or THE Division Range Shelf... Received of INDIAN CORN; ITS VALUE, CULTURE, AND USES. BY EDWARD ENFIELD H it :\ ?V NEW YOEK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 443 & 445 BROADWAY. 1866. ENTEBED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by D. APPLETON & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. | v - TO THE EDITORS AND LEADING WRITERS OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. As a feeble tribute of admiration, Gentlemen, for your valuable services in advancing the great farming interest of our country, the author begs leave to inscribe to you this humble effort. Agriculture is the acknowledged basis of our national growth and prosperity. It has contributed, more than any other cause, to make our country what it is, and is destined to be equally instrumental here- after in making it all that it promises to be. But while we all perceive and readily acknowledge the great national importance of this branch of industry, should we not equally recognize the vast and beneficent influence exerted by the class of writers I am addressing ? a class, numerically small but influentially potent, who, by advancing our agriculture, have contributed more to develop our material wealth and power than any other equal number of men in the country. No man who has paid any attention to the progress of Amer- ican husbandry during the last few years, and to the direct influence exerted upon it by the class of periodicals especially devoted to it, can fail to realize how much the country is indebted to the conductors and writers of such journals. Wherever these sheets have penetrated the rural districts, the effect has been immediately obvious, in the ameliorated condition of the soil, in the improved quality and augmented quantity of fanning prod- ucts, and in the general thriftiness, the social and moral advancement of the farming population. 4: DEDICATION. It is not the mere language of compliment, Gentlemen, to say that, while you have been steadily, and patiently, and zealously engaged from month to month, and from year to year, in writing up our farmers to a higher level of intelligence and success, you have at the same time, and in the same measure, been writing up to a higher level the prosperity and affluence of our common country. The clever author of " Ten Acres Enough," in accounting for the success of his farming enterprise, remarked, with pardonable compla- cency, that he had manured his soil with brains. The metaphor will bear a wider application. It may be said with equal propriety that our agricultural writers have been for a series of years manuring a continent with the same remarkable fertilizer. It is one of the most auspicious signs of the times, that the general public are beginning to take a much livelier interest than ever before in all that relates to the cultivation of the soil. Horticultural magazines and farming journals are finding their way into hundreds of families who, having no ground to cultivate, are yet waking up to a general interest in the subject. Quotations from the agricultural press are now frequently and almost constantly seen in the general newspaper ; and people are beginning to discover that husbandry, in one form or another, is related to every condition of life, and that the welfare of the whole community is bound up in the success and prosperity of the farmer. To you, Gentlemen, we are largely indebted for this improved and encouraging condition of the public mind. And though your services in this great cause have never yet been adequately appreciated, the day is undoubtedly near when a more generous recognition will be accorded to the influence and usefulness of your labors. One thing, at least, is certain. If contemporary justice is not rendered to the leaders and guides and expounders of American agriculture, another generation will gratefully record their names among the benefactors of our country. I am, Gentlemen, respectfully and gratefully yours, THE AUTHOR. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. IN the preparation of this work, the Author has derived valuable information from various sources, which it gives him pleasure to acknowledge. Where the language of another writer has heen employed, it is duly credited in the context. Besides these instances, he is indebted for facts and opinions to the following authorities : " Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry," " The American Farm- er's Encyclopaedia," "Burr's Field and Garden Vegetables of America," " Harris's Kural Annual," and " Tucker's Illustrated Annual Register." Also to the productions of Dr. Harris and Dr. Pitch, " On Injurious Insects; " to the "Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society," and to the American In- stitute Farmer's Club, whose weekly discussions abound in val- uable practical information. Prominent also among the works that have been of service to the writer, are the Agricultural Journals of our country. While they are gratefully recorded here as valuable auxiliaries in the present undertaking, the record may, perhaps, prove ser- viceable to the farming community by attracting their attention to these fruitful sources of knowledge and sure guides to pros- perity. The American Agriculturist. New York City. " Weekly Tribune " " ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The Country Gentleman Albany, N". Y. " Working Farmer New York City. " New England Farmer Boston, Mass. " Boston Cultivator " " " Farmer and Gardener Philadelphia, Pa. " Rural New Yorker Kochester, K Y. " Ohio Farmer Cleveland, Ohio. " Massachusetts Plowman Boston, Mass. " Prairie Farmer Chicago, HI. " Farmers 1 Advocate " " " Wisconsin Farmer Madison, Wis. " Maine Farmer Augusta, Me. " Genesee Farmer* Rochester, K Y. " Germantown Telegraph Germantown, Pa. Colman's Rural World St. Louis, Mo. The Western Rural Detroit, Mich. " Culturist Philadelphia, Pa. " Rural American Utica, 1ST. Y. " Rural Register Baltimore, Md. " Iowa Homestead Des Moines, Iowa. " Southern Cultivator Athens, Ga. " California Farmer San Francisco, Cal. * Eecently merged in the American Agriculturist. PKEFAOE. THE importance of the subject, and the absence of any work specially devoted to it, is deemed a sufficient apology for the appearance of this book. For a num- ber of years the author has given much attention, both theoretically and practically, to the culture and uses of Indian corn, and has, during that time, accumulated a considerable amount of materials relating to the subject, and mainly derived from the experience of farmers in various sections of the country. Since no abler pen has undertaken to supply a want widely felt and acknowledged in the agricultural world, he has at length concluded to digest and arrange his store of materials on hand into the form of the present volume, which is now offered to the public with a lively sense of its imperfections, but not without a pro- found conviction of the importance of the subject. The aim has been to condense within a small com- pass all needed and useful information, and to state 8 PBEFACE. facts, opinions, and