THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
91 
that yielded by the cream of me same milk 
when allowed to rise in the usual manner. 
For the production of the best butter, it is ne- 
cessary that the cream should be suificiently 
sour before it is put into the churn,— -Z/7c<(6/es on 
AgncuU. Chrm is'-nj. 
From the N. E. Farmer. 
CLOSE PLANTING OF CORN. 
Mr. Bseck;— [ have sometimes thought that 
if larmers would communicate the results of 
unsucces.slul experiments, through the medium 
of the agricultural journals,, they would confer 
as great a benefit upon the public as they do by 
relating their successful e.x;periments. In ac- 
cordance with the above opinion, I -vill attempt 
to give the result of close planting of Indian corn 
the past season, though at the risk of being some- 
v/hat tedious. 
In the spring of 1811, in consequence ot the 
removal of an old fence, 1 had a sfip ot pasture 
land filteen rods in length and two rods in width, 
added to a field. It was plowed up and planted 
with potatoes, and yielded a fair crop. In the 
cpring of 1813, there were caned upon it four 
cart-loads of good stable manure, and deeply 
plowed; after laying a tew days, it was harrow- 
ed, and four more loads of good compost ma- 
nure, made of swamp muck, stable dung, lime, 
and ashes, were spread, and again plowed and 
harvested. About the 10th of May, diills were 
made by akindot horse-rake, with the teeth just 
three feet apart 4 three kernels ot the “brown 
corn” were dropped in the drills, at the distance 
uf two feet; in a few days the corn came up, and 
grew rapidly; during the season, the ground 
was merely scraped ever with the hoe three or 
four times, but no hills made. In October, 
when fully ripened, the corn was harvested, and 
produced over thirty bushels of large sound ears, 
and two bushels of small ears; and I think it 
would, when dry enough for the market, have 
shelled out 15 bushels, or at the rate of 75 bush- 
els to the acre, 
I intended to have sown it last spring, with 
eats and grass seed, but upon reading in the N. 
E. Farmer of March 23d, 1813, an accourt of a 
premium crop of corn raised in New York, by a 
Mr. Phelps, 1 was led to plant the patch again 
with corn, upon his plan. In his stamment of 
the cultivation, &c., he says; “On the 23d of 
May, 1843, I plowed up one acre of green 
sward, for the purpose ot planting it with corn. 
After pip wing it once, I harrowed it well, length- 
wise of the furrows. I then marked out the 
ground so that the rows and hills should stand 
precisely two feet apart either way. On the 
25th of the same month, I planted it, and was 
.careful to put precisely three kernels in each 
hill ; when it was large enough, I hoed it, and 
continued to hoe it three diflerent times. No 
other tool was used in the process of cultivation 
but the hoe, being very careful to keep the 
weeds and grass down as much as possible, and 
in hoeing, to leave the ground as near level as 
possible each time. I permitted the corn to 
stand until it was fit for harvesting, without cut- 
ting up or topping. Between the 10th and 15th 
of November, I began to husk and weigh the 
said corn. I found the aggregate weight from 
the said acre, in the ear, 13,286 lbs., of a good 
quality. About the first day of January, 1843, 
I thrashed out all the sound corn that grew on 
the said acre, and measured it, and found that it 
fully held out 60 lbs. to the bushel, and it pro- 
duced me 122 bushels of good merchantable 
corn.” 
