CULTIVATION OF CORN. 
183 
the same will apply with equal truth in attempting 
to sow a particular crop, where the substances of 
which it is to he formed are not present, and can¬ 
not he obtained at a rate to warrant the expense. 
Oyster Bay, L. I., May 15 th, 1846. S. Y. 
(a) May not this want of effect in gypsum be 
owing to the absence of vegetable matter in the soil 
of Long Island ? At other points along our sea- 
coast, plaster has been employed with beneficial 
results. 
CULTIVATION OF CORN. 
Under the head of “ Indian Corn for Seeding or 
Fodder,” page 107, current Vol., you use the fol¬ 
lowing language: 
“ If the land be rich and properly prepared for 
corn, it will be sure to come up and grow, however 
dry it may be, provided the seed be prepared by 
steeping it in guano, or saltpetre, water, or some other 
cheap solution. When corn is tolerably advanced 
in its growth, it completely shades the ground, and 
the drouth will have but little effect upon it. A 
larger crop may usually be grown in drills than 
when sown broadcast; and if these drills be two, 
or two and a half feet apart, we believe it will be 
found better than nearer, especially in a very dry 
season, as the cultivator can be often run between 
the rows, stirring the ground effectually, and 
neutralizing, in a measure, the effects of dry 
weather.” 
I v copy your remarks, that the sowing of com 
for provender may be again placed before your 
readers, assuring them that, in Mississippi, it will 
be as great an assistant as you speak of with you. 
And for the purpose of giving in your language, 
what I conceive to be the entire principle of planting 
and cultivating corn, which is, “ properly” prepare 
land, plant it close to shade the land early, and 
cultivate with a cultivator. I cultivate only ordi¬ 
nary land in part; some of it is really poor, and my 
entire crop, whether little or much, it matters not, 
has (and does) averaged 30 bushels per acre. As 
to the number of acres I cultivate, or the quantity 
made, it is of no sort of business to know; suffi¬ 
cient is it that I have had corn, and fodder too, to 
6pare for several years. But as there are many 
who think “ a patch ” can be better worked than a 
field, I will-state, for their gratification, that I had 
67 acres in one patch last year, and it was not all 
the corn either by many acres. A portion of this 
field w T as pronounced by a planter of 250 bales cot¬ 
ton, as yielding at the rate 50 bushels per acre. I 
use no manure to corn, but I plow deep, turn under 
corn or cotton stalks, and pea-vines; plant 4 
feet by about 18 to 20 inches, single stalks in 
drills. I cultivate early, hoe w T hen corn has 3 or 
4 blades, or as early thereafter as the season will 
admit of, seldom using the hoe after. I thin out 
by hand, do [not chop it up with the. hoe. I use 
cultivator or double shovel plows, or the shovel 
low T , and I lay by, when or before the com is in 
unch. [tassel ?] 
I. believe the South will bear close planting, and 
why not? Are your summers not as hot as ours ? 
True, ours are much longer, but what of it? Is 
our corn not made in the same length of time ? 
Corn, if planted in latitude 32° 30’, in March, or 
1st of April, will be safe from drouth by about the 
1st of July—say 3 months—whereas corn planted 
near Lexington, at usual time, say about the 1st of 
May, is sometimes caught by frost in September, 
and ruined. No, sir; the difficulty is shallow 
plowing, and as deep cultivation, with the stand so 
scattering that the sun bakes the land. 
Since writing thus far, I have an excellent ad¬ 
dress from the pen of Mr. C. M. Hammond, de¬ 
livered before the Burke Co. Central Ag. Society, 
in Georgia, my friend, Gov. Hammond, of South 
Carolina, being kind enough to remember me. I 
also have “ Effects of Drouth on Indian Corn., &c.” 
“ To the Planters and Farmers of South Carolina,” 
by W. B. Seabrook. Both of these you will 
see, and I would ask a copy of at least the 2d 
paragraph on page 13, of Mr. Hammond’s pam¬ 
phlet. 
In addition to my remarks, I would say that 
shallow covering is of much import. I have tried 
the various depths, from half an inch to six inches, 
by putting the seed in a hole at the various 
depths increasing half an inch, and I found the deep 
planted corn invariably rotted. 
In addition to deep tilth, shallow culture, close 
planting, laying by early, and shallow covering, 
allow me to add, be certain to plant peas in the 
middle when you plow the last time, by scattering 
along the row, covering with cultivator. I sow 
about one bushel to three acres, my object being 
not only to grow peas, but to shade the land, 
and to grow vegetable matter to plow in. I may 
be in error, but I think shading the land acts in a 
two-fold capacity—preventing the earth getting so 
dry, and as an enricher. I have heard it said so 
frequently that I have become a believer without 
evidence, that, “ covering the earth with lumber or 
bricks it will act as a fertilizer.” If so, and that 
saltpetre is produced in caves, why should not the 
close shade of pea-vines act in a similar manner, if 
to a less extent? This thing I know, that pea- 
vines have benefitted me very greatly, whether by 
the covering, or as manure, or as both, it matters not 
I have heard that some “ fear the pea-vine would 
extract nourishment from corn, and might injure 
land;” but I think they, being of the same cha¬ 
racter as the clovers, take very largely of their 
nourishment from the air, and we thus return more 
to the land than we take, even after gathering the 
pea. I do not think as many peas are grown per 
acre, but as I make as many as I can feed, I deem 
the pea itself only as a secondary, and if it was re¬ 
stricted to the gathering for seed only I show 1 '? 
continue. 
To make these remarks more striding, will 
state that the crop in this place under former over¬ 
seers, when they were sometimes manured wuth 
cotton seed, never averaged over 20 bushels per 
acre, with alw’ays a scarcity, and sometimes to 
buy. Since two-horse plows, and this mode of culti¬ 
vation, have been used here, I have gradually im¬ 
proved the corn crop to so great an extent, that 72 
acres would have averaged last year over 40 bushels 
if a portion had not been grossly neglected. I am 
letermined to make my corn crops average 50 
