THE CULTIVATOR. 
a 
ment, are now pursuing the same method. Planting the piece with 
corn the first year, if it be sod, I think preferable, as that subdues 
the sod, which otherwise would be much in the way of early cross 
ploughing. 
Some have contended that much ploughing hurts the land : but 
experience has confirmed me in the opinion that it is very beneficial 
to it: first, because it kills every thing foul in it, and secondly, by 
the act of pulverization, renders the soil light and loose, and by that 
means pervious to heat and water. We have wheat now growing 
on the piece, which is beginning to tumble down, and my greatest 
fear is, that it will be too large to fill well, and no manure put on it, 
while the wheat adjoining is not equal to it, though heavily coated 
with stable manure. 
I perfectly agree with A Subscriber, in your last number, that keep 
down the top of any plant one summer, and it will effectually destroy 
it. Such being the fact gained by experience, (the best school ex¬ 
tant,) I think a knowledge of it ought to be more generally diffused. 
Skaneateles, Onondaga co. N. Y. 5th mo. 18th, 1834. G. W 
Homer, June, 5th 1834. 
Sir, —1 have observed several communications in the Cultivator 
on the destruction of the Canada thistle, all of which are stated to 
be the result of actual experience, and founded on good reasons. 
What 1 am about to communicate has not been tested thoroughly, 
but the experiment has been tried two or three times, and the dis¬ 
covery was wholly accidental and in the following way. Some four 
or five years since, our farmers got into a rage for raising hemp, and 
appropriated their richest soil to it. A farmer in this town took a 
piece of land, covered literally with the Canada thistle ; he took this 
ground because it was less worn and more rich than any he had on 
tl.e farm ; he sowed the hemp quite thick, but was fearful that the 
thistle would injure the crop ; but on examination, after the crop had 
sprung up some six to eight inches, he found the thistle to turn yel¬ 
low, and as the hemp advanced, he saw that the thistle wholly dis¬ 
appeared where the hemp was thickest, and where it was more thin, 
there were a few sickly stinted plants of the thistles standing, which 
were easily pulled up by the hand, bringing the root for some depth ; 
and after the crop of hemp, to-this time, (about four years,) he has 
had no thistles there. He communicated this experience to a gen¬ 
tleman near this village who was much troubled with the thistle, and 
he tried it two years since with the same effect, and has no doubt of 
its being an effectual remedy. He observes that the land should be 
made rich by manures, and the hemp sown quite thick, so as to ef¬ 
fectually choak the thistle and draw from it all moisture or nutri¬ 
ment. These men had tried all other ways recommended in the 
Cultivator; but think hemp the surest and most profitable remedy 
which can be tried, without any loss of labor or crop. For one, I 
am desirous of seeing the experiment tested, and hope that through 
the medium of your Cultivator I shall hear the result of several ex¬ 
periments. It is too late to make one this season; therefore, be¬ 
cause men are forgetful, it will be well to mention it the ensuing 
spring. I have great confidence in it, but I may be wrong ; at any 
rate, the trial of the remedy proposed is unlike many new things, if 
it does no good it will do no injury. 
There are two things which will particularly suggest themselves 
in this experiment, viz : 1st. Whether the plant is destroyed by the 
hemp taking up all the nourishment from the root 1 or, 2d. Whether 
the plant is in effect smothered by the surrounding herbage ? From 
the two experiments of which I have spoken, I am of the opinion 
that the greatest injury the plant receives is from the latter. I have 
ineffectually tried to root up the thistle, and instead of diminishing 
them in that way, they have increased ; but by cutting the tops close 
by the ground, or puffing them, I have in a measure succeeded, leav¬ 
ing the root undisturbed ; but I do not doubt that constant ploughing 
will destroy them; they must have atmospheric nourishment or die, 
and in this way hemp destroys them. It, I think, wholly cuts off at¬ 
mospheric nourishment, or allows it to be communicated in so ex¬ 
hausted and unhealthy a state, that the thistle dies by exhaust on. 
Yours, &c. A SUBSCRIBER. 
A Plough Farmer, whose communication we cannot now insert 
entire states, that he completely eradicated the Canada thistle upon 
two acres, where they were very thick, by sowing clover upon it: 
the clover got the start in the spring, grew luxuriant, and smother¬ 
ed the monsters. He proposes a premium for the best method of 
extirpating quack grass. 
