NEW-YORKER. 
place will have to be provided for the fodder. 
One curious fact about the practice is devel¬ 
oped.—The manufacturers of thrashing ma¬ 
chines never knew what their implements 
could do until farmers showed them. It was 
much like the veterinarians allowing the “dis¬ 
covery of dehorning” to be made by farmers. 
Now that corn thrashing is becoming so pop¬ 
ular it is probable that manufacturers of 
thrashers will bring out a machine better 
suited to the work than those now used. The 
following notes, selected from a great number 
of letters received from those who practice 
corn-thrashing, will be interesting. 
from h. cox. 
The method of preparing corn-fodder by 
thrashing was begun here some three or four 
years ago and has gradually been more widely 
adopted. I find that about 200 acres of stalks 
(with and without the corn) have been 
thrashed within two miles of my place. 
Cost per day for machine.§12.00 
Eight men at §1. 8.00 
Wood. 2.00 
Board of 12 men for one day- 3.00 
§25.00 
Quantity thrashed 30 acres. 
In some places more men might be needed, 
but if everything was in good shape for the 
work the above number would be enough. I 
have said nothing about teams, as corn¬ 
thrashing time is a time of leisure and horses 
are better doing that than nothing. A few 
miles south of us the machine owners are 
charging §10 per day. They seem perfectly 
willing to do the work. 
The changes in the machines are as follows: 
Leave only one row of teeth in the concave, 
and if all the corn is in the fodder remove 
enough of the cylinder teeth so as not to cut 
the grain—that is, if it is thought best not to 
cut; the advisability of doing so will depend 
somewhat upon the proportion of grain to the 
fodder. 
There is no trouble in saving the fodder if 
it is in proper condition for housing, and if 
the corn is somewhat damp with slight atten¬ 
tion it will turn out all right. I would advise 
to thrash with the stalks what' graiii. one 
wants to feed for the winter months, and if 
each grain were broken once or twice it would 
please many. Feeding the stalks into the 
machine butts first, if they are held slightly 
as they go in, will tear them more thoroughly 
than can be done in any other way. We use 
a separator that has seen its best days for 
thrashing small grains. 
Of course, there are farmers who will do 
this work too early in the season, and then 
condemn the whole business. Where the task 
of husking corn by hand is taken out of a 
farmer’s life, it leaves a wide gap to be filled 
by something else. 
Kalamazoo Co., Mich. 
FROM G. A. HOSKINS. 
The way I came to thrash fodder corn was 
as follows: I was thrashing oats with the two- 
horse thrashing machine, made by A. W. 
Gray’s Sons, and had just got the last of them 
done and we were about to take the horses out 
of the power, when, looking back on the barn 
floor, I saw a few bunches of unhusked corn, 
and remarked to my men that I would see 
how the machine would work in corn. So I 
started the horses again and put the corn 
through, getting about a bushel of shelled 
corn nicely cleaned. I found the fodder wps 
stripped and broken up nearly as well as if it 
had been run through a shredder, and I could 
find no corn left on any of the pieces of cob. 
My work was badly behind on account of 
building, and nearly all my corn was still in 
the field and not cut, and on account of 
stormy weather I was unable to cut and get it 
in in the usual way, so I went to work at it, 
cutting it up and putting it on my wagon and 
hauling it directly to the barn and putting it 
all through the thrasher. I found I could 
thrash 20 to 25 bushels per hour, and the fod¬ 
der was left in better shape to feed. In fact, 
I would as soon have the fodder cut in that 
way as to have it cut in a regular fodder cut¬ 
ter for stock. On account of the corn being 
so damp and soft, some of the kernels were 
cracked; but with dry corn and a concave for 
the machine adapted for the purpose, I think 
no amount of any consequence would be 
broken. 
The only difficulty is in curing the corn 
after it has been thrashed;but I shall build a 
crib for next year with that especial object in 
view, and then I feel sure I shall have no 
trouble on that score, and can get my corn 
out of the way as quickly as by the old prac¬ 
tice and more cheaply. I can thrash it cheap¬ 
er than I can husk it, and the fodder is worth 
enough more to pay for the expense of thrash¬ 
ing it. 
Rutland Co., Vt. 
PREMIUM YIELDS IN 1845. 
The following is a record of the premium 
yields of corn, oats, carrots, beets and turnips 
made by certain farmers of Long Island, N. 
Y., during the season of 1845. The premiums 
were offered by an agricultural society of 
those days, the name of which our written 
record does not tell us. 
