1S67.7 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
135 
Yitas, that being the most common evergreen of 
the region. "Within this inclosure he could raise 
the grape, the peach, and other fruits that 'would 
not mature outside. The effect of the screen 
■was to give his garden the climate of New York. 
There can be no doubt of the economy of 
planting screens in cold climates around gar- 
dens and orchards, wherever there is sufficient 
room for them. A screen, unlike a hedge, does 
not require close planting, and not much shear- 
ing or attention of any kind, after it is once 
established. As to the plants that will serve 
this purpose, deciduous trees are better than 
nothing, but the}- are not nearly so effective as 
evergreens; and if one is to be at the expense of 
planting it is better economy to plant the best. 
There are several varieties of evergreens that 
make perfect shelter, and we should be govern- 
ed in their selection mainly by the cost of the 
plants and the facility of transplanting. "We put 
at the head of the list the Norway Spruce, and 
this conifer has been so extensively imported for 
SCREEN OF NORWAY SPRUCE. 
the last dozen years or more, that almost eveiy 
well established nursen - has a large stock, and 
they are as cheap as any other tree. Man}' nur- 
series have evergreen trees fit for no other pur- 
pose than screens, or to be cut up for stakes and 
poles. The Hemlock is another admirable tree 
for this purpose, and if we could find plants 
that had been properly grown, we should pre- 
fer them to the Norway Spruce. The foliage is 
more beautiful, they are a perpetual feast to the 
eye, but unfortunately they are exceedingly im- 
patient of removal. It is rare to find a nursery- 
man that knows how to giow a Hemlock, and 
hardly ten per cent, of plants taken from the 
woods, with ordinary treatment, will live. Next 
to this we place the American Arbor Vitae, 
which is abundant and easily transplanted. 
The "White and Black Spruce, and the Red Ce- 
dar, also, make good screens. So much de- 
pends upon keeping the roots of evergreens 
moist during transportation that we should be 
governed mainly by location and price in select- 
ing any one of the varieties here mentioned. 
If the soil is rich enough to bear sixty bushels 
of corn to the acre, it will require nothing but 
mechanical preparation — plowing with the sur- 
face and subsoil plow. It will pay to loosen 
the soil to the depth of eighteen inches. If en- 
riching is called for, use no fresh manures, but 
a compost made of peat and ashes, or muck and 
lime. Ashes arc always a good dressing forever- 
greens. The distauce of planting will be de- 
termined somewhat by the size of the trees, and 
the immediate objects aimed at. With Norway 
Spruces ten or twelve feet high, an effective 
shelter may be made at once. We have suc- 
ceeded admirably with trees of this size, losing 
less than five per cent. — planting them so that 
the limbs justtouched. They were put out, wilh 
good balls of earth, the same day they were 
taken up. It is safer, however, to plant smaller 
trees, and closer together, even if you have to 
take-out the alternate trees two or three years 
later. A screen for an apple orchard may be 
left to grow twenty-five or thirty feet high, and 
in th'is case the trees should be at least ten feet 
apart to give the requisite strength at the base. 
The screen will require much less attention than 
the hedge, but it is good policy to keep the 
ground cultivated for a few years after the plant- 
ing, and to bring out the bottom limbs well by 
shearing those above. All the different kinds of 
evergreens we have named bear the shears well, 
and can be readily trained in the way they 
should go, with a little timely attention. 
Smallness of Cob Very Desirable in 
Seed Corn. 
The selection of seed corn is one of the most 
important things which a farmer does at this 
season. Coarse cobs accompany late matur- 
ity, as a rule ; fine cobs, well tipped out, in- 
dicate perfect maturity, adaptation to the season 
and soil, and a fixedness of character which it 
is important to maintain. The curing of corn 
takes place to a great extent after husking, and 
the presence of a great, soft, moist cob in each 
ear gives a tendency to mold, which should be 
seduloush- avoided. The old experiment of fit- 
ting a paper cone to an ear of corn, then with- 
drawing the ear, shelling it and returning the 
kernels to the cone, is interesting and instruc- 
tive. If the kernels will all go easily into the 
cone, the cob is too large, and we should say, 
the corn unfit for seed. The cone should be 
made of brown paper, dampened, bound tightly 
around the ear, coming no higher than the 
kernels, but covering all ; the ends are trimmed 
off, and it is allowed to dry before the ear is 
drawn out. One may easily judge by the eye 
which ears have the smallest cobs — those which 
are best tipped out, which have the kernels in 
the closest rows, and all the rows running un- 
broken from end to end. These ears will not 
be found among the biggest round, nor among 
the longest, usually, but among those of medium 
size. A friend used to say, as he showed off his 
seed corn, " every ear as regular and solid as a 
white-oak piu." And so they were, as nearly as 
corn ears could be, firm, close, hard and solid. 
