RURAL N E W-Y O R K E R 
521 
Hilled Corn for Me 
I have been interested in the discus¬ 
sion of growing corn in hills or drills. 
The drills seem to have the majority so 
far. I tried the drill system and bought 
the best weeder. My land is nearly level, 
some of it rather heavy. After we got 
the corn planted the rains began, mak¬ 
ing the land so wet and cold that a very 
poor stand came up. Then the i-ains 
continued and the nut-grass and foxtail 
grew. The harrow and weeder were use¬ 
less, so I hired men and cleaned the 
rows with hoes, but the earth was run 
together in the rows and we had no 
chance to get at the hard places. I got 
my lesson that year, but after a few 
years, and more reading, I tried it again. 
Now those who have land with gravelly 
subsoil so the rains will soak away quick¬ 
ly and leave the soil loose may grow in 
drills. ' I will plant in hills and horse- 
work both ways at least once. 
Delaware. a. e. laxTEXHOUSE. 
Handling the Corn Crop 
I notice on page 144 an inquiry by P. 
M. A., Dong Island, in regaixl to har¬ 
vesting corn. He is right in his idea of 
waste in such work. I have never raised 
corn on a large scale, but have raised it 
for quite a number of years. There Is 
never any need of handling cornstallo. 
I always let the corn ripen naturally on 
the stalks. As soon as it is ripe the 
husks loosen. Anyone can then pick the 
ears without the hu.sks almost as rapidly 
as with them, and the extra job of husk¬ 
ing is almost entirely done away witn. 
One person who tak(‘S advantage of this 
work can accomplish .almost as much as 
two using old-fashioned methods. 
Vermont. c. E. M. 
Fodder in the Silo 
liast Fall I tried a new method, which 
1 like very much. There is very little 
waste and cattle eat it all clean. I let 
the corn get quite ripe and well glazed, 
cut the corn, and put it in bundles on 
the ground, then break the ears off, and 
throw them on the ground. Then the 
fodder is put into the silo. At this stage 
the stalks are quite green, and if care¬ 
fully packed will make good silage. I 
think this is the most economical way In 
which I have handled it, and the cows 
like it much better. ii. J. earkiiam. 
Connecticut. 
Corn and Pumpkins 
Your Oregon reader might be interest¬ 
ed to know vast quantities of pumpkins 
are raised throughout Central and 
Southern Indiana in the cornfields. 
These are planted in both drilled and 
checked corn. The immense crops of 
pumpkins used for the canneries arc 
principally grown in the cornfield. The 
corn planters used here handle corn and 
pumpkin seed both at the same time 
and in the same box, but occasionally a 
pumpkin seed may cause the planter die 
to fail to let out a kernel of corn. 
Oregon conditions may differ fi*om ours, 
as we are in the corn belt. The seed 
here is mixed with the seed corn, and 
they feed out here and there, and exper¬ 
ience will teach one what proportion of 
l)umpkin seed to use. There are spots 
in the field which are better adapted to 
pumpkins than the remainder of the field, 
in these some additional pumpkin seed 
may be planted by hand. Dry .seasons 
such plantings yield more pumpkins and 
less corn, and the pumpkins may some¬ 
what reduce the yield of corn. A^ery 
damp weather during the blooming and 
.setting on of pumpkins makes them drop 
off badly. 
Relative to cultivation ; the first culti¬ 
vation the pumpkins are rather aggra¬ 
vating on account of their broad leaflets 
which the dirt covers, but are no more 
trouble until the vines are a foot or 
more long. AA'e often go ahead of the 
cultivator the last cultivation and pull 
the vines around out of the way. Thou¬ 
sands of tons of pumpkins are grown 
each season in this section in the stand¬ 
ing corn; in fact are grown very little 
otherwise. omek r. abraiiam. 
Morgan Co., Ind. 
Squash or Pumpkins in the Cornfield 
In my experience much depends upon 
the conditions as to character of soil, 
rainfall and amount of sunlight and heat, 
as affecting the profitable outcome in this 
form of team work. AVe have seasons of 
varying success in the growing of both 
pumpkins and squash, the latter being 
generally speaking a more uncertain crop. 
