^CQlturEiHE 
excelsior 
41 Pork How, IVcw York 
82 HulTnlo 61., Hoclieater. 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y 
Eight Ceuta. 
FDR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, OUT, 8,1870 
[Entered according to am, of Confess, in the year 1870. by D. D. T. Moo ns. In thO oWco Of thO I^bwttan Of Conureaa, Bt Washington,] 
the soil; for the very existence of branches 
or ears at each joint affords the plant an op¬ 
portunity of producing a far greater number 
than would Otherwise be possible. 
We have not written the above as a pull 
for Mr. Hudson and his new sorts of branch¬ 
ing corn, although they appear to be of 
great value ; but we wanted to show farmers 
that they have not as yet begun to produce 
anything like a moderate crop of this grain ; 
and that the yield per acre over the whole 
country can be doubled without increasing 
the expense of cultivation one cent. And 
we offer a hint just here: let no farmer husk 
his corn this fall without saving at the time, 
or before, the seed that is to be used next 
season ; and let onr illustration be the model 
to work to and for; and cease not in making 
selections until a variety that will give a 
perfect ear at each joint is produced. 
have to be made from the ordinary system 
of planting in crowded hills, for this has 
always had a tendency to make every va¬ 
riety unproductive. The branching varie¬ 
ties will do far better if planted in drills, al¬ 
lowing each stalk plenty of room. The 
same number of stalks can be grown on an 
acre by the drill system as in hills. 
We hope our readers will carefully study 
this picture and draw their own conclusions 
as to (lie product of an acre covered with 
such specimens. There arc no surplus stalks 
of so coarse and woody a nature that they 
are entirely useless for anything except ma¬ 
nure or ashes, and yet there is no deficiency 
in leaves to assimilate materials drawn from 
gle ear of the same is also shown of natural 
size. This is not a fanciful representation of 
an accidental specimen, hut whole fields of 
stalks just like it have boon grown the past 
season; and wc have grown in our own gar¬ 
den several hundred stalks, none of which 
have produced less than four cars, and from 
that number up to seven or eight, Mr. 
Hudson has three varieties, all of the same 
habit, and we have not the least hesitancy 
in saying that every farmer can change the 
sorts he now cultivates into a branching 
variety in a few years if ho will lake the 
trouble of always selecting his seed corn 
from the stalks producing the greatest num¬ 
ber of ears. A little change, however, will 
with it as long as there is a chance for im¬ 
provement in any direction. 
Taking all the different varieties together 
they will not yield on an average more than 
two ears per stalk ; but if one ear more can be 
added, and still retain this full size, the in¬ 
crease in amount produced in the whole coun¬ 
try would be enormous. Comparatively 
speaking this would be but a slight improve¬ 
ment, and far loss than what can he done if 
those who cultivate, this grain will attend to 
the careful selection of seed. For the purpose 
of showing that wonderful advance has al¬ 
ready been made in this direction, we give 
herewith an exact representation of the stalk 
of anew variety raised by Mr. Judson. A sin- 
IMPROVEMENTS IN CORN, 
Indian corn or Zen mays is but a giant 
species of grass. In the arrangement of its 
flowers it differs widely from the common 
grasses of our pastures and meadows; for 
instead of both sexes being produced in a 
single panicle or spike they arc borne sepa¬ 
rately, the male flowers (the tassel) crown 
the stem while the female (the silk) issue 
from the axil of a leaf at a point usually 
termed a joint. The ear of corn being really 
an axillary branch bearing seed, and inclosed 
within a kind of secondary leaves called 
husks. The question must have occurred to 
every one who has ever examined a stalk of 
corn, “ Why is it that an car is produced 
from one or more joints and not from ot hers.” 
On the stems of very tall corn there are 
often ten to twenty joints, and only one or 
two ears; but we can discover no good roa- 
son why there should not be an ear at the 
axil of every loaf. It is true that with moat 
of our common varieties we do noL expect it, 
knowing in advance their unproductive 
habit. In other words, varieties lmvc been 
bred up or down to their present condition. 
