452 
MARCH $ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
three feet apart each way with two stalks in 
the hill, and supposing the ears to average 
equally well in both cases, the yield per acre 
would be one-third greater. I once saw a field 
of 100 acres planted in this way, which was es¬ 
timated by good judges to average 00 bushels 
per acre. Here we never leave more than two 
stalks in a hill, as iu this way the ears are so 
much longer and larger, that they will yield 
more than when three or four stalks are left, 
especially as in the latter case, the plants fre¬ 
quently do not have any ears at all from being 
too crowded. 
It would be the higlit of folly for a man here 
to pursue the plan followed by Judge Buel in 
raising 120 bushels to the acre, which was to 
plant in drills, two rows in a drill, the plants 
nine inches apart, and three feet uiue inches 
from the center of the drills. As an illustra¬ 
tion, I may state that on one occasion I de¬ 
termined. if possible, to raise 100 bushels on 
an acre. I marked off an exact acre of sandy 
land, which had been heavily manured for the 
purpose, and planted the corn in rows three 
feet apart, with the plants two feet apart, and 
two stalks in Hie hill. The corn grew nearly 
14 feet high—it was a large yellow kind from 
Ohio—but on two-thirds of it there was not a 
single ear, so that instead of raising 100 bush¬ 
els, I raised scarcely ten. The corn was burnt 
up for want of air. 
A word now as to the object to be sought 
after in cultivating corn, and I shall cease to 
try the patience of your readers. One Object 
is, of course, to keep down the weeds, hut the 
principal object is to stunt the growth of the 
stalk. Iu this, I concur in the opinion of Dr. 
Stnrtevant that the roots must be pruned. That 
corn should grow to the higlit of 14 or 15 feet, 
as the seedsmen in praise of a variety which 
they have for sale, often say it does, is in my 
opinion a serious disadvantage for more rea¬ 
sons than one. 
The best ears of corn I ever saw grew on 
stout, stubby stalks not over 8 or 10 feet high. 
Whether the side roots he cut or broken off 
by either deep or shallow’ plowing does not 
much matter, as the tap root is out of the way 
of being injured by either method. It is cer¬ 
tainly, however, a useless, if uot injurious 
practice to throw hills around the plants, as it 
cannot possibly do them any good. It has 
been the result of my observations that ihe 
stalks can be thoroughly stunted only by rapid 
successive plow‘mgs. If an interval of a week 
or ten days is al)ow r ed to elapse alter the first 
working before the second is begun, there will 
scarcely be any check to upward growth of 
the stalk. As soou as the first working is fin¬ 
ished, the second should be begun at once, 
cross-plowing, if the ground be checked. 
These w orkings should he continued till atten¬ 
tion is demanded by other crops. Here, we 
have uo particular time to “ lay by" corn. We 
generally quit working it at harvest, which 
occurs between the twentieth of June and the 
first of July. 
Newbern, Va., Jan. 80,1878. 
THE PROFIT OF CORN RAISING AS COM¬ 
PARED WITH WHEAT. 
“ Can we produce corn iu the East profitably,” 
is & question often asked, hut seldom answered 
satisfactorily. The greater ease of cultivation 
in the West, the heavier production, the low 
rates ot transportation added to the natural 
adaptability of the soil, all tend to detract 
from the corn as a principal crop. Many stock 
feeders arc buying Western corn and affirm 
that they do so much more cheaply than they 
could produce it on their own lands East. Be¬ 
sides. the quality of the grain for feeding pur¬ 
poses is iu advance of our own production. If 
wc cannot raise coi n at a profit, equal to that 
of other grain, w e are unwise to pursue its cul¬ 
tivation, except what is needed for home con¬ 
sumption, and even that may be more profit¬ 
ably purchased iu mauy instances. In 1876 
the corn crop of Illinois was estimated at two 
hundred and twenty-three million bushels; 
that of New York at only twenty-one million. 
This shows that the production of this crop 
here is uot profitable. Again, let us compare 
the average cost of corn on a given areu of 
laud with the cost of wheat on au equal area. 