results, as clearly and concisely as possible. In the discussion of some of the leading topics, the author would gladly have devoted more space, in pro- portion to their importance, but it was found that such a course would render the work more voluminous and expensive, thereby possibly excluding it from the larg- est circle of readers. The critical reader is here notified that he will find, in the course of these pages, some repetition of the lead- ing thought^ which it is the object of this book to de- velop and impress. When a topic, already once treated, has reappeared in a different connection, especially if involving a principle of some consequence, the writer has not hesitated to improve the opportunity of re- affirming such principle, and again urging it on the attention of the cultivator. The same ideas have thus been, in several instances, partially reproduced. If they shall appear to the agricultural reader as impor- tant as they have seemed to the writer, no further apology will be needed. The reader who looks for im- perfections will easily find them; but faults which, like this, have their origin in the force of the writer's convictions, however they may displease the critic, will not, it is thought, offend the practical farmer. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION, 11 EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE COEN CEOP, 22 General View of the Crop. Money Value of the Crop. Estimated Crop for 1870. Consumption of the Crop. NAME AND OEIGIN OF INDIAN COEN, 88 ADAPTATION TO VAEIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE, 86 ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN, 40 CERTAINTY OF THE CEOP, -43 AVEEAGE YIELD, 45 PRODUCTIVENESS, 48 LIMIT OF PRODUCTION, 54 VARIETIES OF INDIAN COEN, 60 IMPROVEMENT OF VARIETIES, 6T INTRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES, 71 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN, 76 DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE, 82 SEED FOR PLANTING, 90 Selection of Seed. Preparation of Seed. TIME TO PLANT, .'. 97 THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS, 102 PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL, 107 PREPARATION OF THE SOIL, 113 MANURES, 118 10 CONTENTS. PAGE PLANTING, 126 AFTEE-CULTUEE, 136 HAE VESTING AND STOEING, 142 ENEMIES OF COEN, . 14T PEEVENTIVES AND EEMEDIES, 155 DISEASES OF COEN, 162 THE STALK CEOP, 165 Feeding Value of the Stalk. Eatio of the Stalk to the Grain. Cured Fodder. Green Fodder. Cost of Producing Corn Fodder. Esti- mated Stalk Crop of the United States. Cutting Corn Fodder. Nu- tritive Value of the Cob. Nutritive Value of Corn and Cob Meal. COST OF PEODUCTION, 200 HOW TO OBTAIN A LAEGE YIELD, 216 THE LAEGEST YIELD ON EECOED, 228 USES OF COEN, 233 1. Corn as an Article of Human Food. In the Green State. In the Eipe State. 2. Corn as Food for Domestic Animals. For Poultry. For Horses. For Cattle. For Swine. For Sheep. COST OF BEEF MADE FEOM COEN, 249 POEK " " " 260 MUTTON " " 266 " BUTTEE AND CHEESE MADE FEOM COEN, 270 HOW TO MAKE FEEDING PEOFITABLE, 275 MISCELLANEOUS USES OF COEN, 279 For Paper and Cloth. For Syrup and Sugar. For Distillation. For Oil. For Green Manure. For Fuel. THE PEODUCT OF ONE ACEE, ,.,_> 286 COEN CULTUEE AT THE WEST, 292 THE MANUFACTUEING INTEEEST IN ITS EELATION TO AGEI- CULTUEE, 298 MAEKET PEICE OF COEN, 301 CONCLUSION, 805 INDIAN COEN. INTEODUCTIOK IT appears, from the census returns of 1860, that there were at that time, 3,381,583 farmers in the United States, which, by the ordinary ratio of increase, would make the present number not far from four millions ; most of whom are, doubtless, in the habit of raising an annual crop of Indian corn. This, at least, is to be presumed, for the crop is so universally culti- vated, and so essential to the husbandman, that those omitting it must be extremely few in number. Allowing for these exceptions, and for the interrup- tions resulting from the war, it may be taken for granted that there are, in round numbers, not less than three and a half millions of proprietary farmers engaged in the cultivation of this grain ; some on fields measuring hundreds of acres, and some on limit- ed patches of a few square rods ; some producing fifteen or twenty bushels to the acre, and others one hundred and fifty or more ; but all contributing to the grand re- sult, and swelling the aggregate crop of the nation to 12 INDIAN CORN. such vast proportions as the world has never before witnessed. Here, then, are two distinct objects brought to the notice of the reader, viz. : The great staple crop of the country, and The class of men engaged in producing it. To the former of these topics the present volume is devoted. To the latter, let us accord the passing tribute of a few lines. There are various reflections that give weight and consideration to the large and respectable body of men devoted to agricultural pursuits. The very nature of their occupation renders it of vital importance to the welfare of the community. The products of agricul- ture embrace articles of such indispensable necessity, that the continued existence of our population is lit- erally suspended upon the tillage of the earth. The farmer feeds the community, and every member of it is thus daily, and almost hourly, reminded of his value and importance in the social scale. But without dwelling on general considerations, it is sufficient to refer to a few prominent facts. It will be seen, from the census returns above referred .to, that in 1860, the whole number of persons in the United States engaged in manufactures and kindred branches was 2,017,653; and of those engaged in commerce and connected pursuits, 757,773 ; while the number engaged in agricultural operations, as stated above, was 3,381,583. Thus it appears that the farmers not only out- number the merchants and the manufacturers, taken INTRODUCTION. 13 separately, but they surpass the combined numbers of those classes by more than half a million. It also appears that, by the ordinary ratio of increase, the number of farmers in the whole country, at the period of the next census, will probably exceed five millions, counting the heads of families merely, and not their dependents. It is quite apparent, therefore, that this class of our citizens, unconspicuous as they have been in the retirement of their rural homes, have yet grown to dimensions, and risen to an importance, well calcu- lated to arrest attention. But while their numbers are rapidly advancing, their achievements do not flag. The annual fruits of their industry, increasing with their population, have reached a prominence and magnitude everywhere seen and felt, and everywhere acknowledged to be without a parallel. American husbandry has made its mark in the world, not only by the intrinsic value, but equally by the quantities of its products. The unexampled amounts of grain and provision which it has annually poured into the chan- nels of commerce, have justly challenged the attention and the amazement of mankind. In whatever light we view this subject, we cannot fail to be impressed with the valuable services