138 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
May 
inches in length; many of them having grown from 
opposite hills, so as to meet in the center of the rows. 
Now if we had run the horse hoe, or plow, “ as near 
the hills as possible/’ it is our impression that we should 
have cut off or mutilated a large portion of the roots, 
(especially if the implement had been drawn both ways 
of the rows,) and thereby have done much injury to 
the growing plants. In the culture of this field, it be¬ 
ing a well prepared, light soil, the hand hoe alone was 
used. The yield was fully sixty bushels of corn per 
acre. We regret that Mr. Phelps had not given the 
number of bushels per acre he usually grows. 
In the Transactions of the N. H. Ag. Society for 
e856, we find a letter from Mr. Brown on the culture of 
corn. Mr. B. is the farmer who'has long grown and 
given a wide-spread celebrity to that variety known 
as the “ Brown or King Philip corn.” Mr. B.’s farm 
is on an Island in Lake Winnepiseogee, in latitude 43° 
40' N. Being so far north, it must be an early variety 
of corn to mature there. 
We make some extracts from his letter, by which it 
will be seen that he and Mr. Phelps cultivate their corn 
in a very different manner. 
Mr. B. says: “It is a fact that cannot be denied, 
that a large majority of our farmers content themselves 
by raising what they call a decent crop of corn, say 
twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre, and are hard 
to believe that any more can be raised. They go on 
in the old way, planting the rows four feet apart, or 
nearly that, and the hills three feet apart, putting from 
four to six kernels in the hill, and after the blades of 
the corn get a fine start, and the roots spread in all 
directions, instead of going to work as they should do 
with a hoe , and giving it a light brushing to stir the 
ground and keep tho weeds down, they take a horse 
and cultivator, or plow, and cut of half the roots, and 
by making a large mound or hill, give the corn such a 
check that it never recovers from it. So managed as 
above stated, no farmer can expect a large crop of corn 
even if the ground is well manured.” 
“When I first went to farming for myself in 1817, 
I was hoeing my corn about the first of July, and 
making a hill as all farmers then did ; the ground was 
not weedy, but I found that I was cutting off a great 
many little roots, which I ascertained to be the corn 
roots, and it struck me that I was hurting the corn by 
making the hill, and from that instant I left off making 
a hill around the corn, and have since that time left 
the ground among the corn as smooth as possible, and 
the remainder of my corn that year which I did not 
hill, was much the best, and the ears the largest.” 
Mr. B. has made many experiments as to the proper 
distance of planting his corn, the result of which is, 
that he plants the rows three feet distant, the hills two 
feet apart in the rows, leaving three stalks to each 
hill. Mr. B. has raised a premium crop of 136 bushels 
per acre, weighing 59 pounds per bushel of shelled 
corn. He gives an account of his crop raised in 1853, 
which amounted to 104 bushels of shelled corn to the 
acre, while the average yield in the vicinity of the lake 
was estimated at thirty to forty bushels. 
Of this crop of 104 bushels per acre, he says—“ On 
the 30th of May I planted my corn in hills, four ker¬ 
nels in each, three feet apart one way and two the other. 
When the corn was up about three inches high, it was 
neatly hoed, without the aid of cultivator or plow — 
thinning out the plants three to each hill. In July the 
corn was again dressed with the hoe, without making 
any hill. I prefer working with the hand-hoe to clear 
the weeds from the plants, instead of the cultivator or 
plow, for when the latter are used they stir the ground 
too deep, cutting many of the tender rootlets of the 
corn, which greatly injures the crop. It has long been 
my practice to plow under a liberal coating of green 
manure a few days previous to planting, which in my 
judgment should lie undisturbed by any implement 
during the growth, in order that it may impart its 
whole benefit to the crop ’’ 
“ We have a home market for all our surplus pro¬ 
duce, in the manufacturing villages of this region. 
The present price of corn, (Dec. 1856) is $1 per bush¬ 
el. Estimating the profit of growing an acre, based on 
my last crop, the following would be near the truth : 
104 bushels of corn at $1,.$104.00 
4 tons of husks and stalks at $8,. 32.00 
$136.00 
“ The value of labor in the cultivation at 75 cts per 
day, was $37, leaving a nett income of about $100 per 
acre, for the use of the land and the manure.” 
In conclusion, we would again suggest to farmers 
that they should experiment in the cultivation of corn. 
Try Mr. Phelps’ and Mr. Brown’s manner of culture in 
the same field, carefully noting the difference of cost of 
labor and yield of corn, and give us the result for pub¬ 
lication in our Co. Gent, and Cultivator next autumn 
or winter. 
Ticks and Lice on Animals. 
Answer to Thos. B. Bujfum—see Co. Gent. \th 
March. —I mean to be understood to say, if sheep are 
kept in a thriving condition from the time they are 
yarded in the fall, until they have good pasture, that 
they will have no ticks on them, or at least they will 
have so few that they will not be worth noticing, and 
require no application of any thing to destroy them. 
But there are causes of propagating ticks that require 
an observing eye to detect. In the first place, if yards 
are not regularly littered, and the sheep are forced to 
lay on their own dung, even if dry, they will not thrive; 
and then they will have ticks plenty, even if this lit¬ 
tering should only be omitted for a few weeks; or if 
their yard is wet, so that their feet become soft, they 
lose condition, and ticks immediately follow ; or should 
they have to feed on damaged hay for three weeks, 
ticks will follow. In fact any thing that impairs their 
health or growth, brings ticks ; and very often the best 
wintered sheep are made to propagate ticks, by being 
turned to the pasture-fields in spring before the pasture 
has grown, and then they will have great quantities of 
ticks at shearing time. They go from the old sheep to 
the lambs. Keep your sheep thriving all the time, 
Mr. B., and the ticks will not trouble them. This I 
know. 
Did Mr. B. ever see a well-fed, clean kept boy or 
girl, over-run with lice 1 I think not; but I have 
seen many ill-fed, ill-clothed, dirty kept ones so. Some 
such reasoning, how the human family should be kept, 
has led me to many improvements in keeping domestic 
animals, especially in good feeding, and plenty of air 
where cattle are stabled. What makes people propa¬ 
gate lice when crowded in the steerage of vessels for a 
month or more 7 Nothing but want of air and bad 
