THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 29 
teryal.s when convenient. Nothing more was 
done, to them until we commenced pulling in 
Nuyember. The crop measured 2355 bushels. 
I will here remark, that when the salt fish was 
used the year previous, it was .strikingly visible 
at some distance^ the tops being ot a darker 
hue, higher and more vigorous, and they con- 
tinued so through the summer, and on raising 
we found them thicker and longer in the neck 
and smaller in the bulb, showing that salt will 
increase the top at the expense of the bottom. 
The greater part of the crop was .stowed in 
a cellar — the remainder was put in heaps in the 
field, for feeding my ews when they lia 3 '’e lambs 
in the spring. The heaps are made in the fol- 
lowing manner, which I never knew to fail 
when they were properly attended to. A trench 
six feet wdde, of any length required, and one 
foot deep, is dug in a dry situation, generally 
on a knoll; the roots are thrown into this trench 
and piled up in the form of a roof. A coat of 
.straight straw of from eight to ten inches in 
thickness, is put on in such a position as to con- 
duct the water off, if any should reach it. Earth 
is now thrown on by digging a trench around 
the heap, beginning at the bottom and going 
around until the whole is covered. The earth 
wall press the straw, which prevents its running 
through to the roots. A coat of ten to twelve 
inches in this climate is sufficient for our com- 
mon winters. I'he trench will prevent the wa- 
ter from getting into the heap. There is more 
danger of getting the covering too thick than too 
thin. 1 have suffered more from heat than frost. 
After the earth is all put on, it should be care- 
fully clapped down with the spade, to make it 
more efiectually shed the rains. After a few 
days I take a crowbar and thrust it in the top 
along the ridge down into the heap, no matter if 
j^-breaks some of the roots, and open holes about 
gt^^ree feet apart, to let the gas or vapor off, which 
generated by a partial fennentation. A flat 
stone, raised a little on one edge, set up an inch 
or two, or a wisp of straw may be put into the 
holes to prevent the rain from getting in. which 
completes the work for the winter. 
With me the ruta baga is a valuable crop. — 
They afford the greatest quantity of food for my 
stock, from an acre, while they seem to exhaust 
the land less and leave it in the best possible 
condition for a succeeding crop. It is too rich 
for oats, but well calculated for barley, and clo- 
ver seed always “takes well,” sown with it. I 
feed them to my cattle, sheep, hogs (boiled,) and 
occasionally to my horses. For calves, the 
first winter, they are very valuable, keeping 
their bowels open and loose; they will grow and 
thrive without running too much to fat; their 
coats smooth and gloss\ , and continue to grow 
through the winter, and “go to gras.?^ in ..fine 
condition, by which they gain at least six moiifhs, 
in their growth over those wintered in the com- 
mon and ordinary way. Heifers wintered in 
the above manner will answer to come in at 
two years old. I have one now in my yard that 
will not be two years old until January next; she 
had a calf last March, and has been rnilked ever 
since, and I cannot perceive that her growth has 
been retarded in consequence, and she is now as 
large as common three year olds. 
C. N. Bement. 
Southern Planter. 
Soap Suds. — There is no better manure than 
dirty soap suds; and there is not a farm house in 
the countiyq but what produces enough of it in 
the course of a }"ear, to manrrre a garden, trvo 
or three times ov'er. Dirty suds, after washing, 
is almost universally tlrrown into the nearest 
gutter to be washed away and wasted. Worrld 
it not be an improvement, and show a laudable 
economy in the good woman of the farm house, 
to have it conveyed to the garden to enrich the 
groirnd, and make the vegetables grow more 
lujcuriantlyl The potash, the grease and the 
dirt, all of which are component parts of soap 
suds, are first rate manures, and should always 
be applied to make plants grow, and e.specially 
when hard times are lorrdly complained of and 
■jouird ecQiromy is the order of the day. 
BIPROVEJIENT OF INDIAN CORN. 