Corn. — Thomas K. Young, Oyster Bay, 
Queens Co., for the best acre of corn, viz.; 
122 bushels of shelled corn, premium §5. Geo. 
Hewlett, of Rockaway, second best, 120% 
bushels. Peter T. Hewlett, Rockaway, third 
best, 67% bushels. 
Oats. —Daniel K. Young, Oyster Bay, for 
the best crop, being 79 bushels per acre. Pre¬ 
mium a silver medal. Thomas F. Young, of 
Oyster Bay, for second best crop, 66 bushels 
per acre. Premium §3. 
Carrots. —Daniel K. Young for the best 
crop of carrots, 281 bushels from one-quarter 
of an acre. William Ketchum, of Jericho, 
for the second best crop of 62 bushels from 
one-quarter of an acre at an expense of §10. 
Beets— Daniel K. Young, of Oyster Bay, 
for the best crop, being 193 bushels from one- 
quarter of an acre. 
Turnips. —William Ketchum, of Jericho ) 
for the best crop, being 134% bushels from 
one-quarter of an acre at an expense of §15.15. 
THE BRAZILIAN FLOUR CORN. 
H. l. wysor. 
Gross exaggeration in advertisements de¬ 
nounced; the real merits of Brazilian 
Flour Corn render its introducers' exag¬ 
gerations needless; it makes good u corn ” 
flour\but not wheat flour; in suitable cli¬ 
mate and soil it is unequaled as a forage 
plant ; requires 120 days to mature even in 
Southwestern Virginia; suitable for the 
South only with certainty. 
If a habit of gross exaggeration—not to use 
a harsher expression—be any bar to getting 
to heaven, many of our seedsmen will get 
there only by the grace of God. That a man 
who honestly believes that he has produced or 
has in his possession for sale something un¬ 
commonly useful or valuable should some¬ 
what exaggerate its importance, even though 
he might be quite mistaken as to its merits, is 
perfectly natural and no doubt excusable; but 
when, in order to induce people to buy, he 
does not confine himself strictly to the truth 
as he knows it or ought to know it, and goes 
beyond the bounds of probability, or, per. 
haps, possibility, that is altogether another 
thiug and not at all permissible. 
Of the numerous cases which might be 
mentioned where exaggeration has been 
carried entirely too tar, the so-called Brazil¬ 
ian Flour Corn is a recent example. This 
variety, notwithstanding the Rural’s un¬ 
favorable opinion of it, has, in a climate to 
which it is adapted, merits enough of its 
own not to need to lay claim to those which 
more properly belong to auother and quite a 
different plant. The seedsman who in the 
spring of 1836 claimed to be its introducer 
(although it had been known in the South 
several years before as Clark’s Flour Corn) 
alleged that it made as good bread, pies, bis¬ 
cuits, etc., as the best wheat flour, and, in¬ 
deed, that some people preferred it to the 
latter. His enthusiasm this year has to 
some extent cooled down, as, though he still 
makes the above statement more moderately, 
he admits that the corn will be more valu¬ 
able in the South, w'here corn bread is prin¬ 
cipally used, of which it makes a superior 
article. It does, too, make flour (and so, for 
that matter* do other varieties of field 
corn when ground and bolted like 
wheat); but, then, all the same, it is 
corn flour. The statements which have 
been made would lead people to suppose that 
this flour was unuistinguishable from that of 
wheat. The Brazilian Corn, from the soft and 
starchy nature of its grain, grinds much finer, 
with less grit, bolts more readily, and the 
corny taste is much less pronounced than in 
other corns, though the flour has not the 
toughness or glutinous nature of wheat flour. 
Biscuits made from it are, while hot, very 
agreeable to the taste; when cold, though 
still very good, the corn smell and taste be¬ 
come more distinct. Undoubtedly it would 
have proved a god-send to Southern house¬ 
wives during the latter part of the war when 
they were so hard beset to find a substitute 
for wheat, which had become almost unob¬ 
tainable, that they used buckwheat flour out 
of which to make pies and cakes. They had 
previously tried flour from common field corn, 
but it had the unfortunate habit of cracking 
open in every direction when baked. 
As a forage and fodder plant the Brazilian 
corn is unequaled. No other, whether flint 
or dent, can approach it. When intended, 
however, to be grown for grain, its habit of 
profuse suckering is extremely objectionable. 
To remove these suckers twice at least, over 
a large area would be a task to give one a 
back-ache which he would not soon forget. 
