1870. 



JTEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



25 



UNRELIABLE SEED COHK. 



In this climate, with our small-sized yellow 

 corn, we seldom have any trouble with seed corn 

 where onlinary care is used. But with sweet 

 corn, especially of the large varieties, there is 

 much complaint. One of our neighbors planted 

 a peck last spring, and he thinks that not more 

 than forty kernels germinated. Another esti- 

 mates that not more than half that he planted 

 came up. We never fail to have our sweet 

 corn germinate as surely as the yellow com ; 

 but a little care and pains are necessary to se- 

 cure this result. We select the earliest and 

 largest ears as soon as the husks begin to dry, 

 and trace them up in small traces and hang 

 them in the sun and leave them exposed to the 

 weather at least two months, and then hang 

 them in a dry chamber. Seed corn should not 

 be exposed to moisture, which will cause the 

 chit to swelL A little care in saving seed com 

 •will often prevent much disappointment and 

 vexation. 



The editor of the Prairie Farmer has some 

 sensible remarks upon this subject. He says 

 that varieties that have a large cob are more 

 liable to be injured than those that have small 

 cobs ; that the pith in such cobs retains its 

 moisture so long that it is liable to mould or to 

 freeze, by either of which the chit or germ is 

 killed, even when the body of the kernel is 

 sound. He recommends boring out the pith 

 with a bit, when the cob is very large. This 

 lets the air into the cob and allows it to become 

 dry. 



CLEAN CULTUBE. 

 Notwithstanding all that is said in agricul- 

 tural papers and in Farmers' Clubs of the 

 importance of clean culture, and of the un- 

 profitableness of crops of weeds, we never 

 saw many farms or even fields that were kept 

 clean throughout the season. Like "per- 

 fection," in morals and religion, clean culture 

 with most farmers is, at best, only compara- 

 tive. We confess that in our own experience 

 we seldom succeed in having a place for every 

 plant and in keeping every plant in its place. 

 The theory of clean culture is easy enough, 

 but the practice is so very difficult, that we fear 

 the weeds are increasing on most of our farms. 

 In one of his recent Walks and Talks on the 

 Farm, in the American Agriculturist, Mr. J. 

 Harris says, he thinks bis com field is toler- 



ably clean (the result of two corn crops in 

 succession five years ago, and the thorough, 

 almost the excessive, use of the cultivator at 

 that time, together with its free use this sea- 

 son.) But with this exception, he does not 

 know of a single field of clean corn, or clean 

 potatoes, or clean beans. Even the Deacon's 

 wheat stubble, though there is a fine growth 

 of young clover, is far from clean. This is in 

 Monroe County, "The center of the garden 

 of the Empire State," where good farm land 

 is supposed to be worth, and actually sells for, 

 $125 to $200 per acre. 



Mr. Jason Smith, of Seneca County, N. Y., 

 the home of such farmers as John Johnston, 

 says in a letter to Mr. Harris : — 



In witnessing the operation of a new steam 

 thrashing machine recently, it was disgusting to 

 see how much bulls the feeder had to pul through 

 for the quantity of grain. As a general rule, about 

 one-third of the bulk was weeds — and this on farms 

 the owners of which make some pretensions to be- 

 ing model farmers. Unless we adopt a better sys- 

 tem of farming, the weeds and i?isects will drive us 

 from our farms. I highly approve of your advo- 

 cacy of the practice of summer-ftxllowing, which, 

 if done thoroughly, is a sure, if not the only eco- 

 nomical, means of destroying troublesome weeds, 

 such as the Canada thistle, cockle. May-weed, 

 white and yellow daisies, pigeon weed, plaintain, 

 burdock, ragweed, mustard, quack grass, with a 

 host of summer weeds too numerous to mention. 

 Nearly all of these, except quack grass, can be 

 killed by thorough summer-fallowing in a dry 

 season. 



In contrast with the foregoing, Mr. Harris 

 gives the following pleasant picture : — 



One of my neighbors, a thriving German far- 

 mer, has made the sides of the road smooth and 

 level, and this year mowed quite a nice crop of 

 hay from them. He is doing to well too have any 

 thought of selling, but if he had I am sure his 

 farm would sell for $10 an acre more for having 

 such a lawn-like road-side, and for the general air 

 of neatness and thrift which it imparts to the es- 

 tablishment. 



Too many of us make the road the receptacle 

 for all the stones, sticks, and rubbish of the farm. 

 The thistles come up between the stones. Mow- 

 ing the grass is out of the question. The best we 

 can do is to top off the thistles occasionally. I 

 know of few things that would add so much to the 

 beauty of the country as to have all the road-sides 

 made smooth and level, and have the grass cut 

 with a mowing machine twice a year. 



Sulphur in Louisiana. — Prof. Hilgard, 

 of the University of Miss., who has been on a 

 visit to the sulphur deposit in Louisiana, states 

 that the bed was found to be about 100 feet 

 thick without perceptible change. It is pure, 

 crystaline, semi-transparent sulphur. A shaft 

 of 443 feet once sunk to this sulphur bed, the 

 working of the mine would be easy and in the 

 highest degree remunerative — capable, in view 

 of the difficulty under which the produc- 

 tion of Sicilian sulphur labors, of control- 