After reading the above statement, I thought 
I would try my small patch of ground again 
with corn, as before stated. I gave it the same 
preparation ot manure, plowing, &.nd harrowing, 
that it had the year previous; it was planted 
about the 12th of May, precisely as to the dis- 
tance and seed, as Mr. Phelps says he planted 
his. It came up well, and on the first of July I 
thought I should get a real crack crop — some- 
•thing to brag about — notwithstanding several 
old grey-headed farmers told me that it was 
planted so thick, it would not amount to much 
except for fodder. In August, I began to think 
these old farmers knew a thing or two; for the 
bottom of the plants 12 or 18 inches, assumed a 
yellow color, and but few ot the suckers tassel- 
ed out, but shrivelled up and dried; theearsihat 
started, (two or three to every stalk,) stood per- 
fectly erect, and did not “hang otf” as they did 
the year before. However, w’hen ripe, it was 
harvested, accurately measured, and instead of 
thirty bushels of ears, as 1 had the year previous, 
there was but eighteen bushels. As every thing 
was as favorable to the crop, except its close 
planting, lean conceive of no possible reason 
why it should not have been as good as the pre- 
vious one, except the difference was caused by 
the close planting, which caused the corn to 
“ draw up” spindling and weak. 
From some experience of ray own, and obser- 
vation in the cultivation of corn by others, I 
think Mr. Phelps’ method of culture is worthy 
of imitation, except the close planting. Several 
years ago, I planted a field ol'corn, and dropped 
two or three kernels extra in each hill, for lear 
the worms might take a part of them. At weed- 
ing or first hoeing, I pulled up a part ot the sur- 
plus, and was surprised at the length ol the root 
— not roots— as there was but one, the main root, 
which I frequently found had grown to the 
length of eighteen inches.; and as the rows 
were three feet distant, I found in some instan- 
ces that the roots from the opposite hills had 
met, and believing that all the roots sent out by 
plants are needed tor their most perfect growth, 
and frequently having heard farmers com-plain 
of the injury done to their corn by the worms 
eating off the roots, 1 came to the conclusion 
that it made no difference with the corn whether 
its roots were cut off by a worm, a plow, or a 
cultivator. And knowing that neither a plow 
or cultivator could be run between the rows 
withoMteutting and lacerating the roots, I have 
never suffered any tool but the hoe in my corn- 
fields since — although I have one of Prouty & 
Mears’ horse-plows, a prime cultivator pur- 
chased at your store several years ago, and a 
steady hor.se to draw them. Since J have adopt- 
ed this plan, f have had the satisfaction ofknow^- 
ing that my corn crops will compare, as to the 
quantity per acre, with any of the farmers in 
this vicinity. 
Mr. P’s plan of leaving the stalks uncut, no 
doubt added many bushels to his crop. For 
two years past, I have left an acre or two till 
harvesting, with the full belief that I gained 
more in the corn than 1 lost in the lodder, though 
I have ray doubts about the fodder being very 
. much less valuable than when cut in the usual 
way. 
I have had the stalks and butts mowed away 
after husking, and given them a good sprinkling 
of salt, and my cattle have eaten them as freely 
and as clean as when cut and bundled up. 
I think there can be no doubt that the quantity 
ot corn is lessened to the amount of eight or ten 
bushels to the acre, by cutting the stalks, as is 
generally practiced. Careful and accurate ex- 
periments olthe Hon. Wm. Clark, jr., of North- 
ampton, and others, have put the question beyond 
dispute. 
But a knowledge of the use and function of 
the leaf would, without an actual trial, satisfy 
any one of the fact. The moisture or water in 
the soil holding in solution a variety ol sails, is 
taken up by the rootlets of plants, and by some 
mysterious power, propelled through the minute 
pores, or sap-vessels to the leaf, where, aided by 
solar light, (the rays of the sun,) a large amount 
of water escapes by evaporation, and the true 
sap is formed in the leaf, and by the vital pow- 
ers, or action of the growing plant, the salts are 
retained to be assimilated, and assist in forming 
the complete and perfect plant, in all its varied 
parts and products. Now if the stalk of corn is 
cut off just above the ear, with all its long and 
broad green leaves, we violate the lav/s of nas- 
ture and deprive the seeds of a portion of that 
food that would have been elaborated by the 
agency of the leaves. 
