Voii. XL. No. 11 .1 
Whom. No. 1624. } 
NEW YORK MARCH 12, 1881. 
i Price Five Cents. 
/ $2.00 Peb Teas, 
[Entered according to Act of Oontrrees, In the year J8S1, by the Bural New-Yorker, In the office of the librarian of Genoese at Washington.! 
Jfifll) Crop. 
ON THE GROWTH OF CORN AT THE 
RURAL EAKM. 
J. B. LAWES, LL. D., F, K. 8., ROTHAMSTED, 
ENGLAND. 
The Rural New-Yorker of the first of Jan¬ 
uary of this year contains the result of some 
experiments upon the growth of corn, tried in 
three fields of the Rural Farm. The yield in 
all was immense. 8ome of the corn was grown 
with manure, the composition of which is not 
given; some withont any manure whatever, 
and, as the product of the latter amounted to 
nearly 70 bushels of shelled corn per acre, [the 
lowest of the three fields.— Eds ], it is evident 
that the soil and season were equal to produce 
such a crop by tillage operations alone. Further, 
reference is made In the article to fields in the 
neighborhood manured with veiy large quan¬ 
tities of dung and artificial manures, which 
did not produce larger crops than the unma¬ 
nured land, and not nearly so large as the ma¬ 
nured land of the Rural Farm. A question is 
then raised with regard to the source of these 
great crops, which may be put in the following 
form; Of the Bum of the various forces em¬ 
ployed in the production of the crop, assign to 
each its respective value? I think every one 
will allow that, when this question can be 
answered correctly, we may consider that Ag¬ 
ricultural Science has made 6ome progress. 
Corn is a giant among the other grain crops, 
and for me has a peculiar fascination. I have 
already called attention in this journal to the 
remarkable advantage which corn possesses 
over t he other cereal grain crops, in that it 
continues growing throughout* the Summer, 
and ripens in the Autumn, but, at the time of 
writing, I was not so fully impressed as I now 
am with the great value of temperature for 
the production of nitric acid in the soil. 
With corn the most vigorous growth and 
the most active assimilation of food take place 
just when nitrification is most active, bntwhen 
the other cereal crops have done their work. 
No wonder then that the average yield of corn 
is much a! ove that of other cereals. At the 
same time, althongh corn has access to sources 
of food in the soil, which are not available for 
other grain crops, still the food itself must 
come out of ihe soil. I will examine into the 
antecedents of the two fields iu the Rural Farm 
to see if they will give me any assistance in 
supplying an answer to the question put in the 
Rural New-Yokkkk, viz.: “ Here we have an 
unusually fine crop of corn, without any ma¬ 
nure, to what is it due ?" 
The article commences by stating that one 
of the fields, and tbat which gave the largest 
yield, had been lying idle for fourteen years, 
and the other for seven years. Now there is 
no tfuuh thing as idleness in nature; directly 
the last crop is carried off, she sets to work to 
cover the soil with vegetation; this vegetation 
dissolves the mineral matter of the soil, storeB 
up the nitric acid, and as it dies gives elf to 
the corn the food it had accumulated in the 
seven or fourte in years of its existence. At the 
present moment, the question as to whether 
the soil absolutely increases its stock of nitro¬ 
gen while at rest—that is to 6ay, while it re¬ 
mains covered with perennial vegetation— is 
not quite Bottled by us; but that a very large 
quantity of nitrogen becomes stored up and 
readily available for use when the vegetation 
is destroyed, is quite certain. To give an ex¬ 
ample. 1 may here say that the total quantity 
of dry vegetable matter, taken from a field 
whore a large crop of barley had been mown, 
amounted to 1,800 pounds per acre; and of 
this more than half was stubble and growth 
above ground, as the underground roots to the 
depth of 27 inches did not exceed 700 pounds. 
Further, on a piece of grass land which was in 
arable cultivation tweuty years ago, the first 
nine inches of soil from the surface contained 
10,000 pounds of dry vegetable matter. Nature 
has not been idle either at Rothamsted or upon 
the Rural Farm. Weight for weight, the de¬ 
spised daisies and “Quack" would contain 
more nitrogen than the corn crop grown; and 
aided by a good tillage and a favorable season 
the rapacious corn would easily dispose of the 
accumulation of food stored up as the result of 
the toil of many years. 
-» - - - -- 
TOBACCO CULTURE IN CHEMUNG CO. NO. 2 
G. GOFF, .TR. 
The Soil and its Preparation.— Three 
kinds of soil are employed for tobacco land in 
this county; first, the low lands adjacent to 
the river, which are composed in large part 
of alluvial sand; second, a belt situated a 
little back from the river, and consisting of a 
rather heavy clay loam of great natural fer¬ 
tility, entirely free from gravel, and under¬ 
laid with a compact subsoil, and, third, a 
as 2.500 pounds of leaf have been grown on a 
single acre. The gravelly loam, while it does 
not produce quite so heavy a yield per acre, ou 
an average, is considered to yield the better 
quality of leaf. The alluvial sand lying ad¬ 
jacent to the river, produces a very fine, silky 
leaf when thoroughly fertilized with stable 
manure; but it is not much used for tobacco 
owing to the light-weighing qualities of the 
leaf, which make it less profitable for the 
grower than the clay or gravelly loams, and 
the fact tbat it is usually very foul with weeds 
aDd weed seeds, brought on by the annual over¬ 
flow of the river. 
