1010 . 
GROWING AND MARKETING SWEET CORN. 
Success with a Special Trade. 
For more than 25 years sweet corn has been the 
main money crop on my farm. It is probable that 
Orchardside Farm has distinguished itself most on 
the marketing side; for our method has been to 
supply some of the best trade in Boston by contract 
through the season, sending direct to them by ex¬ 
press each morning the freshly gathered corn, so 
getting all the consumer’s dollar except the express 
company’s charge (this averaging about 10 per cent), 
and an extra price, based on the quality and fresh¬ 
ness of our corn. Sweet corn is easy to grow and 
is not an exhaustive crop, but requires for best yield 
somewhat heavier fertilizing than held corn, and will 
pay for liberal manuring. It is partial to land where 
a sward has been turned under, and does best with 
me the first and second years after ground is broken. 
This may be partly because I use chemical fertilizers; 
where stable manure is applied, providing humus, 
less difference might result between use of new and 
old ground. Rye stubble land also makes for good 
crop of corn. For our later June plant¬ 
ings we often cut rye as soon as headed, 
then plow and plant at once, and have 
had banner crops and little trouble from 
weeds in so doing, besides having double 
use of the land. 
The planting and cultivation of sweet 
is like that of field corn (though more 
seed should be put in the hill), and 
early plantings need careful covering, 
as, if too deeply covered, the seed will 
rot. Experiment station tests have 
shown that best results come from cov¬ 
ering from three-fourths to 1% inch in 
depth. The aim is to have as little 
covering as will secure the moisture 
necessary to germination. The rows 
we make about 40 inches apart, and I 
have usually set my planter for 24-inch 
hills. Last season, however, I changed 
it to drop at 32 inches, and shall keep 
to that distance in future for the Ex¬ 
celsior mid-season corn. A little cracked 
corn sown broadcast just before shoots 
come through usually satisfies the crows, 
and will not germinate to mix the seed, 
if some of the crop is to be so used. 
While wecders do good work, I have 
found nothing better practice than to 
go thoroughly over a planted field with 
a bush harrow (not too heavy), three 
days before the corn shows. Leave 
other work to attend to this, and save 
one hoeing of the corn. As soon as the 
rows show plainly go over the field 
with a fine-toothed cultivator that will 
run close to the young shoots without 
covering them; then use the deeper 
working kind till the corn is half 
grown, when the first one comes in 
again for the last shadow workings 
that will not harm the roots that now 
fill between the rows. Thinning to three 
or four stalks in a hill is our rule here. 
If it suckers badly, I believe the yield 
of marketable corn will be more if 
these are taken out, but experiment sta¬ 
tion tests are yet to be made to give 
us proof of profit in this work. 
As before said, liberal fertilizing will 
not be wasted on the sweet corn crop; 
and it is here true, as generally, that 
any balance of plant food left on de¬ 
posit in the bank of the soil will be subject to future 
drafts and return good interest for years.. In my own 
practice, depending mostly on chemicals and a short 
rotation in which clover is included, in planting my 
corn I use about 1,200 pounds per acre of super¬ 
phosphate in the drills, and broadcast 500 pounds more 
of crude chemicals (potash with ground bone or basic 
slag). Floats, applied on a sward and plowed in, has 
given good results as a phosphoric acid fertilizer. A 
yield of 200 to 250 bushels per acre is a large one, but 
sometimes realized where all ears are included. Twelve 
hundred dozen market ears from an acre of ground 
was reported last season in one of the papers, which 
is certainly a remarkable crop. I plan to plant an 
acre this Summer where there is a strong clover sward, 
and hope by extra fertilizing to grow a thousand 
dozen full market ears there: which, if realized, will 
satisfy me as an abundant yield. We have a record at 
Orchardside, one season, of nine full market ears of 
corn from one hill, which, selling at IS cents per 
dozen, gave us 13J4 cents. Here manure was plowed 
under and superphosphate applied in the hills. The 
earliest corn offered in Boston market brings often 
TlliO RURAL NEW-YORKER 
m re than a dollar a box, while it averages for the 
season say 50 to GO cents. At times of largest supply 
it sells as low, even, as 20 cents per bushel box. The 
season for it is from mid-July to mid-October, and 
we have had it on our table November 1. 
The varieties favored by our gardeners for planting 
for general market are these: Cory for first early, 
Crosby for second, and for mid-season and later 
Washington and Stowell’s Evergreen. The Cory has 
little of quality to recommend it, but its earliness 
and hardiness make it the most profitable early sort 
yet introduced. The Evergreen, formerly very popu¬ 
lar as a late corn, is becoming less so, and giving 
place to the Washington and other varieties that arc 
equally good yielders and more tender and sweet. We 
have given the Evergreen no place at Orchardside for 
the past 25 years, as our special trade in Boston re¬ 
quires the very tenderest and finest flavored corn, 
which description to their judgment and ours fits the 
Potter's Excelsior for a white, and the Early Golden 
or Bantam for a colored, sweet corn. This last is 
new within a few years and is the very best table 
corn grown; but its color is against it, and it grows 
A CALIFORNIA FOREST SCENE. Fig. 17 
8 . 
in favor slowly, for while apples that are red are in 
best demand, white is contrariwise the color for corn. 