As a corn to be fed to cattle in the fodder 
without husking, as is usually done in South¬ 
western Virginia, it would be invaluable, the 
ears being many and small and so soft as to 
be easily crushed by animals of all kinds. 
The writer, with a view to testing it in 
every way, planted half an acre of it. His 
intention was to have but one stalk in each 
hill, eighteen inches apart, but finding, after 
it came up, that the hills were nearly two 
feet apart, he left two stalks and allowed the 
suckers to grow. As a consequence, the plot 
became more like a cane-brake than a corn 
field, but the yield of fodder was immense. 
Of grain the produce was comparatively 
light—about 50 bushels per acre—the stalks, 
including suckers, averaging two ears. It re¬ 
quires 120 days to mature—the “introducer” 
now says 110—and, on account of the soft¬ 
ness of the grain, it should not be cut until it 
is thoroughly ripe and the weather is cool, 
otherwise it will spoil in the shock. It will 
not mature here very far away from the 
larger streams, nor on any but warm or 
alluvial soils. In parts of Virginia, and 
north of it, therefore, it could be planted 
with safety only in spots, so to speak. To 
show how little the fact that any given va¬ 
riety of corn may succeed at a certain point 
is any indication of its succeeding elsewhere 
in even the same county, the writer may men¬ 
tion that the season on his own farm, lying 
on a large stream, is from two to three weeks 
longer than it is a mile or more further north. 
A frost occurring last fall the last day of 
September caught over half the corn in this 
part of the State uncut, though it only injured 
the fodder, while on the farm mentioned 
fodder corn planted on July 15th was still 
green October 15th. 
Pulaski Co., Va. 
A FEW REFLECTIONS ON CORN 
RAISING. 
Doubling the crop possible simply by wiser 
cultivation ; preparation of the seed-bed 
better than cultivation of the growing crop\ 
when and how to cultivate ; much and deep 
cultivation injurious ; no root-pruning; 
how to grow a big crop. 
The corn crop of this country can be dou¬ 
bled without increasing the amount of fertil¬ 
izers at present used, or the acreage. This 
statement will doubtless be questioned by a 
large number of intelligent farmers. There 
is no other crop in the United States about 
the cultivation of which there is such a differ¬ 
ence of opinion, or the best way of cultivat¬ 
ing which is so little understood. Three- 
fourths of the farmers who grow corn at all 
cultivate it either too much or improperly. 
By cultivation I mean the work given to the 
crop after it is up and growing, and not the 
preparation of the soil before planting. Corn 
requires but comparatively little cultivation 
if the soil has been properly prepared before¬ 
hand ; and whatever work it receives should 
be given when the crop is quite young. Thor- 
oughlj" breaking and pulverizing the soil are 
the most important considerations. The cul¬ 
tivation should begin as soon as the corn is 
cleverly up with either a harrow or cultiva¬ 
tor, and the work should be continued until 
the crop is laid by. If the corn is planted in 
checks, one good plowing each way will se¬ 
cure a good crop, other conditions being fa¬ 
vorable. It should be laid by before it is 
knee-high, and the last plowing should be very 
shallow. A turning plow should never go in 
a corn-field after the crop is planted. The 
modern one-horse turning plow has destroyed 
millions of bushels of corn, and the same may 
be said of the long-shank double-shovel. The 
turning-plow leaves the field in ridges, while 
level culture is the proper thing. The double¬ 
shovel will go too deep in spite of the plow¬ 
man, and mutilate the young lateral corn 
roots. Every time these roots are bruised or 
broken the corn is damaged. Root-pruning is 
an advantage to a barren fruit tree, but it 
should not be practiced in the cultivation of a 
corn crop. 
To grow corn successfully, make the soil 
fertile if not already so ; break deep; pulver¬ 
ize thoroughly; run a drag over it and let it 
take a rain or two. Re-break it not quite so 
deep ; harrow again; theu run a drag over it 
to make it smooth. Lay it off 3% to 4% feet 
each way. Plant good, sound corn. Begin 
to cultivate early, and quit early. Do not be 
too impatient to plant. Better to wait until 
the ground gets warm. If you plant too 
early the corn will make a slow start; the 
stalks will get hard and the crop will never do 
so well: besides, the grass or weeds may get 
ahead of the corn. Put the turning-plow 
and double-shovel under the tool-shed as soon 
as the corn is planted, and use the cultivator 
and a one-horse harrow with short teeth. 
In breaking the land, a good coat of young 
grass and weeds will be turned under, and 
millions of seeds just germinating wiil be de¬ 
stroyed, thus making the labor of cultivation 
much less. 
