4 
Vol XLI1. No 1725. 
NEW YORK, FEB. 17, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.) 
WAUSHAKUM CORN. 
DR. E. L. STURTKVANT. 
HE Waushakum Corn com 
menced its history some eight 
years ago by carefully select¬ 
ing the ears. During the 
growth of the ensuing year’s 
selections, the area planted 
for seed purposes was care¬ 
fully gone over and every 
plant which did not indicate at the time of 
blooming a large ear, and every plant which 
was “ off " habit were carefully removed, 
thus insuring that the ears which were left 
should be fertilized from pollen of a character 
equal to themselves. We have thus gained a 
corn of cylindrical cob, while the kernels 
hold their size from the butt to the tip. The 
kernels, compactly set upon the small oob, 
are dense and heavy. The sample sent repre¬ 
sents a type of the Waushakum Corn, but in 
this unfavorable seasou 1 cannot furnish you 
with as good an ear as is ordinarily grown. 
[Our engraving, Fig. 70, is a true portrait.— 
Eds.] The description of this corn is as follows: 
Waushakum Corn, an eight-rowed yellow 
Hint corn, about 45 kernels to the row and 
nine inches long. Cob small, ear cylindrical, 
kernels projecting over stalk at bntt, round¬ 
ing over the tip, even in size and compactly 
arranged. A bushel basket full of ears as 
thrown in loosely will shell out half a bushel 
and a pint of grain. Weight of corn, all 
selected ears, 64 pounds to the struck busheL 
On selected specimens, about 10 per cent, of 
cob. Maximum yield has been 123 bushels 
on an acre. The average yield about 80 bush¬ 
els, from 18 to 20 acres area. A single kernel 
has produced 23 ears under experimental cul¬ 
ture. The strong point about this corn is its 
fixity of type and its power to overcome un¬ 
favorable conditions. 
A NEW WHEAT. 
Illustrations have been presented in this 
journal of what is called the Seven-headed 
Wheat or Egyptian Wheat. This, when sown 
at all, is sown as a Spring kind. At the Ru¬ 
ral Farm we have raised it for two years as 
a Winter wheat. The kernels are shriveled 
and small, the headB mildew and the yield is 
light—so that, except as a curiosity or for 
breeding purposes, it has been rejected. A 
friend has seut us a head of wheat which 
seems to combine the characteristics of what 
we call the Black-bearded Centennial with 
the Egyptian or Seven-headed, ns the illus¬ 
tration, Fig. 71, will show. The beards are 
black, the heads crowded with grains of a 
large size—each spikelet bearing four or more. 
We have planted a few of the grains and sent 
the rest to Spring-wheat growing sections, 
ho that, if ours fail, as we suppose they will, 
the variety may still be preserved. 
-— 
AN ACRE OF POTATOES. 
HUGH L. WYSOR. 
Readers of the Rural are given below a 
report of actual sales of potatoes made from 
less than an acre of land. It may prove in¬ 
teresting as showing what may bo done with 
potatoes under favorable circumstances. It 
should be remembered that the season just 
past has been unusually favorable for the pro¬ 
duction of this vegetable, but prices have been 
correspondingly low. The prices here men 
tioned, however, were far better than might 
have been expected. In our market [Lynch¬ 
burg) potatoes were quoted up to Aug. 15, at 
$1.00 to $1.15 per bushel, the new crop not 
I 
yet having arrived in quantities sufficiently 
large to lower the Spring prices. If my 
potatoes, then, had been shipped and sold, as 
with some exertion on my part they might 
have been prior to this date, the gross sales 
would have been considerably larger. After 
this prices went down till Oct 15, when pota¬ 
toes were bought by the car-load at 40 cents 
per bushel, netting the producer SO cents. The 
Waushakum Corn—From Nature.— 
Fig. 70. 
market becoming glutted, shipments ceased, 
and prices rose after Nov. 12th. 
The laud occupied by the crop was 100 yards 
long by 40 broad, being about 800 square 
yards less than an acre. Beginning at the 
river on which it bordered, cross lines might 
have been drawn which would have divided 
it into three plots of about equal dimensions, 
showing as many different kinds of soil, the 
first pi )t being sand, the second a stiff clay, 
and the third a gravel. The gravel produced 
the most and finest potatoes, the sand coming 
next in order, and the clay, though tbs rich¬ 
est, last. The largest tubers were found in 
this plot, but they r were fewer in number and 
more irregular in shape. The potatoes, Mam¬ 
moth Pearl, were planted March 9th in rows 
two feet eight inches apart, the tubers having 
been cut once lengthwise and one piece being 
planted every 12 inches. They were not dug 
till Oct 1st, though they were ripe by the 
middle of August. The yield in round num¬ 
bers, was 368 bushels, or at the rate of 461 
bushels per acre. Of these 293 bushels were 
marketable, and 75 bushels small, which were 
cooked and fed to hogs; 253 bushels were 
shipped to Lynchburg and sold as follows: 
29.50 bashel* at 90c. . *26.85 
28.48 *• '• * 1.-0 . 23.72 
5 56 !• “ 85c. 604 
7 30 “ “ 80o . 6 00 
182.78 " '• 75c. 137 52 
258 57 *204.13 
CHARGES. 