Cotton Culture. 
BY F. G. DWIGHT. 
[Our offer of two premiums for prize essays 
upon this subject has been responded to, and the 
first premium has been awarded to Joseph B. 
Lyman, a recent cotton planter in Louisiana, 
and the second to F. G. Dwight, whose expe- 
rience has been in the Atlantic Seaboard Cotton 
States. Both essays will be probably published 
in one volume, in season for the next year's 
operations. For the immediate benefit of our 
readers in the cotton growing districts, and of 
the large class who are contemplating a removal 
thither, we give in this issue the first of a series 
of articles culled from these essays. —Eds.] 
Bedding Ur. — After the fields have all been 
plowed the work of bedding commences. One 
hand leads off with a scooter plow, and marks 
rows, running through the whole length or 
width of the field ; others follow with turn 
plows, and throw two or more furrows on each 
side of the marks, making a slightly elevated 
bed, the number of furrows to be turned de- 
pending on the width of the spaces between the 
rows. A small water furrow is left between the 
beds to serve as a drain after heavy rains. 
Where the land is not likely to wash, and there 
is a good deep subsoil to readily absoib rains, 
flat culture is often practiced. In this case the 
land is thoroughly plowed as before, and if pos- 
sible cross plowed, bedding up being dispensed 
with until seeding time, when slight beds are 
thrown up in the process of planting. 
Cotton Rows.— In marking out rows, it is 
recommended that they should be laid out east 
and west, in order to be as much as possible ex- 
posed to the sun at all hours of the day— cotton 
being of all others a hot weather plant. This 
distinction can be observed on level ground, or 
such as is slightly rolling, hut where there is 
much fall, attention must be paid to safeguards 
against the land washing. On hilly lands, curves 
should be followed around the sides on a level. 
The probable productiveness of the soil must 
determine the distance between the rows; the 
poorer the soil the nearer should they be. On 
land that is not well known to be very good, 
it is safest to let the distance be about 20 inches 
or two feet, so that in getting twice as many 
rows on poor soil as would be put on land ad- 
mitting of four-foot distance, the difference in 
the yield of a crop grown on good and only 
tolerably good land would not be very great. 
Planting.— The cotton plant in its early 
growth is very tender, particularly when in a 
crowded state, it cannot withstand frost and is 
even very sensitive to cool weather. As early 
planting is generally recommended and will be 
found to be the most successful, caution must 
be exercised not to plant too early. To replant 
is discouraging work, involving much loss of 
time. In the Gulf States from the 25th March 
to the 10th April is the usual planting season. 
Details. — The hands that are selected to 
drop the seed must be furnished with bags or 
" wallets " large enough to hold about half a 
bushel of seed. These are suspended at the 
right or left side by a rope or strap over the 
shoulder. With the scutcr plow, a seed furrow 
is opened to the depth of three or four inches in 
the middle of the bed, the hands following the 
plow and dropping the seed as even as possible. 
Careful supervision is needed. The best of the 
freedmen are not easily impressed with the im- 
portance of dropping the seed regularly. They 
soon get careless, and if you are not on the 
alert, the young plants will come up in patch- 
es. Light furrows are thown towards the 
opened row to cover the seed, one on each side. 
If left in this condition the seed would be cov- 
ered too deeply; and after one field is planted, 
the wooden scraper, fastened to a plow stock, is 
drawn over the seed row, taking off all uneven- 
ness of surface, removing the excess of cover- 
ing, and leaving the bed in a neat condition, 
somewhat elevated above the water furrow. 
En Flat Culture, where there has been no 
previous "bedding up," the seed furrows are 
opened at proper distances. Seed dropped and 
covered as before ; then successive furrows are 
thrown towards the seed row until the space 
between the rows is plowed up, leaving a shal- 
low water furrow midway between the beds. 
Again, on very good land, and where the soil 
is in fine working order, the labor of plowing 
previous to planting is sometimes dispensed 
with. This " short cut " way, however, is not 
to be recommeirried. Whenever this must be 
done, the process is simply to open furrows at 
the proper distauce apart, drop the seed and 
cover as before. One or two furrows are then 
thrown up with the turn plow lo complete a bed, 
and the middle broken out with the sweeps; the 
wooden scraper being used to level off the beds. 
Yorn Personal Supervision. — Every day 
during "planting season" is necessary to look 
after the furrow opening, planting, covering, 
plowing and scraping off. Permit no careless- 