Two fields of ten acres each were taken for 
experiment, and a careful account kept of the 
diBbursements and receipts, with the follow¬ 
ing results: 
Cohn Field, 10 aches. 
Dr. 
To 10 days plowing. 
3 “ (irtggluK and marking 
'* a " planting. 
" 20 •' cultivating. 
‘ 10 “ shocking... 
■* % of crop tor husking. 
•“ 6 days cribbing.. 
*• 100 loads manure. 
moo 
8.00 
6.1 0 
40.00 
10.00 
31.26 
15.00 
50.00 
Total 
180.26 
Corn Field, 10 Aches. 
Or. 
By 1,000 bushel ears. *2J0 00 
“ stalks. -0-00 
Total...... 300. UU 
Dess cost. 180.25 
Bat. 108.76 
The account above is estimated at a very low 
figure, and as will be observed, uo mention is 
made of hoeing or fertilizing. One hundred 
bushels are far above the average crop in the 
East, especially on the hills. Some men un¬ 
derstand corn and have large yields nearly 
every season ; but of these there are few. Now 
let us note the profit of the same field sown 
with wheat. 
Wheat Field. 10 Acres. 
To 10 days plowing. 
•• 2 '* dragging. 
“ « •* harvesting... 
•* drawing... 
“ th' ash tog... 
“ 100 loads manure. 
Total. 
Wheat Field. 10 aches. 
By 350 bushels. 
“ 6 toads straw . 
Total. 
Less cOBt. 
Dr. 
*30-00 
0.00 
9.00 
0 00 
19.27 
60.00 
.. 120.27 
Cr. 
. *385.50 
. 15.00 
. 41)0.50 
. 120.27 
Bal. 280.23 
By comparing the two we find a halauce of 
8170.48 in favor of wheat, or while from the 
ten acres planted with corn we receive a profit 
of *109.75. from the same field sown with 
wheat wc would receive *280.28, aside from 
cost of production. With this difference it is 
not profitable to raise com here for market. 
But little corn will yield well on old ground 
without hand culture, and if this item were also 
added, the difference would be considerably 
greater. Hector Bertram. 
-- 
GROWING CORN ON THE 43rd PARALLEL. 
F. D. CURTIS. 
Indian corn is the most important crop, 
next to grass, grown in this region. The 
farmer depends upon it almost entirely to make 
his pork and beef, to winter his poultry, aud 
to a considerable extent for feeding his work¬ 
ing teams, for which it is well adapted. It 
does not enter into the domestic economy of 
housekeeping as much as it should. The hard, 
or flint corn, is the ouly variety grown ami 
this is not so well adapted for cooking, and is 
much harder to digest, than the lighter aud 
softer dent variety. The latter does not con¬ 
tain so much oil and makes lighter and more 
digestible food. Far mers have not arrived at 
the progressive point of purchasing meal 
made from dent corn and using it iu their 
families, thus saving flour, and bringing to 
their table a healthy, nutritious aud cheap 
food. In making a collection of corn grown 
in this latitude for exhibition in Paris last 
year, under the supervision of the Agricultural 
Department, we found tweuty different kinds. 
In color they were yellow, brown, white, and 
red, and one was variegated, each kernel be¬ 
ing tinted with yellow and brown. The lar¬ 
gest number contained eight rows on the cob ; 
one, the Dutton, had ten, twelve, aud even 
sixteeu rows. There is a late and an early 
kind of Dutton, the early having the longer 
ear and the late containing twelve and sixteen 
rows with a thick aud heavy cob. The ker¬ 
nels of the Duttou corn are very small and 
closely set. Some varieties have an exceed¬ 
ingly small cob and these are usually the 
earliest sorts. Ninety days are sufficient to 
ripen several of these kiuds. They were 
brought from Canada. Our latitude is nearly 
as high as coru cau be made a successful crop 
in New York State, or New England. It is 
planted iu May, or as soon as the ground is 
dry, and w r arm, and cut up at the bottom as 
soou as ripe, the last of August or the first of 
September, always if possible before a frost. 