It is within my recollection as a boy 
upon a New England farm that pump- 
kin.s—the old Connecticut field pumpkin, 
and for pies the .smaller sweet pumpkins, 
distinguished by minute brown dots of 
color—were customarily grown in our 
fields of flint corn; a variety which by 
being not excessively rank in growth of 
stalk allowed of suflicient sunlight to per¬ 
fect both crops. A half-century ago the 
field pumpkin filled a prominent place in 
the late Autumn and early AA’inter bill of 
fare for the cows and swine; but as in 
tbc case of the geese and turkeys, whose 
more or less musical honk and gobble 
were an invariable adjunct to farm life, 
the good old Halloween fruit is getting to 
be a thing of rarity. Probably the 
changes in the methods of cultivation 
have necessitated this condition. Plow¬ 
ing among the corn and the two hand 
hoeings which comprised the old .system 
were favorable to the planting of pump¬ 
kin seed, which was carried in the pockets 
and a s'>ed put in now and then, often at 
the last iioeing. a. E, 
Planting Pumpkins With Corn 
On page 282 you invite the opinion of 
farmers who have had experience with 
pumpkins planted with corn. In .sev¬ 
eral instances I have planted pumpkins 
in the corn rows and almost invariably 
the vines were a great annoyance in 
cultivation, especially if cultivation is 
done late enough to do justice to the 
corn, and furthermore I never got good 
results with the corn if I got a fair crop 
of pumpkins, because the pumpkin draw.s 
on the soil strong enough just as the 
corn needs the most nourishment to fill 
the ears. The corn is held back and will 
not fill as full and plump as it does 
where pumpkins are not planted. To get 
good results with pumpkins it is better 
to plant in a separate patch. I have 
raised as high as 17 loads for a onc- 
horse wagon on ,30 square rods of 
ground, and there were many of them 
that would weigh from 20 to .30 pounds 
each, and some even higher. They lay 
so thick on the ground that one could 
cross the patch on the pumpkins with¬ 
out stepping on the ground. This may 
sound exaggerated but try a small patch 
of good soil and give it thorough cultiva¬ 
tion and you will be convinced that it is 
better than to have a mixed crop. They 
will ripen more evenly, as the corn 
shades the pumpkins and prevents them 
from ripening evenlv. T. c. u. 
Gold, Pa. 
Answering AA'. B. A”. G.. page 2S2. I 
have planted pumpkins and squashes to¬ 
gether many times among the corn. If 
the vines do well, even if planted after 
the corn is well up. they make such a 
tangle as to be a nuisance; while if there 
is a drought, the vines will do absolutely 
nothing, sometimes. The best plan is to 
plant each by itself, and if no less crops, 
money will be .saved in the care of them. 
Rhode Island F. T. .texcks. 
Last year I planted pumpkins. AA^e 
put the seed in phosphate box of two- 
horse corn-planter and planted seven 
acres this way with practically no loss of 
time. They were planted too early (May 
12 ), but things must be done in a hurry 
or they don’t get done, in many cases. 
One-third came up; we had about 1,50 
bushels. I fed hogs once a day for three 
months and some to the cows. In saving 
of feed and sales they stood me in $20. 
I could not see that they hurt the corn in 
slightest degree. AA"e had a splendid crop. 
Corn gets weedy anyway, and pumpkins 
displace weeds by growing something u.se- 
ful. As they cost me nothing I gave 
away many in the Lord’s work, sick 
visits and neighbors. I never told the 
minister who left his on the porch. They 
pay well and I saved enough seed to 
plant this year. george h. weedin. 
Mixed Hay With Corn and Cornmeal 
AA’'ill you advise me the most economi¬ 
cal ration for grade H'olsteins weighing 
about 1,000 pounds, each averagi'ng 
about 2.'5 pounds of milk per day? Feed 
at the following prices: Mixed hay, $23 
per ton; gluten feed, $2..30 per ' cwt.; 
cottonseed meal, $2.45 per cwt.; beet 
pulp, $1.70 per cwt.; dried brewerfs* 
grains. .$2 per bag of 125 potinds; cut 
Alfalfa, .$23 per ton I want to work 
into the ration as much corn and cob- 
meal as possible, for I have this on 
hand. I also have enough corn fodder 
to last about a month. Aly idea has 
been that with the corn and cob meal on 
hand the cottonseed meal at $2.45 per 
100 pounds would perhaps be cheapest to 
balance the ration, but I am not sure 
that it would be proper to feed the cob- 
meal and the cottonseed meal without 
anything else. s. w. d. 
New Jersey. 
The price given, $23 per ton. seems 
extremely high for mixed hay. If you 
have to buy hay. by all means buy Al¬ 
falfa. This ought not to cost you more 
than the figure you quote for mixed hay. 
You can then make an excellent grain 
ration as follows: Four parts corn and 
cob meal. 1 part dried brewers’ grains, 2 
parts dried beet pulp, 1% salt. This 
ration should give excellent results. If 
you mu.st use the mixed hay and want 
to use corn and cob meal, you will have 
to use cottonseed as the only other con¬ 
centrate. Then the ration will not quite 
balance if you wish to use comsiderable 
corn and cob meal. h. f. j. 
Those things that 
need your attention 
on the farm: 
You, Mr. Farm Owner, who are about to 
make your first trip of the season to the farm, 
will find a score of things that need attention. 
Whether it is rented or “worked on shares,” 
or whether you employ a superintendent, you, 
the owner, have certain things that you want 
done, will order done. And you want a record 
of how things look now: 
Certain old fences. The foundation to the corn crih. 
The south porch. The broken hoops on the silo. 
The land that needs tiling. The condition of the orchard. 
The condition of the horses and cattle and hogs. 
And one obvious thing to do is to make an auto-photo-graphic record. Make 
pictures of the things that don’t please you, as Avell as pictures of the things that 
do please you. And alongside of each picture make a brief memo,—at least a date 
and title, an authentic, indisputable record Avritten on the film at the time. It’s a 
simple and almost instantaneous process Avith an 
Autographic Kodak 
Catalogue^ free^ at your dealer s or by mail 
EASTMAN KODAK CO., 387 State Street, Rochester, N. Y. 
