AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 243 



Mr. Thomas W. Field, of Brooklyn, thought that Indian corn 

 would be a profitable crop near this city, on account of market; 

 so that we can beat Illinois at that. 



Solon Robinson — I like the gentleman's theory about the 

 corn! But I understand he raises instead of that, wheat! 



Prof. Mapes — I think the most profitable crop is carrots. I 

 can grow 110 bushels of corn per acre, but I can't afford to grow 

 it, because I can do better by growing something else. I have 

 sold |200 worth of rhubarb from three-quarters of an acre this 

 spring; expect to get another $100, and this crop don't take as 

 much work as a corn crop. I can get 1,000 bushels of carrots 

 per acre, and sell them at fifty cents a bushel ; parsnips this year, 

 sixty-one cents; beets, seventy cents a bushel. The tillage of an 

 acre of carrots costs no more than an acre of corn ; the manure 

 f 12 50 an acre. I do all the work by teams and machines, 

 even the digging. My crops are all better than corn at 110 

 bushels an acre. 



Mr. Field — All crops are profitable to a right mind — one that 

 cultivates with skill. But all cannot be market gardeners, how- 

 ever good they may be at ordinary farm crops. I don't think 

 that one man in six that tries, raises a good crop of carrots. I 

 know men who grow rhubarb, five or six acres in a piece, that 

 yields $500 an acre. But all men cannot raise rhubarb, or the 

 market would be overstocked. I noticed one of the great rhu- 

 barb growers on the island plowing up a part of his plot, because 

 he had got more than he could attend to and sell profitably. 

 But you cannot raise too much corn. What we want to know 

 is, what is the crop that all can grow to profit with ordinary 

 skill, and that is Indian corn; because, if properly cured, the 

 stalks are worth $25 or $30 an acre for feed, if properly cut and 

 wet, and sprinkled with bran, and cows and horses all eat this 

 feed and fatten. The top stalks are worth as much per 

 ton as hay anywhere, and the grain here will average $1 a bushel. 

 In Illinois it is worth eighteen or twenty cents, and the stalks 

 nothing. 



John G. Bergen — As one crop, I think the potato crop more 

 profitable than corn, but I would not advise any farmer to confine 