and the growing influence of our yeomanry. It is not a mere metaphor, nor even an exaggeration, to- say that the destiny of the nation is in their hands. The national census is the* history of their achievements and the monument of their greatness. Their position and in- fluence in the community is a simple matter of fact 14 INDIAN CORN. which it is proper to recognize, legitimate to account for, and maybe useful to contemplate, and which there can be no reason to ignore. If the mere statement of these facts affords them any ground of complacency and self-gratulation, so does it also bring with it momentous responsibilities. To remind them of these is no idle compliment, but may serve a useful purpose. If they have done so much for their country in the past, what may they not do in the future ? The present is an eventful and auspicious epoch in our history, holding out to our people, and especially to our farming population, great and glorious oppor- tunities. We stand between a dreary past and a hopeful future. Having extinguished, with a rapidity and completeness unexampled, the most stupendous rebellion on record; having continued through the whole of that struggle to exhibit and unfold with scarcely any interruption our immense material re- sources ; having made that fiery tribulation the occa- sion and opportunity for developing an amazing na- tional vitality, a physical energy, a force of character, and a moral power surpassing our own previous con- ceptions, and scarcely yet credited by the rest of the world ; having confirmed and established in the reluc- tant confidence of foreign nations, the vigor, efficiency, and permanency of our government ; having thrown open our vast domain of fertile acres to the people of all climes, thus offering a bid for population beyond the competition of other powers ; having invited, facil- itated, and secured a steadily increasing tide of immi- INTRODUCTION. 15 gration from abroad, it would certainly appear as if the era upon which we are now entering holds out a prospect beyond any thing hitherto revealed to man- kind. We stand on the threshold of a future so fall of promise, so radiant with hope, so teeming with possibilities and opportunities, that imagination can scarcely overdraw, nor enthusiasm exaggerate the ap- proaching scenes of prosperity, affluence, and power. To you, Brother Farmers, such reflections as these cannot be without interest, for with you it mainly rests to realize for your country these well-founded and rational anticipations. You hold the keys that shall unlock the treasures of the earth. In your hands are the magic wands that shall convert proph- ecy into history, and organize possibilities into accom- plished events, transmuting the visions of the future into solid facts, and crystallizing anticipated scenes into living realities. To you, then, gentlemen, may the writer be al- lowed to address a few plain and candid remarks. If the prosperity of this nation is founded upon the prosperity and success of its farmers, then arises at once the vital question, On what does the success of the farmer depend ? The obvious answer is, that it depends mainly upon his getting from his land the largest amount of products, at the lowest rate of ex- pense. To do this requires not only industry but in- telligence ; not merely the faculty of working, but the faculty of thinking.. The man who, by combining thought with action, contrives to get, year after year, five or six bushels more of wheat, and ten or fifteen 16 INDIAN CORN. more of corn from an acre of ground than his neigh- bor gets, under like circumstances, will undoubtedly, other things being equal, outstrip his neighbor in the race of prosperity. If this is true in reference to in- dividuals, it is equally so and the effect is far more striking in reference to communities. Let us take, for example, the corn crop of the United States, and see what the difference would amount to, in the aggregate, if every farmer in the country, at the period of the last census, had raised, with little or no additional expense, five bushels more to the acre. This result was not merely possible, but easy to accomplish, and would have made a net addi- tion of nearly one hundred and thirty million bushels of corn to the product for that year. This being the difference on one crop out of a dozen or more, we may form some idea of the total excess that would result, in a single season, from even a small increase all around in the ratio of production. Now here, gentlemen, is the point which ought to arrest your attention. The average yield per acre, throughout the country, is entirely below what it should be. The product of Indian corn might just as well be, on a general average, fifty bushels to the acre as thirty or thirty-five ; and in putting the amount at fifty bushels, the standard is still too low. It is easy, however, to perceive, and is well under- stood, that the rate of yield here complained of is the fault of a part of the agricultural community only, and not of the whole ; and it is but just to remark, that low as this average appears, it is nevertheless INTBODFCTION. 17 above that of former years, and has been slowly, and with some fluctuation, gaining ground for nearly half a century. It must also be admitted, and is entitled to be considered, that notwithstanding this low rate of production, the aggregate amounts of our various crops have risen to proportions truly amazing, and have, as already stated, contributed immensely to the growth and power of the country. But after all these admissions, though in looking at the grand aggregates, we find them, in comparison with former years, steadily advancing, and though we find the broad result to be national development and prosperity beyond that of any other people, still the inquiry arises, and forces itself upon the mind, "What would have been, or rather, what might not have been accomplished, with a larger average yield? What other, and higher, and more incredible results might not have been achieved, had the ratio of pro- duction been fifty bushels per acre for corn, with a corresponding increase for all other crops ? Now, to every cultivator of the soil this question of acreable product is one of no little moment ; and he has already gone far toward solving it, when he has committed his grain to the ground in the spring. It i indeed a serious question, not only to himself but to the community as well, whether he shall gather twenty bushels from an acre or one hundred and fifty, or what intermediate number he shall reach between these extremes. One thing at least is certain : in the present state of intelligence, with the existing facili- ties and recently improved methods of culture, no 18 INDIAN COEN. man of ordinary enterprise will be satisfied with any such quantity as the average yield of the last decade. It cannot be denied that thirty-three bushels per acre is too low an average for the whole country, consider- ing that one hundred bushels are by no means unu- sual, and that much higher figures have been reached, even all the way up to two hundred bushels. "Whatever