The larger sorts of the South and West have 
been selected for size of kernel and ear, not 
for numbers, consequently we find the tallest 
and coarsest growing varieties producing 
fewer ears per stalls than the dwarfs; and this 
involves a great waste of fertilizing material, 
drawn from the soil, unless the stalks are 
valued in proportion to bulk, which is never 
done. 
Where the soil is sufficiently strong to 
withstand this drain Upon its fertility, the 
production of an excessive amount of stalk 
and leaves is of lit t le or no consequence, any 
more than the extra number of bushels of 
com required to make a hundred pounds of 
pork upon the raw-boned, slow-fattening 
breeds of hogs that have been kept far 
Of course, wo cannot determine upon 
this, bill must take the “ general run,”—and 
that is in favor of early and frequent cut¬ 
tings. Whatever philosophy may be applied 
to this, experience tells us that it is the best 
for our meadows. It thickens their sod, 
enables them to withstand winter the better, 
and such meadows put out earlier in the 
springs. Besides, more feed is obtained, and 
of a better quality. The thing is all clear, if 
we only look at it. Our clover lots cut fre¬ 
quently, become perennial; cut once, for 
seed or late hay, they die out. 
One field of a given number of acres will 
do more service cut twice, and the after- 
math permitted to remain taken yearly, than 
twice the number of acres cut once and 
then aftermath fed off. It Is the way in 
Italy, where it becomes necessary from the 
scarcity of land to get the most off of it 
with the least expense. Here, the benefit Is 
more than doublo. 
It is not the quantity so much as in the 
quality of the hay that favors frequent cut¬ 
tings,—and the benefit thereafter, in the 
thickening of the sod. The aftermath 
should always be left. This is a greater 
aid than is generally supposed. But we 
arc left to “ turn in" and feed oil’, getting 
some benefit; but the “ coat,” which is the 
many of our readers living in the South and 
West, the reported average amount of corn 
produced per acre in the old and apparently 
worn-out soils of the Eastern States, has 
seemed to be something marvelous, to say 
the least, and some of them have openly ex¬ 
pressed their doubts in regard to the correct¬ 
ness of the figures. That the average yield 
per acre of corn in the older States is from 
twenty to thirty per cent, higher than in the 
richer soils and more favorable climate of 
the West and South, cannot be successfully 
nevertheless, a la- 
controverted, but it is, 
mentable fact, and should not and would 
not exist, if farmers used more brains and 
less muscle in cultivating their crops. 
We do not propose to discuss the relative 
value of the various systems of culture prac¬ 
ticed by our farmers, although it will lie ad¬ 
mitted by every man who has examined them 
personally, that they have much to do in 
making up the difference in yield noted 
above. But our special object at this time 
is to show how, and wherein, great im¬ 
provements have been and can he made in 
the productiveness of varieties. In growing 
a crop of corn, we have but two prominent 
objects in view :—First, the grain ; second, 
stalks and leaves for fodder, and as a general 
rule, the former being the most valuable, our 
aim is to produce the largest amount possi¬ 
ble from a given area of soil. We will say 
. nothing of quality, as that appears to be 
quite satisfactory, and if a farther advauce 
in this direction is desired, it can he obtained 
^ in the same manner as other improvements 
^ have been, viz., by careful selections of natural 
or forced variations. If a man has a variety 
L of corn that suits his climate and soil as 
^ well as himself, he should not rest content 
A Cargo Crop of Wlient. 
W. II. Cornwell of Ingham Co., Mich., 
writes that his neighbor, N. W. Hill, for¬ 
merly of Monroe Co., N. Y., bad a. field of 
twenty acres of Treadwell and Diehl varie¬ 
ties #f wheat—half of each—the total yield 
of which was three hundred and seventy- 
eight bushels. He top dresses his land with 
manure. 
