PRACTICAL PAPERS—MIXED HUSBANDRY. 
137 
1864, while tending a piece of corn, I marked with a small 
stake a hill that had but one plant at the first hoeing. The 
next tending showed three strong suckers; at the third hoeing 
these had thrown out four suckers, making eight stalks. At 
the fourth and last, five more suckers had appeared, which I 
pulled up. That hill of corn could not be distinguished from 
the rest, and yielded nine sound ears and four nubbins. 
Stamping the ground hard over the seed with the hoe, as 
many persons do, is bad practice; it tends to make the surface 
crust and bake, so that the young shoot is frequently unable 
to pierce through, but curls under it, turning yellow and per¬ 
ishing, if not assisted. 
A good method of raising potatoes is to plant them around 
the corn, which saves a great many stalks of the latter from 
being broken in turning the teams about while cultivating ; the 
potatoes suffer but little injury. Besides, green corn is a great 
temptation to cattle, and should not be raised too near the fence. 
We are not fully satisfied as to the wisdom of planting 
pumpkins in a corn field. This practice results in diminishing 
the crop of corn by an amount fully equal to the value of the 
pumpkins, if not greater. Yet, pumpkins make excellent feed 
for milch cows, and are valuable to start cattle, which it is in¬ 
tended to fatten, and they sometimes succeed very well when 
the corn partially fails. We are in the habit of planting them ; 
our practice is to go over the field immediately after the corn 
planting is over, when every hill can yet be plainly seen and 
stick pumpkin seed in every third hill of each fourth row. In 
this way the plants are equally distributed throughout. The 
operation is very rapid, and is far preferable to mixing the 
pumpkin-seeds with the corn in the planting-bags, as many do. 
Where corn has failed to make an appearance at the first hoe¬ 
ing, many plant beans, which have time to ripen. 
The soil intended for corn or other hoed crops should be 
thoroughly cultivated. In 1860, the writer raised 107 bushels 
of corn to the acre; the cultivation was entirely done with the 
common plow and the hoe. We advocate running a cultiva¬ 
tor both wa} r s for the first working; plowing deeply for the sec- 
