366 CEREALS. 



and got 26J barrels per acre that year. The next year he 

 broke it very deeply, harrowed and rolled it. He scattered 

 300 pounds bone-dust and harrowed it in. He then laid it 

 off in drills thirty- two inches apart and scattered 200 

 pounds superphosphate in the rows and planted the corn on 

 it, one and two grains, ten inches apart. The corn was 

 "yellow." This was on May 17, and on the 4th of June he 

 found the corn did not come up well, so he dragged and 

 replanted, and on the 10th, still with many missing hills, 

 he plowed it. 



On 17th, plowed, hoed and plastered weak spots. On 

 30th, dragged, plowed and thinned. On 4th July, hilled 

 with a potatoe plow, and occasionally thinned where corn 

 showed weak until it began to silk. 



These experiments are copied simply to show what can 

 be effected by scientific attention to the production, and we 

 leave it to the intelligent reader, especially that class who 

 are in the habit of renting, if it is not better to rent five 

 acres and put on it the expense usually given to twenty, if 

 the returns will be the same or more? Land at $-5 per. acre 

 would give a sum at least of the difference rented, 

 making seventy-five dollars ; this sum, or a portion, ex- 

 pended on manures and applied would, with a little extra 

 work, make the five acres more than equal to the twenty. 

 And then the proud satisfaction of having the best corn in 

 the country would be a laudable ambition dear to any man's 

 heart. 



Before leaving this subject let the necessity of close, 

 heavy and inexorable thinning be impressed on every one. 

 No one can be a judge of the necessity like the farmer. 

 After he has once thinned his corn, if he sees any of the 

 stalks showing signs of distress go into it again and again. 

 If not thinned there will be a certain failure, as many men 

 will find to their cost who wanted to make large yields and 

 did not use judgment in thinning out. 



Corn should not be gathered until several frosts have 