Freight and dravage.*35.81 
Ba« s nt . 4 35 
Commission. 10.35 
-50.51 
Net Vl'9. ..*153.12 
12 buiheis sold h'we at 75c. 11.25 
25 bushel* retain'd f r seed 75c. 18 75 
75 bushels fed to hogs worth 25c. 18.75 
368.57 *201 87 
i-.vpenses of cultivation, etc. off. 25 00 
*176.87 
From this sum an additional $25 probably 
should be taken to cover the cost of hauling 
the potatoes to the station, a distance of five 
miles. The freight rates for potatoes and 
grain from Dublin to Lynchburg, 104 miles, 
are 20 cents per .00 pounds, when less than a 
car load is shipped, or 12 cents per bushel. 
The rate ought not to be more than five 
cents per bushel. 
I omitted to state that no manure or com¬ 
mercial fertilizer was used on the crop, the 
land being in high condition. The whole piece 
had been covered with straw to the depth of 
four inches in the Winter of 1SS0, 20 bushels 
of quick-lime were then sowed on the straw, 
the whole turned under, and the land planted 
to watermelons in the Spring of 1881. The 
melons failed on account of the drought, and 
did not pay expenses. 
Cross-section Waushakum Corn. 
- 4 -*-*- 
THE RURAL PRIZE CORN REPORTS. 
Bow the Crops were Raised, etc. 
Lycoming Go., Pa.—The ground for my 
Rural Heavy Dent Corn was measured off in 
a plot33 feet square. The soil, a sandy loam, 
is about 10 inches deep, the sub-soil is two to 
four feet in depth and very much like the sur¬ 
face, except that it contains less vegetable 
matter, the next stratum below being round, 
creek gravel. A crop of wheat had been 
grown on the ground the previous season. 
With this clover had been sown in the Spring, 
which had grown so finely that by the time 
frost came in the Fall much of it was out in 
head. The latter part of February one large 
two horse load of beef cattle manure, made 
under cover, was spread evenly over the sur¬ 
face. On the 3d of May when the ground was 
plowed the clover, wherever it got through 
the manure, was six to eight inches high. As 
soon as the plowing was done a large two- 
horse load of flu? manure—scrapings from the 
barn yard—was spread npoo the plot, when it 
was harrowed several times over. It was 
then left until the 10th day of May when it 
was again harrowed and marked out three 
feet eight inches by one foot eight inches, 
making places for 171 hills. The number of 
kernels received was 188, seven of these were 
rejected as appearing too small and imperfect 
to germinate. To hasten germination the 
others had been placed in warm water the 
evening previous, where they remained until 
the afternoon of the 10th, when one kernel 
was placed at each of the 171 intersections and 
covered with about one inch of soil which, 
after being lightly pressed with the hoe, lef c 
the grain but little more than half an inch be¬ 
neath the surface. This very light covering 
was given it that the warmth of the sun might 
the more readily reach it, the soil below being 
comparatively cold for corn planting time. 
The ten kernels left over were planted on In¬ 
verted pieces of sod to facilitate transplanting 
to any other place in the plot that might for 
any cause become vacant. As soon as planted, 
20 bushels of manure from the hen-honse 
where leaf mold from the woods had been 
U3ed as an absolvent—the bulK being about 
two-thirds leaf mold—was spread evenly over 
the ground. Twenty-one kernels in the plot 
failed to germinate, and seven of the ten 
planted on the pieces of sod grew and were 
successfully transplanted to as many vacan¬ 
cies, thus making 157 hills or stalks and leav¬ 
ing 14 vacant places. In seven days the corn 
was up; in 14 days it received Its first culti¬ 
vating, and the caltivator was run through it 
every four to six days ud to the 7th of July, 
when it was hilled up with a double corn-plow 
which was set to throw a ridge or hill six 
inches high and about 20 inches wide at top, 
and somewhat lower in the center than at the 
outside. As soon as the plowing was com¬ 
pleted an adjustable cultivator with a wide 
tooth in the center and somewhat back of the 
rest to throw the ground both ways, was run 
through to loosen the ground between the 
ridges. After this the surface was loosened 
four times with the hoe, the last hoeing being 
given on the 10th day of August, when the 
corn was in full silk. The object of so late a 
hoeing was to break a crust that a heavy, 
dashing shower had caused to form on the 
surface. Every sucker was removed before 
it reached a foot in hight. The corn was ripe 
enough to cut and shock by the 20th of Sep¬ 
tember, but as there appeared no danger of 
frost for some time it was allowed to stand 
ten days longer. The highest stalk measured 
14 feet six inches, the shortest 11 feet. The 
thickest stalk measured nine inches in circum¬ 
ference and bore leaves four feet long and 
eight inches wide. The corn was husked on 
the last day of October, and weighed and 
shelled on the 9th of November. One stalk 
was barren, one bore eight ears which weighed 
3>4 pounds, four stalks bore four ears each 
which weighed 10^ pounds, 11 stalks bore 
three ears each, weighing 29 pounds; 59 stalks 
bore two ears each, weighing 108>£ pounds, 
and 81 stalks bore one ear each weighing 122 
pounds. Total number of stalks 157; total 
number of ears, 256; and total number of 
pounds of corn in the ear, 273V£. Weight of 
shelled corn, 209 pounds. Four ears taken 
from two stalks weighed six pounds; two 
ears, selected from single tearing stalks, 
weighed five pounds; 25 ears, selected from 
single bearing stalks, weighed 44 pounds; 68 
ears measured between one foot and Inch¬ 
es io length. One ear measured 10X inches in 
circumference and had 22 row - s and 59 kernels 
to the row. Daniel Stkck. 
[The above is ninth on the revised list.] 