63 
Tillage H iisbanclry* 
West-Springfield, June lll/i, 1834. 
J. Buel, Esq.—As an earnest friend of the agricultural interest of 
the community, permit me to recommend to your notice, the publi¬ 
cation Mr. YVm. Clark Jr. of Northampton, in the 10th Vol., No. 
38, of the New-England Farmer, as well as your own observations 
on it, in No. 40 of the same volume. If you view them in the same 
favorable light, as well as consequence to the public, in which I did, 
and many others also in this viciinity, could you do a more accepta¬ 
ble service to the public, than by inserting them in your excellent 
Cultivator! and to have any effect this seasan, they ought to be put 
in the number for July or August. Mr. Clark, I learn, is an enlight¬ 
ened, practical agriculturist. If he is correct in his statements, his 
observations cannot be too widely extended. 
I am, sir, with respect and esteem, your ob’t servant, 
JUSTIN ELY. 
CUTTING CORN STALKS. 
Mr. Fessenden, —I have made a small experiment the past sea¬ 
son, to ascertain the damage, if any, that results to the corn crop, 
from topping the stalks in the usual way. And influenced by the 
request of several individuals, and the thought that, perhaps it might 
lead to a better knowledge of this important branch of agriculture, 
(the growing of corn,) I am induced to forward the particulars to you 
for publication. Although I am aware that guessing enters largely, 
and perhaps necessarily, into the calculation and business, of the 
farmer, I am also aware that experiment cannot be conducted with 
too much precision ; indeed that experiment to be relied on, must 
be conducted entirely without guessing Therefore, I have been 
somewhat particular in conducting this. And lest some of your rea¬ 
ders may be a little sceptical in regard to the result, and perhaps un¬ 
willing to allow that the course which has been pursued by our an¬ 
cestors, from time immemorial, is not the best course, I will give the 
details; and if an apology be deemed necessary, for being so very 
minute, I can merely say, that as the experiment seems to me so 
deeply to involve the interests of corn growers, it may be well to 
give a detailed statement of the case, so that any interested may be 
able to draw their own inferences. And if, in your opinion, it is wor¬ 
thy a place in your useful Journal, or likely to promote the interest 
of New-England farmers, you are at liberty to publish all, or a part, 
as you shall think best. 
For a few years past, I have not cut my corn 6talks until the corn 
was harvested, guessing that it was a course preferable to the one 
commonly pursued in this part of the country, of topping the stalks 
while in a green state. But for the purpose of settling this point 
more clearly, and with as little trouble as the case would admit, I 
selected, about the 5th of September, a row of corn in a field of about 
five acres, intending to take one that would average in quality equal 
to the field throughout, that I might at the same time be able to as¬ 
certain with tolerable certainty, the product of the whole field. The 
manure having been spread on the surface of the ground and har¬ 
rowed in lengthwise of the furrows, and the corn planted across the 
furrows, made it apparently less difficult to select an average row. 
On this row I cut the stalks from half the hills; beginning” at one 
end and cutting the first lull, then leaving the next uncut, and so 
proceeding alternately, cutting one and leaving the next uncut, 
through the row. I had intended to confine the experiment to this 
row, but finally was led to extend it so far as to include four rows 
and numbering them agreeably to the order in which they were 
standing tn the field, this row may be called No. 2. There were 
ninety-two hills in the row, and the stalks were cut from forty-six 
hills, all of them in the manner that is here termed jointing (i. e.) 
cut off between the ear and the first joint above the ear. UthouMit 
they were somewhat more ripe than is usual at the time of cuttino-- 
a few of them were nearly dry. The soil was a sandy or gravelly 
loam, anciently covered with pine, oak and chesnut. In hoeino- the 
corn no hills were made, but some care was taken that the surface 
of the ground should remain as level as possible, through the sea¬ 
son. 
My estimate of the number of hills on an acre, was made in the 
following manner, and if I am wrong in my calculations, I shall be 
corrected by some of your readers. 
In an area of 200 feet square, (or 40,000 square feet,) there were 
sixty-two rows, with fifty-four hills in a row, making 3,348 hills. This 
is equal to 3,646 hills per acre, each hill occupying nearly twelve 
square feet of surface. There were about four stalks of corn in a 
