sassm 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
51 
Isaac Franklin has lour of these mills in ope- 
ration — one in Tennessee and three in Louisi- 
ana ; and has ordered another in the latter State. 
He sa)'s : “It is the very best mill for the lar- 
mer and planter that has been introduced. The 
most stupid negro can manage them and cannot 
put them out of order. The Lod prepared by 
the crusher from unshucked corn is the best for 
oxen, mules and horses ever tried. The saving 
is considerable.” 
Dr. John L. Hadley, of Nashville, speaks in 
the same terms of the machine, ot the corn meal, 
and ol the crushed provender for animals. He 
has been using one of these machines for two 
years. 
Mr. Hough, the mail contractor between here 
and Nashville, says, “ he has had one in use two 
years almost constantly, and feeds his stock and 
large stable ol stage horses nearly altogether 
•with the crushed food, and is much pleased with 
the food thus prepared. No mill can surpass 
this for stock purposes. The meal is excelleni. 
He believes one of these mills will run fifty 
years and not cost ten dollars.” 
Hynes & Craighead sav, “They use on their 
plantation in Iberville parish, La., about one 
hundred mules and horses, and twenty or thirty 
oxen, which are almost in constant u.se. They 
find that their work stock are much healthier, 
and are capable of performing more service 
since they have used the crushed food. AV ith- 
out having made an exact estimate, they confi- 
dently believe they save from six to eight hun- 
dred dollars annually in the quantity of food 
used; and in the life of the stock. They for- 
merly lost from six to eight horses and mules 
annually, but since using the crushed food they 
have not lost half that number.” 
From the South Carolina Temperance Advocate. 
CORN. 
There is no subject in agriculture that is 
more particularly interesting to us than the 
cultivation ot Indian corn. In the first place it 
is the national crop; in the second, it bears 
with it a spice of romance,, as being intimately 
connected with that race upon whom only the 
sacred hand of antiquity has yet impressed the 
stamp of poetry in this new world; but, thirdly 
and chiefly, because it is believed to be the most 
valuable vegetable growth, take it all in all, 
cultivated by the hand of man. I do not believe 
either that our savage predecessors, or our to- 
bacco making ancestors, ever brought the culti- 
vation of this noble vegetable to perfection. I 
am very sure that the system of neither the one 
nor the other was of the charrcter best adapted 
to the present state of our soil. Neglected, as 
to a certain extent this valuable crop now' is, 
etill, in point ot profit, it need not shrink from a 
comparison with either of its haughty rivals, 
wheat or tobacco. Facts and experience, which 
settle the claims ot high and low, will prove the 
corn grow'ing to be as independent and prospe- 
rous as any other interest in the state. But it 
is my settled conviction, that a thorough exami- 
nation into its nature and character, would in- 
duce an improvement in its cultivation, that 
would place this vegetable of indigenous growth 
upon a much more elevated position than it 
even now occupies. It is very true that thou- 
sands of intelligent farmers have been for hun- 
dreds of years cultivating this simple crop, and 
it would seem wonderful that there should be 
any thing yet to learn about it ; but that no fixed 
principles have been as yet establislied, is 
vouched by the fact that there are still as many 
opinions about the simplest points in its man- 
agement as there are diflerent cultivators. That 
this variety of opinion exists, arises, I believe, 
from the fact, that until the late establishment 
of agricultural papers, men ploughed, sowed, 
and reaped, without thinking at all.; at any 
rate, without receiving from each other, the ad- 
vantages of their mutual observations. Until 
within the last 10 or 12 years, the darkness of 
the middle ages covered the agricultural history 
of America. Indeed, it was not until our ex- 
hausted soils forced us to bring mind to the as- 
sistance of matter, that our farmers began to 
think at all, and it was not until the general es- 
tablishment of a medium of communication, 
that any thing but the wildest guesses, founded 
upon ihe loosest facts, occupied the cultiv'ators 
of the earth. Mortifying as this picture of ig- 
norance may be to many ol your older readers, 
it is nevertheless true, and when they reflect, 
how' they themselves were in former days im- 
mersed, soul and body, in polilics, they will be 
forced to concede that the science ot agriculture 
found little space in the minds of their contem- 
poraries. 
But, thanks to the good sense of our deep 
thinking, practical people, as the stern neces- 
sity of an exhausted soil demanded a different 
course of conduct, they have lately begun to in- 
vestigate the secrets of the great business in 
w’hich they are employed, and hence it is, tha 
though we have been cultivating corn lor hun- 
dreds of years, we are now just upon the thresh- 
hold of discovery with respect to its nature and 
character. 
These remarks, which, I hope, if not very 
flattering, will not prove very tedious, have 
been elicimd by reading an excellent essay on 
the subject, in the “ Southern Agriculturist,” 
from the pen of Dr. L. R. Sams, of South 
Carolina. 
Dr. Sams, as the result of several investiga- 
tions upon t!ie roots of corn, found them to con- 
sist chiefly ot perp-.mdicular roots, from w'hich 
numerous smaller ones proceeded horizontal!}'. 
I'he depth, number and proportion of the per- 
pendicular roots, the Doctor found to depend 
very much upon the nature of the soil in w'hich 
they grew. In a very light, sandy soil, mcum- 
bent on a loose subsoil, he found an average of 
twenty-five perpendicular roots, from three and 
a half to four feet long. The size and extent of 
the lateral roots he found to be dependent upon 
the moisture of the surface soils. In a poor soil, 
of a dry season, they did not exceed two or three 
inches in length, while many -were much short- 
er; on the other hand, in a rich moist soil, these 
lateral roots were very much increased, not only 
in numbers, but in all their dimensions, a large 
proportion of them extending from one to two 
feet or more from the stalk. 
