Cultivation of Corn. 
300 
corn, contained in the 8th number of the 4th 
vol. of the Kentucky Farmer. I have this in¬ 
formation also directly from Mr. Williams, 
and have no doubt of the correctness of the 
facts detailed. The Louisville Journal is 
therefore in error in stating the quantity rais¬ 
ed by Mr. Williams to have been 167 bushels 
per acre. This corn was raised on soil natu¬ 
rally as fertile as the best Kentucky lands. 
Mr. Williams states., that “ it had been in 
meadow for many years previous to the last 
seven. The five first of the last seven, it was 
in hemp; the last but one it was in rye, and 
the last in seed hemp.” It had also the ad¬ 
vantage of “a thin coat of stable manure, in 
its unfermented state, spread on the ground 
in April, just before ploughing.” The sea¬ 
son was very favorable for the corn crop, 
rains having fallen in sufficient abundance, 
and in proper time to produce first rate crops. 
Everything, therefore, was favorable to a 
great yield. 
Mr. Williams’ method of cultivation was 
as follows : “ As soon as it could be done, 
after the frost was out of the soil, gave it a 
deep plowing with a Cary plow; in April, 
spread manure as above; then cross-plow¬ 
ed with the same plow; then harrowed ; then 
laid off the rows two feet apart with a shovel 
plow, dropped the seed in the bottom of these 
rows, as near a foot apart as I could; cover¬ 
ed with hoes, and in so doing made the sur¬ 
face level, every clod being crushed with the 
eye of the hoe ; and I then pressed the whole 
down tight with a good roller. When the 
corn was about one foot high, I had the 
weeds cut with a sharp hoe by scraping, 
great care was taken not to break the surface, 
nor to hill the corn. It had but one hoeing 
of this sort.” Mr. Williams remarks, that in 
this experiment “ he was governed by the prin¬ 
ciple that the roots were not to be broken; that 
a good bed was to be given the roots to oc¬ 
cupy ; that light and heat should get to them 
equally, and that the whole power of the soil 
should be brought into action without being 
burdened.” 
In Mr. Williams’ method of planting, if 
none were missing, there would be one stalk 
of corn for each two square feet, or eight 
stalks for sixteen square feet, whereas if the 
ground had been laid off, as usual in rich land, 
four feet each way, and three stalks left in a 
hill, there would only have been three-eighths 
as many stalks ; or if four had been left in a 
hill then there would have been just half as 
many stalks. 
During the same year that Mr. Williams 
raised the crop described above, I measured 
from an acre of corn growing in a field cul¬ 
tivated in the ordinary way, which had been 
chequered off four feet each way, and three 
stalks left in a hill, one hundred and five 
bushels of corn. This was of the yellow 
kind, and of medium size. If Mr. Williams’ 
corn had yielded in the same proportion, ac¬ 
cording to the number of stalks, the product 
per acre would have been 280 bushels, but it 
was only 158g, and hence it is evident the 
ears on his corn must have been, compara¬ 
tively, much smaller, and probably more than 
double in number. 
If it is intended to leave upon the ground 
a number of stalks equal to one for each two 
square feet, Mr. Williams’ plan is doubtless 
a very good one. The stalks all stand single, 
in the rows, having a space of a foot each, 
and the rows being two feet apart, are as well 
arranged for admitting the sun and air, as 
could be effected with so great a number on 
the ground. If the season should be favora¬ 
ble, and the cultivation of the best kind , it is 
not easy to perceive how a greater quantity 
of corn (of the like kind,) could be raised 
upon an equal space of land, of the same fer¬ 
tility, and equally well adapted to this crop. 
But if the season should be such as we not 
unfrequently experience—a very dry one— 
it appears to me that a crop of corn, planted 
at the rate of a stalk for every two square 
feet, would produce but a small yield; and 
that it would be a hazardous experiment to 
risk an entire crop, so essential to sustain 
our stock, for the chance of the increased 
quantity, resulting from this mode of plant¬ 
ing, where every thing turns out in the most 
favorable manner. 
The labor bestowed by Mr. Williams, m 
cultivating his corn, was certainly not as 
great as usual. But it must be recollected 
that the ground on which it grew, had been 
many years in meadow and hemp, with only 
one crop of rye. The soil must, therefore, 
have been almost entirely free from weeds, 
and in fine condition for raising corn, with 
very little labor. If the ground had been 
foul, much more labor would have been ne¬ 
cessary \ and it may be reasonably doubted 
whether a good crop could be raised in very 
weedy ground, without the use of the plow, 
or more manual labor than the crop would 
justify. 
Having given, in detail, Mr. Williams’ 
method of raising an experimental crop of 
corn, in 1840, I will now state that of Mr. 
William R. Duncan, of Clark county, the same 
year. 
“ The land,” says Mr. Duncan, “ had been 