The function of the leaves of plants, and the 
effect of the rays of the sun, in causing a great- 
ly increased absorption of water by the roots. 
and consequently a corresponding ratio ol mois- 
ture by the leaf, is very clearly and simply illus- 
trated, by an experiment recommended last 
year by Professor Henslow, to the farmers of 
one of the counties in England. He directs that 
three tumblers, numbered i, 2 and 3, De nearly- 
filled with water, then oiled paper tied over the 
top of each tumbler, a hole made through the 
centre of each paper, and the stem of a leaf of a 
tree, (with the leaf attached,) be passed through 
the hole in the paper, so as to touch the water. 
No. 1, is to have an inverted tumbler put over it, 
and placed in the direct rays of 'he sun. No. 2 
is to have an inverted tumbler put on, and placed 
in the light, but so as not to have the sun shine 
upon it; and the tunabler placed over No. 3, is 
to have a Ibid or two of paper wrapped round it, 
so as to exclude the light, and then placed over 
No. 3. The result will be as follows: — No. 1, 
placed in sunshine^ will soon have the inside of 
the top tumbler coated over with moisture, 
which will be in such quantities as to trickle 
down the sides. No. 2 will have a very little 
moisture on one side — and No. 3 will have no 
water within. This little experiment proves 
that corn, potatoes and roots, shoukl be planted 
at such distances as freely to admit the sun’s 
rays, and that the amount of corn is lessened by 
cutting the stalks, and that the plucking of the 
leaves of mangold-wurtzel and lurneps, tor 
green fodder, must be attended with loss to the 
bulbs. 
Everybody knows that plants suffer by being 
in the shade, if the ground is evmr so richly ma- 
nured; and this experiment tells the why. in 
some parts of Russia, wheat is fit to harvest in 
six weeks from the time it is sown: their days 
contain 20 hours of broad sunlight, and that tells 
the wherefore. 
But the leaves of plants have another impor- 
tant office to perform : they possess the power 
of absorbing the principal part ol their carbon 
from the atmosphere in the form of carbonic 
acid, which is decomposed by the leaf, (with the 
aid of sunlight.) the oxygen is liberated, and the 
carbon retained, and forms about 44 per cent, of 
the solid or woody texture of plants. Iftheeffect 
of the sun’s rays upon growing plants were 
more generally understood, the plants in many 
of the gardens would not be left so thick. Many 
persons seem to go upon the principle that the 
more cucumber and melon vines there are in a 
hill, (and the hills two feet apart.) the more fruit 
they will obtain. I have frequently seen twelve 
or fifteen plants left in the hill, and the owner 
would about as soon have had one of his teeth 
extracted, as one of the plants pulled up, 
E. B, 
From the Albany CuUiyator, 
IMPROVEMENT OF CLAY SOILS. 
Messrs. Editors — What method shall I take 
to reclaim worn-out land? soil, .stubborn clay. 
Will leached ashes or lime effect a cure ? If so, 
what proportion to the acre 1 
E. H. Northrup. 
Shoreham, VL, April 5, 1B44. 
The great trouble with a clay soil, is its te- 
nacity. The compactness of its particles keeps, 
in wet weather, too much water on the surface ; 
and in dry w'eather it ‘ bakes,’ as we say — be- 
comes so hard that it absorbs but little moisture, 
and cannot be penetrated by the roots of plants. 
Thus, on clay soils, vegetation is very likely to 
suffer in turns, both from an /excess, and a defi- 
ciency of moisture. 
To guard against these difficulties, the first 
object should be to break this obstinate tenacity 
by a thorough loosening. To keep the vegeta- 
ble matters near the surface, where, especially 
on such soils, they are most effective in aiding 
thegrow'hof plants, we would turn a rather 
thin furrow with the common plow, and follow 
with a sub-soil plow, running it as deep as the 
implement and the strength of the team would 
permit. This v/ould allow the surplus water to 
pass readily into the earth — the roots of plants 
would easily find their way in search of food— - 
while, in time of drouth, the exhalation of inois- 
