, however, on which I am 

 ready to agree with "Massapoag," that the largest 

 variety of corn that will mature 

 fully, is the most profitable to raise, 

 not only because I think it will give 

 a better yield, (a point, however, 

 which some of our farmers do not 

 admit,) but also from the smaller 

 amount of labor required in its cul- 

 tivation. What variety to plant 

 must depend upon the location, na- 

 ture of the soil, and the amount and 

 quality of the manure. 



The King Philip is as late a va- 

 riety as I can safely plant on my 

 best corn land, while a neighbor 

 succeeds equally well with a variety 

 two weeks later, because his land 

 has a warm southern exposure, while 

 mine slopes a little in the opposite direction, 

 and lies a little lower, thereby being a little more 

 exposed to frost ; again, in other parts of this 

 town it is necessary to plant a variety two weeks 

 earlier than the King Philip, a difference which is 

 mostly due to the cold nature of the soil. 



Ashfield, Feb., 1861. AVm. F. Bassett. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TABLE OP COMPARATIVE BULK. 



It would often be useful to the person who ap- 

 plies manure or other top-dressing to land, to 

 know the comparative bulk of what he applies, 

 to the soil on which he puts it. 



If one foot in depth of soil on one acre of land, 

 should be measured in a bushel measure, we 

 should find thirty-five thousand and three bushels. 

 If weighed, we should find twenty-seven hundred 

 and fifty-seven tons. If dried in an oven, to ex- 

 pel all the moisture, it would then weigh two 

 thousand and sixty tons. If taken off in an ox 

 cart, it would be all carried away in one thous- 

 and and twenty-one loads. If measured in cords, 

 there would be three hundred and forty. 



These numbers are set down in the first line 

 of the table under the appropriate words. 



To ascertain the average weight of soil, I ex- 

 amined the weights of different kinds of soil as 

 given by Weisbach, Mosely, Law, Hitchcock and 

 Dana, and adopted the weights given by Dana as 

 the most accurate average for our ordinary farm 

 soils. He gives the weight of a cubic foot, 

 thoroughly dried, as 94.58 pounds, which, in its 

 ordinary wet state would weigh 126.6 pounds 

 which shows that soil will absorb and retain more 

 than half its bulk of water. This agrees very 

 nearly with my own experiments. About one- 

 fourth of the bulk still remains unfilled with soil 

 or water, and is occupied by air. 



The "load" as commonly spoken of by farmers, 

 contains one-third of a cord, being 42f cubic 

 feet, or about 34^ bushels. The horse cart em- 

 ployed in road building, contains about 18 cubic 

 feet, or less than half of what is known among 

 farmers as a "load." 



TABLE. 



Tons in Tons in 

 Ordinary Dry 

 State. State. 



Loads. Cords. 



In 1 acre 1 foot deep, 35003 

 ■1 Husliel, Ton, — ^_x 



Load, or Cord, 



TTboH 



1 



1 1 6FF 



l_ 

 WTb 1 



_l_ 

 Too 1 

 _ 1 



5¥3T 



_ L 



bOOtJ 



] 

 4Tf 5 



2757 2060 

 i_ 



2 7 5T 



^I 



1 J79 



551 



_j 



a4 5 



1_ 



ioy(T 

 1 



^87' 

 _J._ 

 5 15 

 _1 

 4 iS" 

 L_ 



^4 a 



2"m¥ 

 I 



2-5T 



2i'd 



1021 



1 

 It) ST 



1 

 "5T(J 



2"55 

 1_ 



2 04 

 1 



TTcT 



_J. 



14F 



12^ 

 _J__ 



1 1 S" 



340 



, ofthebulkin 

 ■y 4 (> one acre. 



17^7 



_i- ii 



113 



57 



4^ 



4J 

 1 (( 



The force with which a solid body, falling 

 upon a solid surface, will strike, is equal to the 

 ■weight of the body multiplied by the square root 

 of sixty-four and one-third times the hight in feet 

 of the fall. A body faUing through one foot, 

 strikes with eight times its own weight. 



1021 

 5 



Suppose you have a piece of meadow land, 

 measuring for instance, five acres, and wish to 

 know how many loads of sand will be required to 

 cover the entire surface two inches thick. As one 

 acre 12 inches deep contains 1021 loads, 5 acres 

 will contain 5 times as much, or 



and as 12 inches is 6 times as much 



as 2 inches, divide by 6, 6'\5105 loads, 



and we have 851 loads, 

 as the quantity required. 



Suppose you apply 72 bushels of ashes to an 

 acre, how does it compare in bulk to the soil ? 

 1 bushel equals -5-5^^0-3, then 72 bushels -will equal 

 T^^iTS' which can be reduced to a smaller fraction 

 of neai-ly the same value by dividing the numer 