has been done in repeated instances, by various parties and under differing circumstances, is surely a reasonable standard for every man to aim at, and one which no true farmer will permit himself to lose sight of. Knowing the limit of possibility, it is only necessary to know further what are the condi- tions essential to its attainment. Comply with these, and you achieve the result. Let every farmer make up his mind, at planting, how many bushels per acre are fairly within his reach. Let him fix his mark in the spring, with a firm resolve to come up to it. He who determines to achieve whatever has been proved reasonably possible, may safely aim at an elevated mark ; and if he conforms to the laws of reason, and nature, and common sense, will hit the centre of his target at every shot. But there are, gentlemen, two great agencies op- erating throughout the country, the tendency of which is so favorable and so powerful for good, that I cannot forbear to urge them on your attention. I allude to the influence of farmers' clubs and farming journals. No man engaged in agricultural pursuits can expect to keep up with the spirit of the times, without avail- ing himself of these useful and invaluable means of INTRODUCTION. 19 improvement. If every man who wins Ms livelihood from the soil, would appropriate the experience of his fellow-cultivators by connecting himself at once with a farmers' club, and subscribing promptly to an agri- cultural journal, causing it to be taken and read in his family, the effect on the soil and crops of the en- suing season would be marvellous and magical all over the country. The valuable facts and experiments, and the va- riety of information which abound in these journals, produce their legitimate results, in improving, ele- vating, and enriching the farmer, with just as much certainty as does the manure applied to his crops, or the tillage bestowed on the soil. The conductors and writers of this branch of the press devote themselves with untiring industry to collect and disseminate the opinions and experience of our wisest practical men, and the scientific principles laid down by the highest authorities. It is not easy to determine how many of these jour- nals are at present taken and read throughout the country, but it seems probable that the number of sub- scribers, putting all the journals together, would not much exceed one-third of a million, which is less than one man in ten of the agricultural proprietors, and scarcely one in forty of the farming population. It must be admitted that this ratio of readers to the whole number of cultivators is discreditably low. In an agricultural community numbering four million families, there ought to be, at the least calculation, one million subscribers to this class of periodicals ; nor 20 INDIAN CORN. is it easy to assign any reason why this number should not yet be reached before the period of the next gen- eral census. We should then have three reading farmers where we now have one, and the effect upon agriculture which such an increase of intelligence would everywhere produce it is scarcely possible to overrate. It rests with you, brother farmers, to introduce this new era of diffused intelligence, by doubling or tripling, as you easily may, the circulation of the agri- cultural press. Should you enter thoroughly into the spirit of this subject, the purpose would be accom- plished. You would thereby change the aspect and condition of fields and farms all over the land, impart- ing to every meadow a brighter green, and to the fruits of autumn a deeper tinge of gold. You would communicate ideas to ploughshares, convert the hoe into a calculator, and endow the spade with thought. "What effect this would produce upon the future grain crops of the country, it is not difficult to per- ceive. Even without counting any increase from this cause, the corn crop for 1870, as will be seen by the estimate on another page, is likely to exceed a thou- sand million dollars in value. The grain itself, accord- ing to that estimate, will be sufficient to feed not only our own people, but half the population of Europe in addition, for more than twelve months; while the money value of such annual crops would, in the course of three years, suffice to extinguish our national debt, and leave a balance in the treasury. It seems to me, Farmers of America, that such a INTEODTJOTION. 21 record will be the best possible commentary on the Great American Rebellion, and the best possible re- buke to the numerous tribe of croakers and prophets of evil abroad, who have so long and steadily been gloating over the approaching dissolution of our Union. That the citizen soldiers of this country, after bring- ing to a successful close a civil war so formidable and terrific, should have laid aside promptly, in the very hour of triumph, the arms which they had covered with glory, and gone back quietly to their cherished homes, and to the beneficent occupations of peace; that a class of men notoriously ardent and susceptible should abandon at once and with complacency, the exciting scenes of martial life, and the fields of all their fresh renown, satisfied with a sense of duty per- formed and a country saved ; that so soon after turn- ing their backs upon the field of battle, they should exhibit to the world a countless array of harvest fields stretching over a thousand hills and valleys, and cov- ering a land redeemed by their valor and now embel- lished by their toil this indeed is a moral spectacle instructive to the world, and more to be prized than all the material prosperity and affluence which it in- dicates. CAi A }"< ; : ., \ \ \ 9 EXTENT A1STD VALUE OF THE COEK CKOP. GENERAL YIEW. The extent of the corn crop of this country, and its importance in an economical and commercial view, have risen to a scale of magnitude that overshadows all other crops. It appears, from the census of 1860, that the corn crop of that year was over eight hundred million bushels, while the product of wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, and potatoes, taken in their entire aggregate, was less than that of Indian corn by more than three hundred million bushels. Compared with the wheat crop alone, the product of corn is very nearly five times greater ; and when the comparison is extended beyond our own country, it is found that the corn crop of the United States is about equal to the wheat crop of the whole earth. The following are the decennial returns of Indian corn, as given in the census tables of the last three decades : For 1840 377,431,874 bushels. 