I have several times, within the last fourteen 
3 'ears, .called the attention of the agricultural 
public to the subject of improving Indian nom, 
without, so far as I am informed, having induc- 
ed a single experiment to be made. This .shall 
not deter me from making another effort, how- 
ever. At the present time there is not a single 
variety of corn that has not some objectionable 
quality, and not one bad quality that may not 
easily be got rid of. One variety is excellent in 
every quality except its lateness in ripening: an- 
other is early enough, but its grain is too small 
and its cob too large for profit; another is too 
flinty, another too chafiy, &c. Every com plant- 
er will agree with me that it is important to 
have a variety of com that will ripen early, that 
the ground may he occupied by a crop of wheat 
or other winter crop, and that the corn may be 
housed, {and marketed, if desirable,) early in 
the sea.son. But I neednot dwell on the qualities 
that are desirable, as thej" will readily suggest 
themselve.s, 1 therefore proceed to state, that 
any farmer may make anj- or all of the follow- 
ing changes in his com. If it be too late in ri- 
pening, but possesses every other desirable qual- 
ity, he can readily make it early; if it be suffi- 
ciently early, but objectionable in other qualities, 
he can readily improve those qualities. And all 
this too by a means just as .simple as that ofan\' 
other agricultural process. 
Corn has the male andfemale organsin differ- 
ent flowers on the same plant. It is called by 
botanists a raonatcious plant on this account. — 
The male flower is on the top of the plant, and 
is commonly called the tassel; the female flower 
is on the ear, and is called the silk. If the plant 
be deprived of either of these organs, no grain 
can be formed. Suppose we deprive a plant of 
all the silk as soon as it appears; we shall find 
the cob will grow and present all the indications 
of germs of grain, but there will be no grain; 
and exactly the same thing will happen if we 
destroy the tassel as soon as it appears, without 
touching the silk. Each thread of the silk leads 
to a particular grain on the cob, so that there are 
just as many threads of silk as there will be 
grains of com on the cob when ripe. The cob 
and the germs of grain will be formed whether 
the male influence be exerted or- not. The male 
influence, therefore, will not change the size of 
the cob, the size or shape of the grain, or the 
number of grains on the eai'; but it does affect 
the color of the grain, and its quality as to flinti- 
ness, and as to its season of ripening. 
Now let us suppose an experiment to illus- 
trate the facts just stated. I have a kind of corn 
that .suits me exactly in every quality except its 
season of ripening, and I wish to obviate that 
difficulty. Well, I plant a piece of ground, say 
. a quarter or half an acre, Avith it at the usual 
time, taking care to leaA'e each alternate hill va- 
cant,"^ Say this corn ripens on the 1st of Octo- 
ber. I Avant it to ripen on the 15th of August. 
I then look for some early variety that ripens on 
the 15th of August, say the Tuscarora, AA'hose 
grain is light and chaffy, but Avhich is not other- 
wise objectionable. I plant this in the alternate 
vacant hills six weeks or tAvo months after I 
planted the first parcel. It Avill of course hap- 
pen that both kinds Avill put forth tassels and 
silk about the sam,e time. Now 1 AVish to trans- 
fer the grain of my first planting to the cob of 
the second; therefore I carefully watch the ap- 
pearance of tas.sels on the Tuscarora, and cut 
them out as soon as they appear, not allowing 
them to produce their pollen, and thus aiioAving 
the silk of the Tuscarora to be affected by the 
pollen from the neighboring late kind. At the 
harA'^est I save only the ears of the Tuscarora, 
and, as there are plenty of them, I saA^e only the 
earliest and best formed. The grain on them 
will be found to be a perfect mixture of the tAvo 
kinds. Next spring I plant the product, and at 
harvest I find about an equal quantity of grains 
on each ear of each of the parent kinds, in ap- 
pearance. I select these I prefer, and plant 
them on the third year, when I shall have secur- 
ed the improvement I desired. 