Some make claims for the Black Mexican as an epi¬ 
curean sort; and I well remember our effort to 
please one of the well-known restaurants in the city" 
years ago (to whom we first begun sending corn 
daily, fresh gathered from the field) by planting for 
their use a quantity of this Black Mexican corn. 
After shipping it for a number of days word was 
given us to discontinue it and return to the Potter’s 
Excelsior—our standard for many years. The Mexi¬ 
can was found to have a quality of cloying sweetness 
that soon made it distasteful. The Early Crosby is 
another standard for second early corn, and in our 
business we have used this to begin with (leaving out 
the earlier, inferior sorts), and the Excelsior for suc¬ 
cession, weekly plantings later, with the Golden to 
some extent for certain places where it is known. 
No other varieties so far tried have tempted us to 
exchange for these three sorts, where table quality 
is desired; and they are also all good yielders; though 
the cars of the Golden are small in size. This variety, 
however, remains tender on the stalk longer than any 
407 
other I know. Freshness counts with sweet corn, 
more, perhaps, than with any other vegetable. Realiz¬ 
ing this years ago, and also that there was trade in 
our nearby city ready to pay the best prices for the 
best garden products, and wanting a special money 
crop ourselves, we chose this of green corn. We 
found little difficulty in making engagements for daily 
delivery of all we could plan to grow, gathering it 
by first daylight and shipping by early train in bags, 
well sorted, price made per dozen the season through. 
I his means early hours in August and September and 
care fill planning to keep the succession unbroken, but 
has been on the whole very satisfactory indeed to us, 
and is an enterprise that many might engage in to 
advantage in a smaller or larger way. 
Massachusetts. __ e. f. dickinsox. 
CALIFORNIA REDWOOD. 
Giant Trees in Their Native Home. 
The reference to our California redwood (Sequoia 
sempervirens) on page 3 brings to mind days I spent 
among our forests of those trees in Mendocino, Marin, 
Humboldt and Santa Cruz counties, and in the small 
forest adjoining Oakland. Even the il¬ 
lustration of the giant redwood stump 
you give reminds me of a pleasant af¬ 
ternoon I spent in the building at the 
Chicago Columbian Exposition, where 
this monster was set up. and formed 
one of the most attractive exhibits at 
that world-famous fair. Late last Fall 
I visited the remainder of the grove 
back of Oakland; it is one of the most 
pleasant places that I know of near San 
Francisco, where one could well spend 
a day. During the fifties, every avail¬ 
able tree fit for building material, yea, 
even for fence rails, was cut down, and 
hauled by ox team to the embarcodero, 
now a portion of the city of Oakland. 
But, like the Eucalyptus, our redwood 
is a tree that is not easily killed; cut 
it down as often as you will, it will 
sprout up again from the old stump, as 
may be noticed in the picture shown at 
big. 178, which is from a photograph 
made by the writer in Humboldt County 
during a camping trip a few years ago. 
But it might be a century before lumber 
stumpage is available from these second- 
growth trees. 
T found that since my last visit to the 
Oakland grove something like a quarter 
of a century ago, Eucalyptus globulus 
trees have been set out in places through 
the grove, I believe by the water com¬ 
pany owning the water right, in hopes 
such trees will augment the rainfall. 
To a native Californian the planting of 
these Tasmanian trees among the rem¬ 
nants of one of the most noble speci¬ 
mens of the vegetable kingdom seems a 
sacrilege. But the thirst of man, or, 
if you will, of the average trust mag¬ 
nate, for gold, knows no law that he 
cares to regard. Here I found the giant 
of the Antipodes fraternizing, as it were, 
with the tree giants of the Golden 
West; they seemed to get along well 
together. The alien trees grow sky¬ 
ward with rapidity, but they are yet of 
spindling appearance, though I should 
judge some of them must be wellnigh 
20 years old. In F'ig. 178 the tall, 
straight shafts of these Eucalyptus, or 
blue gums, as they are called here, may 
be easily discerned; the sun illuminates their trunks, 
while those of the redwoods are indistinct on account 
of being in the dense shade. The planting of these 
Australasian trees is receiving a new impetus in this 
State; this brings to mind the query: Will the trees, 
as well as the humans of the Antipodes, and the Orient, 
too, come over here and in time supplant our cherished 
plants as well as people? \v. a. pryal. 
California. _ 
A “missionary egg train” has been running through 
Western England and Wales. The suggestion came 
from America, where ‘‘institute trains” have been 
running for some years. It is not likely that English 
hens, even within hearing of the steam engines, will 
lay any more eggs as the result of this train, but one 
feature at least will help the hen men. The English 
National Poultry Organization will open depots where 
cash is paid for fresh eggs. Town stores belonging 
to the organization will sell these eggs direct to con¬ 
sumers. Thus the poultry men can sell their eggs 
for cash instead of in trade, and get a fair price for 
them. An egg train followed up by a business ar¬ 
rangement of this sort will amount to something. 
