140 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[Aphid, 
the squaw scooped out a hole for the seed, with 
a couple of “ menhaden ” for a fertilizer, and 
raised the hill over it, while her husband and 
master industriously looked on and “bossed” 
the job, has gone out of date, the old-fashioned 
heavy hoe still remains in use, and the old- 
fashioned farmer with the help of his wife and 
children still puts in his patch amidst stumps 
and roots. On the rich prairies of the West, the 
horse-planter drops and covers 24 acres per day 
farmers? Manure and good cultivation of the 
soil were the only means used to achieve this 
result. There was no claim to a new sort of 
seed, or anything that any farmer could not pro¬ 
cure for himself. The soil was a light sandy 
loam, a sod that had been plowed in the fall, 
grubbed or subsoiled in the spring, and perfectly 
well harrowed. Then the drills were opened 
3^ feet apart with a double mold-board plow; 
in these was scattered well-rotted compost from 
the crop was on that part of the field we do not 
know, the corn having been husked and the 
stalks removed at the time of our visit. The 
engraving represents the whole operation of 
this method of putting in a crop of corn, ex¬ 
cepting the harrowing and rolling of the ground. 
Each operation there shown being done as fast , 
as each worker can walk, it is quickly and ; 
cheaply performed. When the result is a crop 
equal to 97-J- bushela-of shelled corn per acre 
INDIAN COKN-PL ANTING. 
in a very cheap way, but the crop yearly grows 
less and less, and this rapid method must one day 
give way to a better and more productive one. 
Last fall we visited the well-known farmer, Mr. 
Crozier, Beacon Stock Farm, Northport, L. I., 
and were struck with the appearance and yield 
of his corn crop. An acre measured out accu¬ 
rately was tested by husking a shock here and 
there, and ascertaining the average yield of them, 
by which it appeared that the produce of the acre 
was 260 bushels of ears. This selected acre was 
the barn-yard, hauled on to the field in two-horse 
carts, from which the manure was dropped, four 
drills being manured at each crossing of the 
field. A man following with a hoe smoothed 
the manure evenly along the drill as quickly as 
he could walk. The seed was dropped twelve 
inches apart in the drill by women and girls 
from the families of the farm laborers. The 
drills were closed and the seed covered by a 
light plow drawn by one horse, two furrows be¬ 
ing required to do this, one on each side of the 
after allowing 25 per cent for shrinkage in dry¬ 
ing, it is evident that this plan is a much more 
profitable one than that of growing 15 to 30 
bushels by the methods in general use. The 
profit realized consists not only in the grain 
actually raised, but in the excellent preparation 
of the ground for another crop. This prepara¬ 
tion leaves the ground in better condition than 
a fallow would do, even though it may have 
been manured; for the clean cultivation, and 
the shade of the dense crop of cornstalks, kill 
HODEIIN CORN-PLANTING. 
no better than the rest of the field, it was not 
conspicuously different in any way from any 
other acre, and was selected at random. The 
test was impartial and not made for any set 
purpose. The result was surprising, but was 
verified by repeated proof. The question then 
arose, By what method was this crop raised, 
and was there anything in it that was not 
applicable to the circumstances of all other 
drill. The field was then harrowed with the 
chain harrow figured in the Agriculturist of 
January, 1873, and rolled. The after-cultivation 
was done with the Shares horse-hoe, with which 
the rows were kept clean close up to the corn, 
and very little hand-hoeing was found neces¬ 
sary. A part of the field was treated with a 
dressing of the Manhattan blood-manure, with 
very satisfactory results, but what the yield of 
the weeds and mellow and loosen the soil. 
When cross-plowed as soon as the stalks are 
removed, the soil and the manure left in the 
drills become thoroughly intermingled, and 
the ground is in the best possible condition for 
a crop of roots the next season. In the rotation 
adopted by Mr. Crozier roots always follow 
corn, and it is one that under his style of farm¬ 
ing becomes very profitable and successful. 