Our best growers consider that no ciop 
which they cau grow, will better repay a 
thorough and careful preparation of soil than 
tobacco. Without a thorough preparation—by 
which I mean making the soil fertile and friable 
by a sufficient quantity of manure and loose 
and mellow by sufficient cultivation—the best 
things being equal. The frequent plowing and 
harrowing necessary to a thorough summer-fal¬ 
low pulverize the soil, free it of weeds, and mix 
in the manure well, which is the best possible 
condition of soil for the requirements of the to¬ 
bacco plant. Sometimes it is not practicable to 
give soil intended for tobacco a summer-fallow. 
Where this is the case, let the nearest possible 
approach to it be made. If sod ground must 
be employed, let it be plowed as early in the 
Fall, previous to the season of setting the 
plants, as possible, so that the sod will have 
time to become partially rotted by the time 
the young plants are set in the field. Mr. 
Brant, a noted grower in onr county, has 
grown good crops on stiff sod ground, by plow¬ 
ing it rather deep the previous Fall, as above 
stated, and cross-plowing it shallow the follow¬ 
ing Spring, thus forming a mellow surface 
for the plants. A new clover sod is sometimes 
used with good result and when properly man¬ 
ured is a very good foundation for a crop of 
tobacco. Of 
The Manures in use for tobacco, com¬ 
mon barnyard or stable manure is preferable, 
to any other. Horse manure is considered the 
best, as it is supposed to produce a better 
quality of leaf than that mode from cattle, but 
any kind of barnyard manure, if well rotted, 
will give good results. These manures may 
be applied at any season when the ground 
is not occupied with the crop; but it is cus¬ 
tomary to apply it immediately after the crop 
has been removed, as it will then have oppor¬ 
tunity to decay and the elements will become in¬ 
corporated in the soil. Green manures are 
not suited to the wants of the tobacco plant. 
They produce neither large yield nor goed 
quality. Commercial fertilizers are not in 
favor among Chemung tobacco growers, though 
they are occasionally used when other man¬ 
ures cannot be procured. They are at best 
considered poor substitutes for barnyard man¬ 
ure, and on onr rich, heavy soil, frequent 
trials have failed to prove their utility in in¬ 
creasing the growth of the plant; besides, 
their nse is thought to injure the burning 
qualities of the leaf. 
The Tobacco Bed. —It is my aim in these 
articles to give plain directions for growing 
and handling a crop of tobacco from begin¬ 
ning to end, by which farmers not experienced 
in this line of farming, may be guided. Each 
process will be described as nearly as possible 
in the order in which it occurs. 
A good tobacco bed, surrounded with a frame 
elautiug towards the south or east aud fitted 
for a covering of glass, is considered indispen¬ 
sable iu growing early plants. While these do 
not always yield the best tobacco, it is impor¬ 
tant, with the farmer who anticipates growing 
a considerable quantity of tobacco, to have 
some early plants. A succession of Bettings is 
desirable iuasmuch as it gives the grower more 
time to perform the various steps in their sea¬ 
son and to do them well than if the entire crop 
required attention at once. For this reason we 
herb growers aim to have some early plants, 
some mediumearly, and some late, which pro¬ 
vides for the desired succession of settings. 
The early plants are grown under glass and the 
late ones withont the nse of that covering. 
The bed should be prepared the Summer pre¬ 
vious to the Spring when it 16 needed for nse, 
and frequently forked over during the Summer 
and Autumn to give the weed seeds a chance 
to germinate and bo destroyed. In making 
new beds it is best to draw a few loads of very 
rich soil or mnek form some rich spot, and 
apply it to the bed. When the bed is completed, 
if not already rich enough, letaliberal coating 
of well rotted barnyard manure be applied. 
This manure not only adds fertility to the bed, 
but it has a valuable meckauical effect in the 
soil, rendering it loose and friable, so that it 
will more perfectly hold an even moisture, 
which is essential for the quick germination of 
seed and growth of the young plants. Iu the 
Fall before the ground freezes up, let the sure 
face soil be thrown up into a ridge, extending 
SHOWING ESCUTCHEON OF JERSEY BULL-CALF, GRAND MIRROR, 4,904 
From a Photograph.— Fig. 147,— S«e Page 171 
drier, more elevated aud lighter soil usually 
gravelly, underlaid with clay, but of leas aver¬ 
age fertility than the second class. Tobacco 
is chiefly grown ou the two latter kinds of soil, 
which, having a good natural draiuage and at 
the same time a subsoil which entirely pre¬ 
vents the leaching of the surface soil, seem ad¬ 
mirably adapted to the requirements of the 
tobacco plant. 
The heavy clay loam, being more naturally 
fertile than the gravelly loam, produces the 
heaviest crops, and in some instances as much 
results either in quality or yield of the crop 
caunot be expected. It is true an occasional 
good crop of tobacco iB produced from sod 
ground or soil not properly prepared; but it 
is the exception, not the rule. The best pre¬ 
paration of soli for tobacco Is a thorough 
summer-fallow the season previous to setting 
the plants. At the same time the ground 
should be manured by as heavy an application 
of barnyard or stable manure, as can be ob¬ 
tained, remembering the more manure the 
more tobacco and the better the quality, other 
» 