It Is set up in stooks of twenty-five hills each 
and when dry enough is usually drawn into 
the barn where it is husked. Corn in this 
region is planted in hills, the rows being from 
two feet and a half to three feet apart. The 
early kiuds, having smaller stalks, cau be plant 
ed closer together. Three and four kernels are 
put into a hill. 
Iu olden times a good deal of hand labor 
was used in tilling corn, but with the improved 
cultivators it is found that corn cau he pretty 
thoroughly tilled without much hand hoeing. 
The hills are uot now rounded up as they 
were formerly because experience has demon¬ 
strated that good crops can he grown by leav¬ 
ing them more level. One hundred busliels 
of ears arc more than the average yield to the 
acre and would be considered a large crop. 
Farmers prefer topiaut corn upon sod ground 
although on rich laud successive crops of 
larger yield may he grown. Corn will bear 
any quantity of manure. Early aud thorough 
tillage are essential for a good crop; by early 
tillage we mean when corn is young. Grass 
and weeds growing with the crop are de¬ 
structive to it. The best and surest crops are 
grown when the manure is spread upon the 
sward in the fall, as it then becomes thoroughly 
incorporated with the soil, and is in a con¬ 
dition to feed the plant at the beginning, and 
all through it6 growth. When put on iu the 
spring, if the season should happen to be dry, 
it does not decompose, and the crop doe6 not 
receive the benefit. 
By selecting the ears which ripen first, any 
kind of corn can be made to mature earlier, 
and it has been proved that by selection and 
good tillage corn can be improved both in the 
time of maturing and iu quality. The same 
general law applies to it as to other grains. 
When different kinds are planted contiguous 
they generally mix in the ear, hut sometimes 
hybridize, aud produce a new variety. Corn 
stalks well cured will make more milk than 
any other fodder. A bushel of com fed to 
hogs is estimated to make ten pounds of pork, 
but if ground and cooked it will make twenty- 
five per cent, more. Farmers calculate it will 
pay to feed corn to hogs when the pork will 
bring as many dollars per hundred, as the 
corn will shillings per bushel. This old rule 
has been handed down from father to son for 
many generations. 
Kirby Homestead, Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
---- 
blunt's white prolific, ear. 
-- 
CORN AND CORN DODGERS. 
Corn is the king of all crops. It calls for 
some little help from the hand of man, but it 
responds iu yield and quality, in exact propor¬ 
tion to what it gets. It is so universally grown 
ami is so common, that words to teach of its 
culture seem out of place. Yet, the average 
yield in our whole country is not one-fourth its 
capabilities. As a nation we seem to be satis¬ 
fied with about twenty bushels per acre, while 
ninety is within tire reach of every farmer iu 
the corn-growing belt, which covers nearly all 
the States. Here is au evident lack of either 
the knowledge how to grow the crop, or the 
energy to put the knowledge into practice. 
The whole matter of its cultivation is so simple, 
so easily understood, the seed, soil aud climate 
are so well suited to each other, and the crop 
is so valuable when ripe, I may say from the 
time it is knee-high till the following month of 
March, that the neglect and abuse it generally 
receives is one of the wonderB of American 
farming. The fact that a farmer may lose all 
hie other crops, and still do well on a good 
corn crop speaks in its favor. Corn ueeds, in 
order to insure a heavy yield, less labor and 
preparation, in these days abounding with 
farm machinery, than any other field crop. 
The time of harvesting it, too, comes at a time 
when there is little else to do, and with all 
these advantages what do we get? What cau 
we expect to get from a crop to which we give 
nothing? 
How mauy of us use good seed, and give the 
land deep plowing, or subsoiling, manure, 
and timely and thorough cultivation ? Do we 
not generally plant it on land knowu to be 
foul, for the very purpose of making the corn 
crop clean it? We make the crop a farm 
scavenger, and thou groan over a poor yield. 