On a close, heavy soil, ba.sed on a stiff sub- 
soil, the perpendicular roots were found more 
numerous, but shorter, reaching an average 
depth of only two feel. The horizontal roots, 
though of smaller diameter than the perpendic- 
ular, were so much more developed than in the 
former case, especially w'hen favored by a moist 
and mellow soil, as to traverse and occupy the 
entire intervals (a space of five feet) between 
the rows. 
The practical deductions that Dr. Sams 
draws from these facts, are, that if the soil is 
made rich and mellow to a considerable depth, 
the perpendicular roots will naturally penetrate 
to that depth, and as he found that the extension 
of the said roots along the surface w'as chiefly a 
substitute of nature for the obstruction of the 
perpendicular roots, he concludes, that when- 
ever free passage is afforded the latter through 
rich ground, that this plant will be furnished 
by these means with food and moisture, even 
during a drought ; when the lateral or surface 
roots that would otherwise supplv their place, 
would be entirely parched and killed. Again, 
where a free descent is afforded through a mel- 
low soil, the roots will be found almost wholly 
within a circle of two feet, of which the stalk 
is the centre; consequently, present economy 
would recommend the application of manure 
within that space. On the contrary, where, 
from the nature of the subsoil, the support is 
derived from the horizontal roots, the applica- 
tion of manure in the hill would fail to furnish 
the roots that had extended beyond its influence 
with their food at the mest critical period of the 
plant, viz: the filling of the ear. Firing, Dr. 
Sams considers as nothing more than a failure 
of a supply ol food and moisture to this most 
succulent and sappy of the vegetable tribe ; and 
close planting leads to this fatal consequence, 
pnly because, in our usual mode of cultivation, 
the plaut is dependent for a supply of food and 
moisture on its lateral roots, which can only find 
a sufficient supply tor one stalk within a given 
.space. 
One thing is certain, that very large crops 
can only be obtained by close planting, and it is 
a great desideratum to know how that can be 
eflected without the danger of firing that usua.ly 
attends in this region. 
It is only by a strict examination into facts 
with all their attendant circumstances, such as 
the world is indebted to Sams for, that any 
correct or philosophical conclusion can be ar- 
rived at. He may possibly have erred in the 
inferences he has drawn, but the agricultural 
community are at least indeb ed to him for 
the communication of the interesting facts he 
observed. 
Yours, with the best wishes for the success of 
your useful and practical paper. 
A Corn Grower, 
PLANTING OF PEACH STONES 
The annexed extracts are from a letter in the 
Alassachusetts Ploughman, from Air. J. Bart- 
lett, ol CLuincy, Illinois r 
“ I should plant the 'tones not more than six 
inches apart, and tran.splant them when two oi 
three inches high with a trowel, taking care to 
cut off the tap root two or three ■inches under the 
ground. By this means, you will be sure to 
have good roots and luxuriant growth; yo' r 
trees will be large enough to bud the first sea- 
son if your soil be suitable. If a person can ob- 
tain stones from a tree that is naturally ol good 
quality, it is better to plant such and not depend 
upon budding ; your trees will be much more 
durable raised from the stone, than those that 
are budded or inoculated. Alany people have 
expressed a doubt as it regards the certainty of 
procuring the same kind of peach from the tree 
raised from the stone as the parent tree produ- 
ced, even when the parent tree was natural. I 
think there is no doubt of the fact that a peach 
stone from a natural tree will produce the same 
fruit as the parent tree. I feel as sure of the re- 
sult, as I should were I to plant a yellow kernel 
of corn of raising yellow. 
“But no reliance can be placed upon the pro- 
duce of budded tiees; the seed does not inherit 
thr qualities of the bud, but of the original stock 
or root, and consequently you cannot know 
what your fruit will be until the tree produces 
fruit, and then it will be too late to bud with 
good success. In some instances, I have had 
good success with budding trees four or five 
years oi l, but they are very apt to throw out 
gum where the incision is made in the bark, and 
that kills the bud or prevents it from adhering to 
the wood.” 
CORNSTALK SUGAR. 
The following is an extract from the report of 
the committee on maple and cornstalk sugar, 
at the New York State Agricultural Fair in 
1843 : 
“ The committee have great pleasure in stat- 
ing that Mr. M. Adams, of Ogd n, in Monroe 
county, has gone into the experiment of manu- 
facturing sugar of cornstalks; and lor one acre 
of the ‘ eight-rowed yellow northern corn,’ he 
has constructed an iron mill lor crushing the 
stalk and expressing the juice, which answers 
the purpose admirably.” 
“Mr. Adams has, how'ever, already made 
about four hundred weight of .sugar, a sample 
of which he has submitted to your committee, 
and which, though not yet clarified, appears to 
be ol a fair quality, capable of equalling the best 
of sugar made from the cane. The stalks still 
on the ground, he thinks, will make four hun- 
dred weight more sugar ; but had it not been for 
the excessive drought which has prevailed in 
that section of the country, he is satisfied that 
the acre planted and experimented upon by him 
would have produced one thousand weight ot 
sugar, which was the rate yielded by two rods 
of the land, which he measured off, the proceeds 
of W'hich he worked up by itself,” 