1850 592,071,104 " 1860 838,792,740 " EXTENT AND TALUE OF THE COEN CROP. 23 It appears, from this comparison, that the increase from 1840 to 1850 was nearly two hundred and fifteen million bushels, and from 1850 to 1860 it was nearly two hundred and forty-seven million bushels. For the entire period of twenty years, the gain was over four hundred and sixty-one million bushels, being at the rate of a little over six per cent, a year, or sixty per cent, for each decade. The following table exhibits the corn crop of 1860 in comparison with some of the other leading crops of the country : Corn 838,792,740 bushels. Wheat 173,104,924 " Eye 20,976,285 " Oats 172,554,688 " Barley 15,635,119 " Buckwheat 17,664,914 " Peas and Beans 15,188,013 " Potatoes 110,571,201 " The aggregate number of bushels for these eight crops is thirteen hundred and sixty-four million, four- hundred and eighty-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty-four, making an average of over one hun- dred and seventy million bushels for each crop. The returns of the corn crop for the several States and Territories for 1850 and 1860, are indicated in the following table, in which the States are arranged in the order of the alphabet and not in the order of their yield. 24: INDIAN COEN. 1850. 1860. Alabama. Bushels. 28,754,048 8,893,939 12,236 1,935,043 3,145,542 1,996,809 30,080,099 57,646,984 52,964,363 8,656,799 58,672,591 10,265,273 1,750,056 10,749,858 2,345,490 5,641,420 16,725 22,446 36,214,537 1,573,670 8,759,704 17,858,400 27,941,051 59,078,695 2,918 19,835,214 530,201 16,271,454 52,276,223 6,028,876 2,032,396 35,254,319 1,988,979 440,540 Bushels. 33,226,282 17,823,588 510,708 2,069,835 3,892,337 2,834,391 30,776,293 115,174,777 71,588,919 42,410,686 6,150,727 64,043,633 16,853,745 1,546,071 13,444,922 2,157,063 12,444,676 2,941,952 29,057,682 72,802,157 1,414,628 9,723,336 20,061,049 30,078,564 73,543,190 76,122 28,196,821 461,497 15,068,606 52,089,926 16,500,702 1,625,411 38,319,999 7,517,300 2,388,147 Arkansas California . ... Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois.. . ... Indiana Iowa . . Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan . . . Minnesota Mississippi . . Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Ehode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont "Virginia . ... Wisconsin Territories 592,071,104 838,792,740 The principal corn-growing States rank for 1860 in the following order : EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE COEN CEOP. 25 1. Illinois. 2. Ohio. 3. Missouri. 4. Indiana. 5. Kentucky. 6. Tennessee. 7. Iowa. 8. Virginia. 9. Alabama. 10. Georgia. 11. K Carolina. 12. Mississippi. 13. Pennsylvania. 14. New York. The first six of these States produced in 1860 about four hundred and fifty million bushels, being more than half the product of the whole country. In 1840, Tennessee was the greatest corn-produc- ing State ; in 1850, Ohio took the first rank, and in 1860 Illinois stood at the head. The greatest gain made by any of the principal corn-growing States has been made by Iowa. In twenty years the product of that State has increased from less than one and a half million bushels to over forty-two million bushels. The proportion of Indian corn to the whole num- ber of inhabitants is not a little remarkable. Com- pared with that of potatoes and wheat, it stands as follows : Potatoes to each inhabitant, 210 Ibs. Wheat, " " 330" Corn " " 1,590" 2,130 This gives an aggregate of more than two thousand pounds of food to every man, woman, and child in the country, from three leading crops. The following is an approximation to the average yield per acre, and the number of acres in corn, for the last two decades : INDIAN COEN. AOSES ix COEN. AVERAGE YIELD. 1860 . ... 25,417,961 Bushels per acre. 33 1850 23,682,844 25 Increase 1,735,117 8 MONEY VALUE or THE COEN CEOP. In estimating the value of this crop, it is to be remembered that the market price of corn varies greatly between the East and West. In the city of New York it has ranged, dur- ing the last six years, from sixty cents up to two dol- lars per bushel, averaging during the last three years about one dollar and ten cents. At the West it has ranged much below these figures, probably from fifty to seventy per cent, lower ; but as most of the corn in that section is consumed on the land where it grows, paying the farmer much better, on an average, than the market price, it is not easy to determine what the crop actually realizes to the producer. Taking into consideration, however, the various forms in which it is turned into money, and the range of market prices, it may safely be assumed that the corn crop brings, on an average, not less than sixty cents per bushel. But there is an important item which, though it has found no place in the tables of the census, cannot properly be omitted in computing the product of In- dian corn. It will be found that the stalk crop of the country, including all the stover of corn raised for all purposes, amounts to about forty million tons.* There is no regular market price established for this stover, * See Estimate on page 177. EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP. 27 but its positive pecuniary value is not, for that reason, any less. It is variously estimated from three or four dollars a ton up to twelve dollars and over. In some parts of the country, and by many of the best farmers, it is considered quite equal in value to good hay. As there is, however, some difference of opinion in regard to the value of corn-stalks, we will assume that they are worth five dollars a ton, on an average ; although it is demonstrable that, when turned to the best account, they can be made to realize, in most cases, nearly or quite double that amount. Taking the grain, then, at sixty cents per bushel, and the stover at five dollars per ton, the total value of the corn crop for 1860 will foot up as follows : 838,792,740 bushels of grain, at 60c. . . . . .$503,275,644 40,000,000 tons of stalks, at $5 200,000,000 $703,275,644 ESTIMATED CROP FOR 1870. In forming any con- clusions on this subject, there is perhaps no better guide than the comparative increase of the crop during the last two decades. Though agricultural operations have been temporarily interrupted in a portion of the country by the events of the war, it is now probable that the nation will be soon restored to a condition of more than former prosperity ; that whatever the coun- try has lost by the Rebellion in agricultural products, will be more than compensated by the increased ac- tivity of the coming years ; and that the census of 1870 will show that our staple crops have not lost ground in consequence of the war. 28 INDIAN CORN. The increase of the corn crop during the twenty years from 1840 to 1860, was at the rate of a little more than six per cent, a year. It may then, we think, be fairly taken for granted, that the gain for the present decade will be, at least, equal to five per cent, a year. According to this ratio of increase, and taking the same valuation as before, the corn crop for 1870 will show the following aggregate, in quantity and value : 1,258,189,110 bushels of grain, at 60c. . . .