414 — QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Dzc., 1898. 
the least showers (and these are precarious in the spring) ais well as of all 
the warmth of the soil and sun-rays. They shoot up in single stems, with 
scarcely any suckers. The horizontal food-gathering roots are situated deeper 
in the ground, and are less exposed to be injured by subsequent tillage opera- 
tions. Every scarifying brings more soil towards the stems as they grow, so 
that in a few weeks the corn is practically hilled up, although the land remains 
flat. It is really astonishing how such a tillage well suits the plant, and is 
conducive to a careful husbanding of any moisture available in the soil. ; 
It goes without saying that on a sloping ground the drills should lie 
across the slope and not along it, so as to prevent the formation of gullies and 
the washing away of soil and seeds. , 
Whilst dealing with the question of drilling, I cannot help remarking, by 
the way, that many people appear to me to plant far too close, some even 
allowing barely 8 feet between the rows and 6 inches in the row. No use 
crowding corn. Itis a plant which takes a considerable amount of its food 
direct from the atmosphere, and air must have free access to it. Better to 
have one well-nourished cob on a healthy, strong, isolated plant than to have 
two half-starved plants, each with a miserable-looking nubbin or deformed cob. 
Even when used for ensilage, corn should not be planted tvo close, as then the 
sugar and other nutritious principles cannot be elaborated by Nature. For 
small varieties, there should never be less than 4 feet between the rows and 
12 to 15 inches in the rows; whilst for larger, late varieties, the distances 
should be 5 feet and 18 inches respectively. 
SHOULD PUMPKINS AND OTHER CURCUBITACEA BE GROWN WITH CORN? 
Perhaps not, if the pumpkins are sown in the same row as thecorn. But 
if you sow four or six rows of corn, and then leave one row empty to sow the 
pumpkins in, you will find the combination of the two crops a most successful 
and profitable one. In that way one has plenty of time to well till the land 
along the corn before it is covered by the vines and leaves of the pumpkins. 
These then keep the weeds in check, and act as a mulch, maintaining the soil 
cool and moist anne the great heat of summer. i 
As to the pumpkins, one is also better enabled to keep the land well tilled 
along them, to pinch and shape them, and to destroy, with Paris green, the 
little beetles often so destructive to that crop. The cornstalks not only shade 
the pumpkin vines and fruits, but act also as pegs for the tendrils to cling on, 
thus preventing the vines from being rolled up by the wind, as not unfrequently 
occurs when pumpkins are grown by themselves. ‘True, this can be prevented 
by pegging the vines to the soil with small wooden forks, a method which is 
right enough for a small garden, but is too expensive and tedious for field 
culture. 
HARVESTING. 
, Our usual way of harvesting is so far very primitive, and on the whole 
unprofitable. We allow the cob to get thoroughly matured and dry on the 
field, sometimes hanging for weeks in that state on the stalks. Then we go 
along the rows pulling off the cobs and carting them away. Then we go a 
second time along the rows, chopping down with primitive, blunt hoes the 
dried and now useless cornstalks, putting them into heaps and burning them, 
getting only a handful of ashes as a reward for our labour! What a tedious 
work! What a waste of energy, of time, and of valuable stuff! We may 
reasonably expect that such wasteful methods will soon be a thing of the past, 
and that future corngrowers have better times in store. 
The Osbourne Columbia Cornharvester, introduced for the first time into 
the colony and used last season at the Westbrook Experiment Farm, is bound 
to do for the maize-grower what the reaper and binder have done for the cereal- 
grower. It is a strong, substantially built implement. Two horses walking 
on the left side of the row pull it along. ‘Two sharp iron points pass, close to 
the ground, on both sides of the row, lifting any cornstalks which might happen 
