1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
157 
The largest Corn-Grower in America. 
A writer in the Morgan County (0.) Chronicle, 
states that he travelled, last season, in company with 
William Polk, Esq., a brother of our President. He 
was informed by Mr. P. that his crop of corn for 1846, 
grown on his plantation in Arkansas, was estimated at 
100,000 bushels, and that he supposed he was the 
largest grower of this article in the United States. 
The writer presumes that he is the largest grower of 
this grain in the world. His cotton crop was said to 
have been a failure—he having picked “ only between 
four and five hundred bales.” He kept 200 bogs on 
his plantation. He was selling corn in New Orleans 
from 60 to .110 cents per bushel. The follow is an es¬ 
timate of his products: 
His corn was then worth at least $70,000 
His Cotton do do 16,000 
His Pork do do 4,000 
Making the aggregate of $90,000 
for three articles only of his products. His whole pro¬ 
duce is supposed to be worth at least $100,000 per 
year. It is stated that Mr. Polk began poor, and had 
made all he possessed by his own exertions; and in 
conclusion it is added:—“Here, then, are two planter’s 
sons beginning the world poor; one is the greatest corn 
grower in the world—the other holds the first office in 
the world.” 
66 Gutta Fercha. ?f 
This is a substance which has been brought, into no¬ 
tice within a few years. It is the product of a tree 
which grows in the East Indies. Prof. Webster, of 
Cambridge, Mass., has given in the Boston Courier a 
more particular account of the article and its uses than 
we have before seen. He has made several experi¬ 
ments with this curious substance, and has prepared 
from it a variety of articles. At and below a tempera¬ 
ture of fifty degrees, it remains as hard as wood. At a 
temperature a little below boiling heat, it becomes soft, 
and is then easily cut and moulded into all varieties of 
form. When it again becomes cold, it resumes its 
former hardness. It is very tough, and in its ordinary 
state resembles horn. Prof. W. took a ring made from 
a slip half an inch wide and one-tenth of an inch in 
thickness, and found it would support a weight of one 
hundred and fifty pounds without breaking. It is found 
to resist the action of water, acids and many chemical 
agents. It has been used for tubes for the conveyance 
of gases, for cementing substances; and Prof. W. has 
had a pair of shoes made from leather prepared in a 
solution of the substance, and put together without 
sewing, pegs, or nails; and they are pronounced by the 
tnaker stronger than he could make them by the usual 
method. 
In the experiments which have been made for test¬ 
ing the action of water upon the u Gotta Percha,” the 
water has received no impregnation, has acquired nei¬ 
ther taste nor smell, nor has the material been in any 
way changed, and the tubes have not been ruptured by 
the freezing of the water in them. All circumstances 
have induced Prof. W. to believe that it would be pre¬ 
ferable to any other article for the purpose of making 
pipes for the conveyance of water. As yet but a small 
supply only of the material has been obtained, but it 
can be had in abundance in the country where it is pro¬ 
duced. It is procured by felling the trees from which 
it is obtained—stripping off the bark, when the sub¬ 
stance exudes in the form of a milky juice, which is 
collected and poured into troughs, where by exposure 
to the air it hardens. Prof. W. has adopted a mode of 
dissolving the substance without the aid of heat, which 
he thinks of advantage. The particulars of his pro¬ 
cess are not given. 
Carrots as Food for Stock. 
At one of the agricultural meetings held in Boston 
during the past winter, the subject of cultivating 
“ root crops” for stock, was discussed. The general 
expression was, that the carrot is the best root for this 
purpose, in situations adapted to its growth. Hon. 
Mr. Brooks stated that he had made experiments in 
feeding carrots, and for young stock he thought them 
as valuable in weight as good hay. He thought they 
did not produce as much milk, when fed to cows, as 
potatoes, and hogs preferred potatoes. He considered 
carrots compared with oats, to be worth 33 cents per 
bushel when oats were worth 50 cents—that 10£ lbs. 
of carrots were equivalent to 3 1-2 lbs. of oats. He 
considered the tops of carrots of sufficient value to pay 
the expense of harvesting. He put them up in small 
stacks out of doors, and they kept good till mid-winter. 
Mr. Rice said he sowed carrots early in May on light 
land—usual crop 500 bushels per acre—-40 bushels 
weigh about a ton, and were worth as much as half a 
ton of hay. 
Mr. Proctor said 35 tons of carrots had been grown 
on an acre at a single crop, and it was not uncommon 
to obtain 32 tons. Most of the speakers mentioned 
that the blight had injured their carrots, more or less, 
of late years. 
Flowing Well* 
No farmer, we think, who has ever remarked the inef¬ 
ficiency of the u cut and cover” mode of plowing,—that 
is, trying to throw over a slice of earth twice as wide 
as the plow will perform,-—will prefer it to the infi¬ 
nitely superior mode of drawing deep, straight, and 
narrow furrows. “It is not to please the eye only,” 
says a late practical writer, “ that the plowmen of 
Westmoreland, Cumberland, and other well cultivated 
counties in England, take so much pains in drawing 
their deep furrows, as straight as a line can make 
them, and laying them so compact, that not a crevice 
between them can be found in fields of many acres, but 
to favor a perfectly even and uniform covering of the 
seed sown upon the ground.” We would recommend 
to the farmer who reads this, to plow the next acre 
with perfectly straight furrows only six inches wide ; 
and if, after viewing its superiority, he then goes back 
to foot-wide slices, we shall be very much mistaken. 
Moon Farming. 
A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, furnishes an 
article of considerable length, in quite a scientific dress, 
to show the influence of the moon on vegetation, and 
as a consequence, the importance of sowing seeds at 
-the right time of the moon. Believing industry, en¬ 
ergy and good cultivation to be the main causes of 
success, and not losing the best days of the season in 
waiting for the right time of the moon, we shall at¬ 
tempt to show the false reasoning of this writer. 
He commences by speaking of the effects of light on 
vegetation—function of the leaves—importance of 
light—decomposition of carbonic acid—oxygen and 
carbon—assimilation of carbon—reflection of green 
rays—mysteries of nature—respiration—agricultural 
science, &e., and concludes that as light is important 
to the growth of plants, it is very proper that they 
should commence vegetation at a time when they can 
receive all the light possible; that is, in addition to sun¬ 
light during the day, they should have the benefit of 
moonlight during the night. Now it has been demon¬ 
strated that the light received from the sun, exceeds 
that received from the moon, as more than a hundred 
thousand to one. If, therefore, a farmer can find out 
just how much his young crop will grow in one day of 
sunlight, he will know about how much it will grow in 