$754,913,466 60,000,000 tons of stover, at $5 300,000,000 $1,054,913,466 CONSUMPTION OF THE CKOP. In view of the present and increasing amount of this stupendous crop, it be- comes an interesting and important inquiry, where and how it is consumed. The amount of corn exported is small compared with that of wheat, and when viewed in contrast with the product of the entire crop, appears quite insignifi- cant. The total exports of corn and wheat for the last six years, and the average per year, are as follows : Corn, 40,895,237 bushels, average per year 6,815,872 bush. Wheat, 112,938,693 " " " ....18,823,115 " Thus it appears that the ratio of corn exported is less than one per cent, of the whole crop, while that of wheat is very nearly eleven per cent., without includ- ing the shipment of flour, which during the same period averages 1,667,342 barrels per year. If this amount is added to the grain sent abroad, it will make the ratio of wheat exported about fifteen per cent, of the entire crop. EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE COKN CEOP. 29 But there is another view of the export of corn which presents it in a more favorable light. While less than one bushel in a hundred is sent directly abroad, a much larger proportion than this is indi- rectly exported, in various forms, more remunerative to the farmer, and more profitable for the country. Indian corn enters, in a larger or less degree, into nearly ail the beef, pork, mutton, butter, cheese, and lard produced by the entire farming community. These products are not only in great demand for do- mestic consumption, but are, all of them, with the ex- ception of mutton, largely exported. The beef shipped to Europe from the port of ISTew York, during the last three years, amounts, on an aver- age, to forty thousand barrels and fifty-four thousand tierces per year. The pork shipped during the same time exceeds one hundred and forty-seven thousand barrels on a yearly average, and other meats exported amount to over one hundred million pounds a year ; while the aggregate of butter, cheese, and lard sent abroad during the same period is over three hundred and seventy-five million pounds. These results, how- ever, are less than they would have been, in conse- quence of an exceptional decline in the export of pro- visions during the last year. But far the largest consumption of Indian corn is by our own people. The home market, which is more easily reached, is vast in extent, and constantly in- creasing in its demand. Not only as a direct article of human food is this grain largely consumed here at home, but also, and to an almost incredible extent, as 30 INDIAN COEN. provender for the immense number and variety of our domestic animals. The same commodities to which corn contributes for export, it also produces or aids in producing on a very much larger scale for domestic consumption. As an illustration of this, the quantity of beef, veal, mutton, and pork absorbed in a single year by the city of New York alone, is indicated by the following statement of live stock received for 1865: Beeves 273,274 Yeals 77,991 Sheep and Lambs 836,733 Swine 573,197 Total 1,761,195 Nearly the whole of this amount of animal food was consumed during the year, by the population of New York city and its vicinity ; from which some conception may be formed of the quantity of meat re- quired, and the quantity of corn used in producing it, for a population of over thirty millions. The total amount of butter and cheese made in 1860 was about five hundred and seventy million pounds, and doubtless at the present time exceeds six hundred million pounds a year, most of which is con- sumed by our own people. In producing these arti- cles, Indian corn is extensively employed, both the grain and the stover being found profitable for the purpose. In a general view then, of the consumption of corn. EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP. 31 we discover how great a proportion of the crop is used for conversion into other kinds of food, and how largely it is fed out for this purpose on the land where it grows ; thereby tending to increase the prosperity of the farmer by improving the quality of his soil. And herein consists one great advantage of this cereal over wheat. Though both are largely consumed at home, in one form or another, and both to some ex- tent exported, yet the result in the two cases is very different. The corn which the farmer converts into other products may be sent abroad or sold in any market without reluctance, and with advantage, for it leaves an enriched soil behind it, and brings back wealth to the country. But when the wheat crop is sold, wheth- er at home or abroad, an integral part of the farm is sold with it. However largely it may be exported to Europe, still the land where it grew is despoiled without compensation, and the fertility of the earth is bartered for foreign gold. Already the deterioration / of the soil resulting from this husbandry is, in some localities, severely felt, and farmers are anxiously look- ing around for new sources of fertility for some ade- quate means of restoring to their land its departed virtue. But the system of special crops of partial and exclusive husbandry, is wrong in principle, and should be reformed. If the practice of some farmers is continued, the loss to the country will in a few years be serious. If, for the sake of present gain, they continue to trade away the essential quality of 32 INDIAN COEN. their land, along with the grain it produces, selling out the very sources of their prosperity, the cream and essence of their farms, at sixty pounds to the bushel, it is certain to bring impoverishment to themselves or their children. CAL1FOHXIA NAME AND OEIGIK MAIZE, or Indian Corn, is an herbaceous plant be- longing to the family of grasses (Graminece). Its Botanical name, Zea Mays, is indicative of its nutritive quality, or power of sustaining life ; the generic term, Zea, being derived from the Greek verb Zao, to live, while the word Mays is supposed to come from the Livonic Mayse, which signifies bread, or staff of life. It stands preeminently at the head of the cereals, or cereal grasses, which include all those that are culti- vated for their grains, such as wheat, rye, maize, etc. ; the term cereal being derived from Ceres, the name of the Pagan goddess that presided over grain and har- vests. In England, and on the Continent of Europe, the word Corn is applied equally to wheat, rye, and bread- stuffs in general ; while in this country the use of the term is limited exclusively to maize. This specific application of the word has been confirmed by a judi- cial decision in Pennsylvania, in which it was ruled by the court that the word Corn is a sufficient descrip- tion of Indian corn. 2* 34 INDIAN CORN. ORIGIN. In regard to the origin of this plant, al- though there has never been room for reasonable doubt, there have been those who fancied there was room for argument. America is clearly and beyond question the native country of Indian corn. Yet, from the commencement of its history, writers have not been wanting to contest this point, and to claim for it an Eastern origin. The weight of authority and of argument so entirely preponderates in favor of its American origin, that it is scarcely worth while, in a work aiming to be useful rather than learned, to waste the time of the reader with idle and unprofit- able speculation If any further evidence were wanting on this point, it may be found in the impossibility that a grain so nutritious, prolific, and valuable, so admirably adapted to the wants of man, could have existed in the Eastern world before the discovery of America without coming into general use, and making itself universally known. Had this cereal existed there at that period, it would have made its own record too clearly and positively to leave any doubt on the subject. But on this, as on some other topics, there will al- ways be found a class of minds ready to keep up an argument, whether there is any rational ground for it or not. It would seem to be time to dismiss the con- troversy by accepting, as final, the generally received conclusion, sanctioned by such names as Humboldt, Schoolcrafb, and Prescott, that Indian corn was un- known to the Eastern world previous to the discovery of America. NAME AND ORIGIN. 