It is a fallacy to throw up a big ridge next 
to the corn to keep it from being blown down. 
The roots hold up the corn. Just as well pile 
soil around a fruit tree to keep it from being 
blown down. It is a fallacy to plow corn 
deep when it is silking, during a drought, to 
bring up the moisture. The plowing is a ser¬ 
ious injury. If the soil has been properly pre¬ 
pared the moisture will be brought up by cap¬ 
illary attraction. It is a fallacy to undertake^ 
by five or siz plowings in a field of growing 
corn, to do the work that ought to have been 
done before planting. a. b. coleman. 
Caldwell Co. Ky. 
NOTES ON CORN CULTURE. 
IN ALABAMA. 
In a competitive trial in this neighborhood 
a few years ago for the largest yield of corn 
to the acre on any kind of land, the first prize 
was taken by a yield of 80 bushels upon bot¬ 
tom land without any fertilizing. The soil, 
which was a creek bottom, was well broken 
with a two-horse plow; the rows were laid off 
four feet wide, and the corn was drilled and 
thinned to 18 inches in the row. It was kept 
perfectly clean by frequent and shallow cul¬ 
tivation, no manure being used at any time 
in its culture. The season was very favora¬ 
ble. The fodder was pulled and cured for feed 
as is the universal custom here. 
If I wished to duplicate or increase the crop 
for 1888, I would select a good creek bottom 
of alluvial soil, plow deep and early, cross- 
plowing again before planting. Lay off rows 
four feet wide and sow 200 pounds of super¬ 
phosphate in the drill with the corn at the 
second plowing; thin out to 15 inches in the 
row and apply 100 pounds of superphosphate 
in the furrow next to the corn. I would give 
two more applications of 75 pounds of super¬ 
phosphate at the successive plowings. The 
crop must be kept perfectly clean by frequent 
cultivation every 10 or 15 days—shallow after 
first plowing. Fodder should not be pulled 
until it begins to burn. E. A. B. 
Talledega, Ala. 
IN NEW YORK. 
We are not in the corn belt, yet some very 
good corn crops have been raised in this 
vicinity. I once knew a small farmer who 
had one acre of clover sod he desired to pre¬ 
pare for corn. He drew 20 two-horse wagon 
loads of stable manure upon the land and 
spread it soon after the snow went off. He 
left it until the clover was about 10 inches 
high, when he plowed this piece six inches 
deep. It was a gravelly-loam soil. The next 
day he harrowed it until it was in fine con¬ 
dition. He planted it with the 12-rowed 
Dutton corn 3% feet apart one way and two 
feet the other, two kernels in a hill. Before 
it was up he put a handful of wood ashes 
upon each hill. 
Just as the stalks began to prick through 
the ground he gave it a good harrowing with 
a winged 32-tooth harrow. One week later 
he gave it about a teaspoonful of land plaster 
to the hill, and cultivated and hoed it. Twice 
a week, when the weather would permit, be 
went through it with the cultivator as close to 
the corn as possible,and when it was six inches 
high he gave it another coat of land plaster. 
The cultivator was used every week until the 
corn was so large the leaves could be tied 
over a man’s head. It was hoed three times— 
level culture. As soon as nicely glazed it was 
cut at the roots and stooked up. When dry 
it was husked, and the result was 150 bushels 
of ears of sound corn from the acre. The 
next spring this piece was plowed eight inches 
deep and sown to spring wheat and seeded to 
clover, using 20 pounds of clover seed. This 
rotation continued for over 20 years, and the 
crops both of corn and wheat were satisfac¬ 
tory. 
The Yellow Dutton, KiugPhillip and Angel 
of Midnight are all well adapted to our 
climate and I am persuaded the Rural hy¬ 
bridized corn will stand well up among the 
best of them. Last season it ripened at least 
one week ahead of either. Were I to make a 
special effort at a large yield of corn, I would 
secure a gravellv loam soil, manure in the 
fall with at least 25 loads of good stable 
manure, and leave it until spring; then plow 
perfectly at least six inches deep, cultivate 
until the soil is perfectly fine and smooth. I 
would then plant 12-rowed Dutton corn 3 % 
feet by two, two kernels in a hill, using about 
half an ounce of phosphate to the hill. I 
would cover this and then drop and cover the 
corn. Then I would use a light land roller, 
and as soon as the stalks appeared I would har¬ 
row until all weeds were destroyed. I would 
give level culture, keeping the cultivator and 
hoe going each week enough to keep all weeds 
