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NEW ENGLAM) FARMER. 



Nov. 



beauteous and harmonious plan. It was evident- 

 ly the intention of the Creator that animal and 

 vegetable life should everywhere exist together, 

 80 that the baneful influence which the former is 

 constantly exercising upon the air, whose purity 

 is so essential to its maintenance, should be coun- 

 teracted by the latter. — Cornhill Magazine. 



HUSKENQ AND SOKTINQ CORN. 



There is no other department of farm business, 

 probably, so slovenly and wastefully performed, 

 as that of husking and putting away the Indian 

 corn, — that profitable and beautiful crop upon 

 ■which all, both man and beast, may almost entirely 

 subsist. In a season like this, when we come to 

 the middle of October without a nipping frost, and 

 the preceding month of September has been full 

 of bright, hot days and warm nights, all the crops 

 have come to maturity, and the corn has so thor- 

 oughly ripened, it may be said that much pains 

 in preparing it for winter is not necessary. What 

 we say upon the subject, however, is for general 

 application, and not for particular cases. There 

 ■will not be many seasons like the present, when 

 all the cereals, corn, vegetables, fruits, and even 

 the new wood of the trees, have ripened into a 

 maturity that makes the crops as perfect in qual- 

 ity as they well can be. 



The last autumn was the reverse of this. It 

 was rather wet, frost came early in September 

 that prostrated the tender vines, and on the night 

 of September 30th "there came a frost, a killing 

 frost," that froze the grapes solid, partly froze 

 apples on the trees in low places, and laid low all 

 that was left of the green array of autumn in 

 dreary decay. This frost found the corn in an 

 unripe condition, with the husks about it so green 

 as to cause them to cling to the ears and become 

 slippery, and in this state it was difficult for even 

 west winds and cloudless skies to bring it to ma- 

 turity. The consequence was, that where unusual 

 pains were not taken, the corn moulded in its 

 bins, or on scaffolds, and had to be removed at a 

 considerable loss of labor and of grain, and what 

 remained would scarcely retain the true and pe- 

 culiar flavor which Indian corn ought to possess 

 before it has been "heated in the pile." 



In order to prevent all this, corn must be prop- 

 erly husked and sorted, before it is put away. 

 Standing by a bin of corn once, we heard a farm- 

 er say, — "This is, certainly, the handsomest bin of 

 corn I ever saw," — but he had raised just as good 

 that season himself — the only diff"erence in the 

 crops being in the manner of husking and sort- 

 ing it. In husking he had left many silks upon 

 the ears, together with the tips not filled out with 

 corn, and frequently butts ranging from half an 

 inch to one or two inches in length ! The only 

 separation made in the crop was to take away that 



portion of the ears which was decidedly green, 

 and only partly grown, and which is usually de- 

 nominated "pig corn" — the rest being thrown 

 promiscuously into the bins. 



The i)ractice of his neighbor, at whose corn he 

 was looking, was quite a different one, and was 

 as follows : The directions given to the buskers 

 were, to clean off all the silks, break off the tips 

 that had no grain on them close down to the corn, 

 and to take the butts off in the same way. The 

 corn was then thrown into a pile in some clean 

 and convenient portion of the barn — the husking 

 being done in the evening — where the sun and 

 air could reach it, where it was allowed to remain 

 a longer or shorter time, according to the degree 

 of ripeness which it had attained. In some cases 

 one day would be enough — in others a week would 

 be required before it would be safe to put it, in 

 any considerable quantity, into bins. When it 

 was thought sufl[iciently dry, a careful hand was 

 selected to sort it. He made three grades, as fol- 

 lows : 



1. The ripe and dry corn. 



2. The unripe corn, no matter how large and 

 beautiful the ears, and those that were small 

 and imperfect, and too green to be dried read- 

 ily under favorable circumstances, — making up 

 what is commonly called "pig corn." 



3. Those ears which were only partially filled, 

 were scarcely "out of the milk," and should be 

 fed out to fatting cattle or swine as fast as they 

 are collected ; for they will remain sweet but a 

 very short time. 



These three grades are carefully observed by 

 the sorter, taking away all bits of husks, silks 

 and butts that were left upon grades one and two 

 by the buskers. If some of the butts are found 

 too strong to be broken with the hand, he uses a 

 small hatchet for the purpose. In this manner a 

 considerable amount of moisture is taken away, 

 which might endanger the keeping of the corn 

 unless it is in a perfectly ripened condition. Such 

 a bin of corn as this, all vermin being kept out, 

 will remain sound and sweet for years. The sec- 

 ond grade is of a conglomerate character, pre- 

 senting well filled, but not fully ripened ears of 

 a foot in length, and so on down to the merest 

 "nubbins," together with broken and unsound 

 ears. This lot should be used first, always se- 

 lecting the greenest portions, so that they shall 

 not delay the ripening process in that remaining. 

 When corn is put away in this manner, it is al- 

 ways an attractive and gratifying sight, — for of 

 all the favors of Ceres, none is more pleasant to 

 the eye than that of the Indian corn ; and the 

 farmer who pursues this course will never find 

 himself apologizing to his brother for the mean 



