INDIAN COllN. 



307 



the entire surface free from weeds, and open for the admission of the 

 atmosphere. The running of this cultivator, once in each direction, 

 will be found to be more efficient than the ordinary use of the hoe, 

 and at the same time securing flat cultivation. At the fii'st application 

 of the cultivator, or lifting plough, stimulating manures may be used 

 to each hill with safety, and we have known many instances where 

 100 bushels of shelled corn per acre have been produced by the 

 application of two ounces of improved superphosphate of lime to 

 each hill, at the first hoeing or first cultivation. The result seems 

 to be larger when stimulants are thus applied than when placed in 

 the soil before planting. Indeed, when guano, or any other stimu- 

 lating manure is used, it should be at the first disturbance of the soil 

 after the corn is above ground, rather than before the planting of the 

 seed. Some growers prefer to plant the corn in hills as already 

 named, running a universal cultivator, with the two rear share teeth 

 reversed, between the rows, when the corn is three inches high. This 

 throws a light furrow from each row, in which special manures may 

 be applied. A small subsoil plough should then be run with the flat 

 side toward the corn, the wing of the plough removed so that the 

 lifting action of the nose only will be applied to the soil. This should 

 be repeated on each side of the row, so as to disturb the soil to 

 a depth of ten inches before the corn roots are sufficiently grown to 

 be abraded, and this loosening will thoroughly mix the manure with 

 the soil. The rear teeth of the cultivator may then be reversed and 

 run again between the rows so as to replace this narrow furrow, leav- 

 ing the soil flat. In place of a second hoeing, at the usual time, the 

 horse hoe may be run in the opposite direction, clearing the ground 

 of weeds, and leaving the soil clean and pulverulent. The large 

 western corn growers require more simple methods, and less labour, 

 and for their use we can only recommend that after planting the corn 

 by the machine drill, the cultivator or horse hoe, capable of dis- 

 turbing the whole distance between the rows, should be used, instead 

 of the ordinary common hoe, and if this be properly conducted the 

 economy of such practice will be evident. Special manures may be 

 applied in advance of the use of this instrument when necessary. In 

 some cases it may be found profitable to use the lifting subsoil plough 

 in the centre line between the rows, during the early growth of the 

 corn, in place of the cultivator, as this will leave the soil in better 

 condition for after crops by its more thorough disturbance. 



From the official statistics we find the following have been the 

 maize crops of the United States at the several periods of the de- 

 cennial Census : 



Busbels. Bushels. 



1840 377,531,875 1860 838,792,742 



1850 592,071,104 1870 760,944,544 



From the report of the United States Agricultural Department, it 

 would appear that the production of maize in 1874 was 850,148,500 

 bushels. The largest producing States were : Illinois, 133,579,000 ; 

 Iowa, 115,720,000; Ohio, 88,422,000; Indiana, 74,624,000; Kentucky, 

 48,514,000; Missouri, 46,049,000; Pennsylvania, 35,821,000; and 

 Tennessee, 32,000,000 bushels. In the State of Illinois there were 



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