Why do we put all our efforts Into small grain 
planting, so that by corn planting time we 
have none left for our most important crop ? 
I will tell you—it is because we are all corn 
dodgers. 
We dodge the questions involved in growing 
corn, and excuse ourselves for having a short 
crop, by saying, •* Oh! anybody caugrow corn.” 
But iu turning around to escape the eye of our 
questioner, we are confronted with a chance 
grain or two which had falleu on good soil, 
grown up, made a shade and shelter for the 
liens, by them been scratched and manured, 
till iu all the pride of independence it had 
reared its tassel ten feet in the air, and thrust 
out from its robust stalk three or four ears of 
seed corn. Why did not the farmer scratch 
around it, manure it, and grow a crop of seed 
corn ? 
He dodged his duties;—what i6 a man who 
dodges his corn crop but a corn dodger, and 
what right has he to coruplaiu if his corn 
dodges him ? 8. Rufus Mason. 
INDIAN CORN FOR MILCH COWS. 
L. 8. HARDIN. 
In this country, with our improved methods 
of dairying, the sheet-anchor of success is In¬ 
dian corn. This remark applies as well to 
summer as to winter feeding, though it is a far 
more important factor iu the latter than the 
former system of dairying. Men have discov¬ 
ered that no machine, not even a cow, can do 
profitable work with only a half supply of ma¬ 
terial. Of course, you cau choke a machine, 
aud overfeed a cow, just as you cau blunder in 
anything else; but the man who proposes to 
carve out success must learn, by diligent ap¬ 
plication, the exact point to which a cow can 
be profitably fed, and, having found it, he 
must uot hesitate to supply the food. 
To take the subject up iu au orderly rnanuer, 
it is proper to first treat of the effect of feeding 
corn to cows iu milk. 
Effect oil MUIt Yield. 
The practical dairyman need hardly be told 
that Indian coru, properly fed, will cause the 
Cow economically to yield more milk to the 
pound ot food than any other variety of feed. 
It is not only of prime value itself, but it ren¬ 
ders many other kiuds of food valuable, that, 
when fed alone, do almost as mueli harm as 
good. In the West, where high feeding has 
probably been brought to Us greatest perfec¬ 
tion, the favorite mixture is one-half, in bulk, 
each of bran uud corn meal. The best results 
are reached by au addition of one piut of oil- 
meal daily when the cow is fresh. A mixture 
of bran, shorts and ship-stuff, which at the 
West is called “ mill-feed,” may do as well in 
milk-making if fed with cut straw; but it is 
not in sufficient use, or cheap enough, to call 
it an economical milk food that will compete 
with corn meal. Some ol our best authorities 
state, as the relative value of meal, that 100 
pounds of corn meal is equal to 76 pounds of 
wheat, 83 of oats, 90 of rye, 111 of barley, 60 of 
beans aiul 40 of oil-cake. This is pound for 
pound and does not relate to values, which, of 
course, is a vital question with cow feed. The 
heaviest profitable feeding, witli coru meal aud 
a cow of average weight, is four quarts of 
fiuely-ground meal a day, mixed always with 
coarser food. 
How to Feed Corn. 
When we speak of how to feed corn, we by 
uo means propose to confine ourselves to the 
grain alone. We should consider its feeding 
quality iu all its varied forms, as meal, whole 
grain, the stalk, as fodder and in ensilage. 
That every panicle of this plant is valuable, 
even to the cob, thorn can he no reasonable 
doubt. The only question is as to how it is 
manipulated. If the corn is ground fine aud 
the cob coarse and the two mixed, there is no 
better food for making milk. This I have seen 
demonstrated year in and year out with a herd 
of Jerseys, and it convinced me the cob meal 
did a good part iu the economy of milk-mak¬ 
ing, and did uot injure the animals in the least. 
Wheu mixed in a slop it forces the highest 
possible yield, but I do uot think it pays to 
cook meal for cows, unless it is done merely to 
