244 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



the corn is set up. Early in October the wheat 

 is sowed and ploughed in with a small plough, 

 four furrows in each row. Late in the fall the 

 corn is gathered, husked on the stalk ; and to- 

 wards the end of winter the cornstalks are cut 

 down and left on the ground. After the wheat 

 is housed, the field is pastured until the next 

 spring by stock remaining on it day and night. 

 Under this management this field has certainly 

 not deteriorated, and I am inclined to the opinion 

 that it has improved. I have watched it for 

 years, and am satisfied that the produce of corn 

 and wheat continues above the average. 



There is in the neighborhood another, who is 

 celebrated amongst us as a good farmer, who 

 lives comfortable, and is, I presume, most pros- 

 perous. His land is the very best of upland, 

 heavy timbered, beach, sugar, walnut, and pop- 

 lar land. It is a saying of this gentleman, Mr. 

 B., which is often repeated here, that with him 

 wheat does best when sowed amongst corn. — 

 This Mr. B. has rich new land ; but he always 

 has some of his fields in clover, which he pas- 

 tures with hogs ; and thus undoubtedly keeps 

 up the fertility of his soil in such manner that 

 he cultivates, and successfully, the largest sort 

 of corn raised in this county. 



These gentlemen are both very good farmers ; 

 they plough deep ; they work their corn tho- 

 roughly ; and they do all things at the right 

 time. 



If P. B. cut up his corn, took stalks and 

 shucks off the land, and if the stock, which 

 was pastured on it, were taken off at night, un- 

 doubtedly it would deteriorate. 



Those who have cultivated clover and pas- 

 tured it with hogs or cattle know that the land 

 becomes stocked with clover seed, which will 

 germinate whenever the proper condition occurs. 

 If a clover field is broken up and planted in 

 corn, the clover will grow amongst the wheat, 

 nearly as thick as if it had been sown. And 

 however the growth of the clover may be kept 

 under by the pastures of the stubble, the roots 

 will remain in the ground and some of the stocks 

 and leaves above all, with the manure from the 

 stock pastured on it, to enrich the soil for another 

 crop. In this manner, doubtless, the natural 

 fertility of Mr. B.'s rich land is constantly pre- 

 served, perhaps increased ; and under such cir- 

 cumstances the corn may be a necessary prepa- 

 ration for the wheat. Besides, Mr. B. is too 

 good a farmer and too sensible a man to starve 

 the goose that lays the golden egg for him. — 

 He takes the largest sort of ears and lots of 

 them out of his corn field, but generally leaves 

 all else. It is well known that on strong clay 

 lands wheat is apt to fall. This undoubtedly is, 

 because on such land there is not convenient for 

 the wheat a quantity of silex proportionate to 

 the other sorts of food at hand. Now there is 

 in cornstalks a large quantity of silex duly pre- 



pared for the wheat. The corn seems to have 

 the faculty of extracting a sufficiency of silex 

 from soils on which the wheat for want of this 

 ability will fall. And, if I am correct in this, 

 this may be another reason why, with Mr. B., 

 wheat amongst corn does best. 



I have often heard of a Sullivan county far- 

 mer, on rich clay upland, who has his whole 

 farm all the time in corn, wheat, and clover. — 

 He sows his wheat amongst the corn, and the 

 clover he did sow on the wheat as long as ne- 

 cessary ; now it comes without sowing. This 

 gentleman's neighbors continually tell me that 

 his crops of corn, wheat, and clover are always 

 good, and, as he and they think, are regularly 

 improving. He too undoubtedly leaves his stock 

 on the ground. 



Excepting the above three cases, I do not 

 know of any like regular success with wheat 

 sown amongst corn. I often hear of good crops 

 of wheat thus sown, but I more often hear of 

 such crops failing ; sometimes straw fallen, 

 sometimes rusted, but more often both. 



And excepting the above three cases, I do 

 not know of any farm, in an improving state, 

 on which the wheat is sown amongst corn. 



Most generally those who sow wheat amongst 

 corn cut it up, before or after the wheat is sown, 

 shock it in the field and feed it out during the 

 winter to stock. In other words, the whole 

 produce of the corn field is taken off of the 

 land. This may do on the corn fields of New 

 England — corn fields of two and three and four 

 acres, so small that it is practicable to manure 

 them well ; but it is ruinous with our crops of 

 twenty and thirty and more acres of corn. We 

 cannot make the manure, and if we could we 

 cannot command the labor that would be neces- 

 sary to spread it. The offal of our crops, once 

 taken off of the land, cannot be returned to it. 

 Land thus managed must become poorer each 

 year. 



If the corn is cut before the wheat is sown, 

 and hence the liability to rust is increased. If 

 the wheat is sown amongst the standing corn, 

 it may be sown soon enough, but there are many 

 other difficulties. Unless the land was well 

 ploughed in the spring it will not be in the pro- 

 per state to nourish a crop of wheat; and, un- 

 less the corn was well and properly worked so 

 as to keep down the weeds, it will not be possi- 

 ble to sow the wheat early nor to plough it re- 

 gularly, hence the produce in quantity will be 

 small and in quality irregular. 



Sam'l Judah. 



Yincennes, Aug. 24, 1846. 



No less than ten thousand barrels of onions 

 are raised annually in the city of Salem and 

 the adjoining town of Danvers. 