In this Avay the grain maj^ be transferred from 
a red cob to a Avhite cob, from a large cob to a 
small cob, &c. The grain of the large southern 
corn may thus be placed upon the cob of the 
dAvarf northern corn, and indeed any other irn- 
proA'cment or change desirable may be effected. 
True, it requires three years to effect the object; 
but what of that! Nothing is lost by the experir 
merit except an hour or tAA'o of time, and a little 
careful watching. Not a fourth as much time 
or attention is required as is bestoAved on the 
production of improA'ed animals. 
I could enlarge upon the importance of this 
.subject, and fill a large space in your excellent 
Register Avith the discussion, but it surely can- 
not be necessaIy^ There is not a corn planter 
in the union that has not eA^ery year had cause 
to lament some bad quality in his corn; and I 
take upon myself to say there is not a single bad 
quality that may not easily be remoA^ed by the 
aboA'e described process. I hope, therefore, that 
.some one will make the experiment and publish 
the result for the benefit of the agricultural com- 
munity. Gideon B. Smith. 
Formere' Register. 
CORN. 
“I haye noticed an error in the culture of 
plants and trees, AvhereA'er I have been, and I 
kne w no better plan to illustrate it than in sIioaa - 
ing the effect of the error on corn. In the cul- 
ture of corn, it is usual to Avork the crop till the 
tassel is about to make its appearance; this is 
an error. AVhenever the lateral roots of a plant 
are injured, moveil or disturbed, Avhen the stalk 
that is to produce the seed is matured or about 
maturing, or whenever those roots are coA^ered 
to a greater depth at this stage of groAvlfi than 
nature intended, it Avill produce early maturity 
and decay; and the yield Avillbe just in propor- 
tion to the extent of the error. If you ycill take 
the pains to destroy the lateral roots of a stalk of 
corn alter its having made the last joint on the 
stock, you Avill find that it Avill produce no corn; 
and if you Avill displace their situation at this 
time by hilling, you will get a less quantity of 
seed than if left alone. If the lateral roots of a 
stalk of clover are cut off when the seed stock is 
fonning, there Avill be no seed; and just so with 
other plants and trees ; and the Avorking of them 
at this stage cannot be attempted Avithout inju- 
ry. Yet, strange to say, it is almost invariably 
done. I haA^e neA'er suffered my corn to be Avork- 
ed after one-third of the height of the stalk was 
attained. I plant close enough to harm the corn, 
to shade the ground at this height, so as to pre- 
A'ent the growth of Aveeds after this la.s,t Avorking, 
I plant two and a half feet .square, and leave two 
stalks in the hill, and I have never missed hat'- 
ing as much corn per acre and as large ears a.s 
my neighbors ; and much more than some of 
them. I neA'er planted a crop of corn that I had 
not some kind neighbor or Iriend to tell me that 
1 Avould have neither corn nor fodder. Last 
spring a cropper upon my neighbor’s farm plan- 
ted thirty-fiA'e or forty acres in corn, and I about 
ten acres ; our fields adj oining. He planted his 
corn fqur leet square, and left three or lour stalks 
in thkhill, and worked his crop till it Avas rea- 
dy to shoot into tassels. I quit working mine 
Avhen about two and a hall feet high. His field 
was full of AA'eeds and grass. Mine remained 
clear of both weeds and grass. When our com 
was husked and housed, he told me that I had 
from my ten acres nearly fifty bushels of corn 
more than he had from his thirty-five or forty 
acres, notAvithstanding he told me, in its early 
growth, that I Avould have no corn. Part o'l 
his ground was quite as good as mine. 
“A similar and worse effect is produced in 
the hilling or working of plants in the latter 
stage of their groAvth, than takes place in plants 
and trees when deep planted. A disease is pro- 
duced that hurries the plant on to early maturi- 
ty by impeding the proper nourishment, b}' dis- 
turbing or placing the roots beloAv where nature 
intended they should range for food, as Avell as 
depriving the vessels of the stalks thus coA'ered 
from performing their functions. The stalks 
