372 CEREALS. 



ing a large compost heap. Only have a barrow at the barn 

 and let it be the business of one hand, while the others are 

 feeding and currying, to gather with his shovel all the 

 droppings of the stock, both in the stables and barn yard, 

 and roll it to a central point and place it in a covered pen 

 provided for the purpose. In the fall he can add forest 

 leaves, weeds from the fence corners, and occasionally throw 

 over the whole a layer of earth, and by spring he will have 

 a compost heap that will, as far as it can be put on his land, 

 double his- crop. And he cannot do better in the spring 

 than to start early enough to draw every corn stalk, left 

 standing, into the barn yard to make manure for the next 

 year. It is only by close attention to these details of farm- 

 ing that a man can derive any benefit or pleasure from 

 country life, for surely, without profit there will be little 

 enjoyment. 



The depth of soil over a grain of corn should not be 

 more than one and a half to two inches. If planted ve.ry 

 early still less. Corn planted six inches deep will rarely 

 come up, at five inches it will come very sparingly. At 

 one inch corn will come up in seven or eight days with suit- 

 able weather, at one and a half inches in nine days, and at 

 two to four inches it will require twelve or eighteen days, 

 in early spring. 



A great stimulus was given to the cultivation of corn 

 by the failure of 1874, the average that year per acre being 

 only 20.7 all over the United States. The cultivation of 

 cotton the next year dropped down amazingly, and corn 

 arose. The average per acre the next year was 29.4 bush- 

 els, but then the price went from . 64.7 cents per bushel, in 

 1874 to 42 cts. in 1875. So that the increase in breadth 

 being about ten per cent, brought no corresponding increase 

 in value of the entire crop. Tennesse, from having former- 

 ly been a large cotton producer, has become a grain State. 

 The proportion of corn to all the crops in the State is 45 

 per cent., cotton 15 per cent, and other crops 40 per cent. 



