1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARilER. 



315 



yield of corn than mine the same season. I have 

 seen forty loads of manure spread on sward land 

 and ploughed under with no manure in the hill, 

 and an inferior crop of corn, not more than twenty- 

 five or thirty bushels to the acre. Finally, I have 

 never seen a large crop of corn without manure in 

 the hill. 



Seed in my opinion is a matter of much import- 

 ance in raising corn, but I will defer that subject 

 for the present. j. h. 



Shrewsbury, Mass., May 1, 1S70. 



CHEESE FACTORY. 



One of the largest and nicest cheese factories in 

 the country is being built in Shoreham, Vt. It is 

 to be thirty by eighty, and three stories high. It 

 will be suflScient for manufacturing the milk of 

 the 600 or 800 cows which the neighborhood is 

 capable of keeping. It was started by a young 

 man by the name of Adin Perkins, who came into 

 the neighborhood last fall, and purchased a small 

 place of about seventy acres, and has taken $500 

 of the stock in the factory. Operations are to be 

 commenced by the middle of May, and Mr. Per- 

 kins is to take charge of it. His farm and his sit- 

 uation in the factory is equal to a city salary of 

 $5000, and is probably no better than can be ob- 

 tained in many other places by competent and ex- 

 perienced cheese makers. What a great blessing 

 it would be if the thousands of young men scat- 

 cered through our country, who are healthy, intel- 

 ligent and reliable, would follow this young man's 

 steps and take hold with energy to help build up 

 theese, butter and other factories, in the midst of 

 farmers, instead of crowding into the city, with a 

 vague hope of avoiding poverty and hard work, 

 where so few realize their expectations and where 

 so many utterly fail, and die in hopeless poverty. 

 ■So young men consider well the situations and 

 opportunties that are offered at home. 



Shoreham, Vt., April, 1870. Looker On. 



ONE HUNDRED AND TEN BUSHELS OF CORN FROM 

 AN ACRE. 



On 120 rods of land I raised eighty-three bush- 

 els shelled corn, being about 110 bushels to the 

 acre. The land had been to grass about eight 

 years. Was ploughed in the fall, manured in the 

 spring, with common barnyard manure, spread 

 broadcast at the rate of six cords to the acre. 

 Put into each hill of com a small handful of 

 Bradley's Superphosphate, or about 300 pounds to 

 the acre; hoed three times thoroughly. The 

 above corn is a very superior variety of the twelve 

 rowed, pronounced by all to be the best ever raised 

 in this town. • Nathan G. Pierce. 



Westminster, Vt., April 30, 1870. 



Remarks. — Doubts have been so often expressed 

 by farmers as to the possibility of raising one 

 hundred bushels of "shelled corn" on a single 

 acre of land, that we regret that Mr. Pierce was 

 tlA more explicit in his statement as to the man- 

 ner of measuring both the land and the crops in 

 this case. 



premiums for INDIAN CORN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Time is short for offering advice on corn plant- 

 ing, but, the letter in Farmer of 23d of April from 

 J. I). Lyman, Esq., prompts me to trouble you 

 with a line on the preparation of the land to re- 

 ceive the seed. Manure well; plough '■'deep" 

 keep clean by frequent ploughing and hoeing, and 

 if there is not a great competition for Mr. Lyman's 

 premiums I shall be sadly mistaken. Last year I 

 ploughed my land for corn with heavy oxen, as 

 deep as the point of plough beam would allow, 



— turning in the manure and black soil, — bringing 

 up the clay to the top, and the result was such a 

 crop that none of my Irish, Dutch or French neigh- 

 bors could begin to think of comparing samples. 

 A deal of my corn grew fifteen feet high, had 

 three ears on one stalk, with sixteen to twenty rows 

 on an ear, — which measured from ten to twelve 

 inches long. A result which I think was owing to 

 my reversing the system practiced by a great 

 many farmers out West, — / hauled the manure on 

 to the latid instead of removing my stables. I wish 

 Mr. Lyman or any other Mr. Somebody Else would 

 make such significant oS^is up in northwestern 

 Illinois for the growing of corn. My com is the 

 big yellow Horse Tooth, and was tipe and cut 

 sixteen or twenty days before the first frosts in 

 Septeml>er. I have many applications for seed 

 from Iowa and Wisconsin. John Whatmore. 

 Bridgnorth Farm, Dunleiih, 111., AprilZQ, 1870. 



when to sow grass seed. 



It has been the practice of most farmers to sow 

 grass seed in the spring, with wheat, barley or 

 oats. This will do if the land is in good condition 

 tion to seed down in April or early in May. But 

 when the land is too wet to work until late in 

 in May or early in June, it is better to sow 

 grain without grass seed, and when the grain is 

 taken off, plough in the stubble, put on the manure, 

 sow on the grass seed, and lay the land down 

 smooth. It is better for the following reasons : — 



1st. The young grass will make a more vigorous 

 growth than when sown late in May, with gram, 

 because the grain will grow up quick and over- 

 power the young grass, which will be but feeble at 

 best. And when the grain is taken off, it will 

 sometimes die out by drought and the heat of the 

 stin, and if it does not die it will make but a sickly 

 growth. 



2d. The land is generally dryer in August, and 

 in better condition to seed down, and it puts the 

 stubble out of the way, and farmers have more 

 time to do the work well. 



3d. Farmers can grow their own seed for less 

 than half the present high price. 



Therefore, farmers that have land in grass, and 

 no grass seed on hand, would do well to wait until 

 grass seed grows before seeding down, and let 

 speculators keep their seed for their own use until 

 they are glad to sell at a fair price. d. jj. 



Amherst, N. H., April 18, 1870. 



FARMING, PRICES, &C., IN IOWA. 



Having been raised to farming and then engag- 

 ing in various pursuits for many years, I am 

 again on the farm, and to get and impart informa- 

 tion that will facilitate that busmess in a practi- 

 cal manner is my desire. After traveling through 

 parts of many of the Western States, with a view 

 to location, I pitched my tent in northern Iowa, 

 as the best, all things considered. Having resided 

 here near twenty years, and given some atteation 

 to matters generally, I am of the opinion that 

 northern Iowa presents more and better induce- 

 ments to the industrious farmer than any other 

 place under the sun. Our climate is healthy ; our 

 crops scarcely ever fail ; our soil is unsurpassed 

 for fertility ; our stock is healthy and thrifty ; our 

 fruit is abundant, especially of the smaller kinds; 

 our railroad facilities are being pushed forward, 

 so that in a few years our butter will not be sold 

 for twenty cents here and fifty cents in Boston, 

 and other products at the same ratio. Our wheat 

 bins are now groaning under the heavy burthen 

 of last years' crop, forty to seventy cents a bushel, 

 not being sufficient inducement to them to drop 

 their burthen. Unlike the State of Maine our 

 legislature should offer premiums to our farmers 

 to raise less wheat and more potatoes and other 



