82 
CULTIVATION OP INDIAN CORN. 
should prefer doing it as soon as possible after the 
leaves have ripened, and in spring at the bursting 
of the bud. 
r As to removing evergreens in the Middle States, 
my remarks may not apply, for in this matter I 
shall confine them to my own experience. For 
experiment sake, I have set them of various sizes 
in every month of the year, and have them now 
living and doing well that were so set. Yet I have 
found a choice of times, which is after the bud has 
burst in the spring, and a new growth commenced, 
which time, in the land of my sojourning, is from 
the 10th to the 20th of May, or in very late sea¬ 
sons extended to the 1st of June. In removing 
evergreens T would select from open pastures and 
take up as much of the soil as possible. In such 
places, there is but little difficulty in taking all the 
root and all the earth, and success is almost certain. 
Mount Osceola, Jan. 25th, 1847. W. Bacon. 
CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN. 
At your request I submit a statement of my mode 
of cultivating Indian corn, with such remarks ap¬ 
pertaining thereto as the subject would seem to 
require. The island on which I live is situated in 
latitude 43° 40'N., and comprises about 1,100 acres, 
a large portion of which is good arable land, the 
remainder being occupied by pastures or reserved 
as woodland. The soil consists of a brownish- 
yellow loam, which, when tilled, becomes warm 
and retentive of manures. The subsoil is of a 
bright yellow, underlaid by a hard-pan, varying in 
depth and thickness. A specimen taken from a 
highly cultivated field, which had produced 130 
bushels of corn to the acre, as analysed by Dr. C. 
T. Jackson, of Boston, gave the following results :— 
Mechanical separation of 1000 grains of gravel, sand, and loam. 
Coarse pebbles, - - - 90 
Fine pebbles, - 260 
Fine loam, * 650 
1000 
Chemical analysis of 100 grains. 
Insoluble silicates, - 80.8 
Peroxide of iron, - - 2.2 
Alumina, - - - 4.0 
Salts of lime, - 0.4 
Magnesia (a trace), - — 
Phosphate of alumina (a trace), - — 
Vegetable matter, - - - 8.7 
Water, 3.9 
100.0 
500 grains of the soil were digested in boiling 
water—2.3 grains dissolved. The solution was of 
a yellow color, and consisted of 
Vegetable matter, - - . 2.0 
Mineral matter, - - - 0.3 
2.3 
The residue from the solution before burning was 
acid, and after burning, alkaline. The acid was* 
then a vegetable acid. The following substances 
were taken up by the water, viz.—muriatic, sul¬ 
phuric, carbonic, and phosphoric acids, soda, lime, 
magnesia, silica, iron, and manganese. 
The rotation of crops which appear to be the 
best adapted to my farm is, 1st, potatoes; 2d, In- 1 
dian corn: 3d, wheat; and then lay down to grass 
and continue it for mowing until bound out—say 
six or seven years. Preparatory to planting my 
potatoes I usually plow the sward soon after hay¬ 
time, and let it lie in the furrow until the following 
spring. The ground is then cross-plowed, tho¬ 
roughly harrowed, and planted with potatoes, in 
rows three feet apart in one direction, and two or 
two and a half feet in the other, with no manure 
except a little plaster of Paris put in each hill. My 
average crop of potatoes is about 300 bushels per 
acre. 
After harvesting the potatoes in the fall, I cart 
on 18 or 20 loads of barn-yard manure to the acre 
(50 bushels to each load), which is spread broad¬ 
cast and then plowed in. From the beginning to 
the middle of the May following, the ground is 
well harrowed, and 30 loads of green, unfermented 
stable manure, made during the winter, are added, 
which is immediately after plowed in, sufficiently 
deep to be well covered. By this process, the coat 
of fine manure, applied the fall previous, becomes 
well incorporated with the soil, and gives the young 
corn-plants a rapid start in the earlier stages of 
their growth, while the coarse manure, applied in 
the spring, lends its aid in filling out the ears. 
From the 20th to the 25th of May the ground is 
again well harrowed, and shortly after planted with 
corn. The variety I employ, which sometimes 
bears my name, was produced by cultivating, for a 
succession of years, selected ears of the northern 
eight-rowed yellow, with cobs having small butt- 
ends, of good length and uniform size, the second 
ripe in the field, and taken from stalks bearing 
more than two ears to each. The grains -of this 
corn are large, the cob small, and the ears are 
usually from ten to thirteen inches in length. The 
largest crop I have raised is 136 bushels per acre, 
weighing in the ear 9,520 lbs., or 70 lbs. to the 
bushel, and 59 lbs. per bushel when shelled.(a) 
I plant my corn in hills (four kernels to each), 
three feet apart one way, and two feet the other, 
reducing the number of spires in each hill to three, 
at the first hoeing, which is neatly done, without 
cultivator or plow, when the plants are about three 
inches high. In the month of July, I give the corn 
a second and third dressing, by lightly moving the 
surface of the soil with the hoe, without making 
any mould or hill, leaving the ground quite level 
and smooth. Early in September, or as soon as 
the ears are completely formed, and their silks begin 
to dry up or wither, I top the corn and preserve the 
stalks for winter fodder. Towards the end of that 
month the crop is usually haryested, immediately 
after husked, and stored on the ear in the granary 
until required for the market or the mill. 
In preparing for the third crop in rotation, direct¬ 
ly after the corn is harvested, the ground is plowed 
and left in the furrow until the April following, 
when it is cross-plowed and well harrowed, as soon 
as it is sufficiently dry, and each acre is sown with 
1| bushels of Siberian or tea wheat, 5 lbs. of clover 
seed, and a quart of herds-grass seed (Timothy). 
Preparatory to sowing the wheat, I wash it in 
several waters, and then add the grass-seed with 
about four quarts of air-slacked lime, well mixed. 
After the seed is sown, the ground is again tho¬ 
roughly harrowed, and lastly rolled, in order to leave 
