192 TRANSACTIONS OF TI?E AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



July 30, 1860. 

 Present, 50 members. Mr. G. H. Hite in the chair. 



The question of corn cultivation was called up and discussed 

 at some length and continued. 



Solon Robinson read the following extract of a letter, and 

 made the annexed remarks : John H. Hilton, of Batavia, JejQfer- 

 son county, Iowa, writes as follows about corn cultivation : 



"Can some of your scientific farmers give me some information 

 on plowing corn when it is earing? Some farmers here plow 

 their corn always when it is earing, and others again cultivate it 

 well till it tassels out, and let it rest. I cannot see how cultivation 

 will benefit corn when the roots collect in such quantities as to 

 choke the plow. Could not the American Institute Farmers' 

 Club discuss the matter? I want more light. 



To this I answer, "and so does the whole country." It wants 

 more light upon the question of cultivating Indian corn; for not- 

 withstanding it has been cultivated ever since the Pilgrims landed 

 at Jamestown and Plymouth, their sons are still in the dark 

 about the best way how to do it. The old Indian mode of hilling 

 up the loose earth around the stalks, was a mere thing of circum- 

 stances by which they were surrounded, and like a great many 

 other men before them our sires and their sons became imitators. 

 They never stopped to inquire or think why it was done. Now 

 my correspondent is not disposed to travel in the dark because 

 others do. He wants to know if growing corn can be benefited 

 by plowing among the stalks after they have grown so large that 

 their roots fill the soil and the ears are setting. Who can tell ? 

 Those who practice that way will say it does. I say, does any 

 one know, by careful experiment, Avhether it "will or not ? My opin- 

 ion is that the corn ground should be prepared by very deep 

 working before the corn is planted, and it may be once after it is 

 up, but not afterward. I am in favor of using the sub-soil plow 

 upon all corn land. It is the best tool ever used for marking the 

 rows, though I have seen a ^ood substitute used in Virginia, in 

 the form of an ordinary coulter, with the point a little turned up, 

 which was run sixteen inches deep on the bottom lands of James 

 river, simply to mark the rows. The seed planted over this 

 crack ha's a tendency to send its roots straight downward, where 

 after cultivation will not reach them. 