35 But maize is not the only important plant indige- nous to the Western world. Other vegetables highly prized, either for their usefulness or as luxuries, have had their origin here. Among these are included the Tobacco plant, and the Potato, both of which, t>ut for the discovery of this continent, would still be unknown to the civilized world. Let all consumers, then, of these three important products, not forget their obli- gations to the immortal Genoese navigator, who, when he bequeathed a hemisphere to mankind, transmitted, at the same time, two priceless articles of food, and a weed of questionable value. ADAPTATION TO YAEIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. THE different conditions and qualities of soil re- sulting from the combination of its elements in vary- ing proportions, are not only numerous, but probably incalculable. This diversity is strikingly illustrated in the fact that adjacent fields, however similar in ap- pearance, are often found to differ, and sometimes widely, under the test of chemical analysis. Yet of the almost endless diversity of soils, it is remarkable from how small a number maize is ex- cluded. In nearly all of them it will grow to matu- rity, while in most of them it thrives with tolerable treatment, and repays a generous culture with an abundant crop. " Indian corn," says the Farmers Encyclopedia, " can be cultivated on land, long after it has ceased to afford compensating crops of any other grain. It contends with poverty better than most other plants, and may be advantageously grown in any soil fit for cultivation, not excepting blowing sands or retentive clay." " Corn will grow," says Mr. Joseph Harris, " on all soils, from the lightest sand to the heaviest clay, ADAPTATION TO VARIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 37 among granite rocks and on the richest bottoms. I have been," he adds, " in a two hundred acre field in Ohio that has produced annually a good crop of corn for over fifty years without manure." There is, indeed, scarcely a plant cultivated by man that will grow with equal success in so great a diver- sity of soils. The evidence of this fact is met with in every direction through the country. The travel- ler whose way lies through cultivated districts, passes over many qualities of land, yet nowhere does he miss the ever-recurring cornfield. However far he may go, the soil along his way, like the landscape that meets his eye, is constantly changing, but the crop of growing maize continually reappears. He passes a thousand planted fields, so various in the composition of their soils that scarcely any two of them are iden- tical ; yet of that thousand fields he finds a large proportion planted with corn. But though this ubiquitous cereal so readily adapts itself to the new condition it finds in each new local- ity, making itself a home amid uncongenial elements, and often growing with luxuriance where other ce- reals will scarcely grow at all, we are by no means to infer that the quality of the land where it grows is a matter of indifference. On the contrary, there is no grain more sensitive on this point than maize ; none that pays so munificently for fertility of soil in the affluence of its yield. Another property of this grain, which no other cereal possesses in an equal degree, is the VARIETY OF CLIMATE to which it is adapted, and the facility with 38 INDIAN CORN. which it may be translated from one latitude to another. Though originally found in or near the tropics, it has gradually extended beyond those limits, and may now be seen growing over the greater part of this con- tinent, from about the fiftieth degree of north latitude to a corresponding parallel south, and extending to limits not far short of these in the Eastern hemisphere ; though in the latter the growth is less vigorous and the maturity less certain. When transferred from one climate to another, if the distance be not so extreme as to render the contrast too violent, it gradually parts with the features and Ijabits peculiar to its recent lo- cality, and readily acquires those that are appropriate to its adopted home. By this beneficent arrangement of Providence its value and usefulness to man are greatly enhanced, not only by rendering the culture more general, but by affording the means of multiply- ing its varieties, improving its quality, and increasing its yield. Indeed, the important destiny for which this grain seems designed by the Creator, is in noth- ing more apparent than in the extensive area which it covers, and the variety of climes in which it thrives. Though cultivated quite extensively and with con- siderable success in Southern Europe, as well as in portions of Asia and Africa, yet America seems to be its peculiar home, and the region of its highest per- fection. From Maine to Oregon, from British Amer- ica almost to the extreme verge of Patagonia, this legacy of the red man to the white, in some of its forms or varieties, is annually cultivated. Where ADAPTATION TO VARIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 39 frost-bound Minnesota lends to its growth a short and reluctant summer, where the rigor of a Canadian cli- mate concedes to it a few weeks of glowing sun, or where the fervid sky of Kansas, or the sultry air and longer season of either Carolina produce an earlier development and a larger growth ; in short, wherever on this continent civilized man can exist with tolera- ble comfort, there will you find Indian corn pushing its little cylinder of folded leaves through the soil, or unfurling to the wind its long and graceful foliage, or lifting its newly formed tassel to greet the rising sun. Though its growth under tropical skies is more rank and luxuriant, producing not unfrequently stalks of prodigious size, the yield of grain is found to in- crease as it advances toward the pole, and the largest product per acre is said to be obtained near the north- ern limit of its range. ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN. THE consumption of maize by the human family, and by nearly all domestic animals, has greatly in- creased within the last few years. As an article of food it is unsurpassed, and in the opinion of many unequalled, by any other grain or plant, combining, as it does, in suitable proportions, all the essential and valuable elements required for healthfulness and nu- trition. It appears from chemical analysis that Indian corn contains more oil and starch than wheat, with rather less gluten ; and therefore, while scarcely inferior to that grain in nutritive value, far surpasses it, as well as the other cereals, in its fattening properties, which amount to nearly eighty per cent, of its composition. In point of nourishment it is second only to wheat, and even here the superiority of the latter is rather nominal than real ; for if due allowance is made for the loss sustained by wheat in grinding and bolting, it will be found that a pound of corn yields quite as much nourishment as a pound of wheat. It is nearly ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN. 41 fourfold more nutritious than the potato, which has so long been the great staple and staff of life with a numerous class, both in this and other countries ; and it has been proved by experiment that corn meal will sustain a workingman longer, when fed upon it ex- clusively, than any other grain. The numerous preparations and manifold forms in which maize is fitted for the table, contribute to ren- der it the most various and valuable, as it is with one exception the most abundant article of human food. There is, however, a noticeable difference in the properties of the several varieties of this grain. While the constituents remain nearly the same in all, the proportions vary in which they are combined, and this fact still further increases its adaptation to the requirements of man and animals. " For the colder half of the year," says the Amer- ican Agriculturist, " the oil and starch of the corn are better adapted to the wants of the body, than the large amount of gluten in wheat. Corn contains all the elements needed in the body, and in just about the proportion they are required in winter, while they are nearly suited for food in warm weather." The writer might have added with much truth, and making the case still stronger, that tke Southern varieties, having a smaller proportion of oil than the flint corn of the North, are thereby rendered a softer and cooler food for the climate that produces them ; while the presence of a larger amount of vegetable oil in the maize of higher latitudes imparts to it the very quality that fits it for the region of its growth. It is 42 INDIAN COEN. found by travellers to tlie North that the larger the proportion of fatty elements contained in their food, the more easily they withstand the extreme severity of the temperature. Accordingly it appears that the seal, the bear, the water-fowl, and other animals that supply food to the natives of the frigid zone, acquire a superabundance of fat in the ratio of their proximity to the pole ; and here we perceive the same law re- vealing itself in the vegetable kingdom. As man advances to the north, he finds the fuel that is de- manded by the rigor of the climate partially supplied by the indigenous food that pertains to the latitude. It is also to this peculiar property of maize that it largely owes its unrivalled excellence for fattening purposes. All domestic animals are easily and rapidly fattened when judiciously fed with corn meal ; and, what is still more important, the flesh thus acquired is firmer and better than that produced by any other grain. A further and more detailed consideration of the uses and value of this cereal for purposes of food may be found in a subsequent chapter. CEKTArNTTY OF THE CKOP. INDIAN corn is usually accounted a certain crop, and in comparison with many others it undoubtedly is so. When seasonably planted, with due attention to the selection of seed, and tolerable care in the after culture, it has scarcely ever been known to result in failure. There are, of course, exceptional cases, arising from providential or human causes, such as unseason- able frost, absolute sterility of soil, utter neglect of the crop, etc. Apart from such instances as these, there is no seed which the husbandman commits to the earth with more certainty of securing some return for his labor. Yet the difference between a moderate crop and a large yield is a very material point for the farmer to consider, though he too often overlooks it. Here is, in fact, the point where certainty ends and contingency begins. While he feels reasonably sure of a moderate yield, he is in danger of neglecting the means that would make him almost equally sure of a much greater one. The interval between thirty or forty bushels per acre and one hundred and fifty is very considera- 4A INDIAN COEN. ble, and if lie allows himself to rest in the confidence of securing the former, he will be quite apt to lose sight of the possibility of the latter. A small or moderate crop is nearly always a mat- ter of tolerable certainty. But a large yield is encir- cled by elements of doubt. It is to some extent a question of sun and rain, of dew and frost, of tillage, fertilizers, etc. It is a question, too, about which squirrels and mice, and greedy birds, and myriads of voracious insects, have each a word to say. Yet amid all these contingencies, and in the face of all these enemies, the intelligent husbandman re- poses undismayed upon his conscious resources, reflect- ing that the same Providence that has strewed diffi- culties along his path has also endowed him with in- tellect and skill sufficient to counteract them. He goes into the cornfield with a clear head, a resolute purpose, and a strong faith, well provided with seed and implements, and with his favorite agricultural journal, and lo ! the formidable host of obstacles and enemies vanish from his presence ; and where a slov- enly, unthrifty man, who never reads and never grows wiser, would possibly produce a crop of twenty or thirty bushels per acre, he, the intelligent farmer, raises one hundred bushels or more. AYEKAGE YIELD. THE average yield of Indian corn in the United States for 1850 was, according to the census of that year, twenty-five bushels per acre ; the extreme limits being eleven bushels for South Carolina and forty bushels for Connecticut. For 1860 the census tables do not give the average product per acre for the whole country, nor do they furnish any returns from which the average yield for that year may be accurately de- termined. We have, however, numerous reports and estimates of acreable products from, various sections of the country since that period, from which a proximate average may be arrived at. Mr. Ezra Cornell has reported for Tompkins Coun- ty in this State an average of 46.7 bushels per acre on the level of Cayuga Lake, and 32.4 bushels in lo- calities one thousand feet higher. From other coun- ties in the State there have been reports and estimates ranging from twenty-six btshels per acre to forty bush- els and over ; making the probable average for New York between thirty-two and thirty-three bushels. From Ohio we have returns, both official and other- wise, making the average product per acre in that 46 INDIAN COEN. State, for a succession of recent years, nearly thirty- three bushels per acre. In New England, acreable products have been esti- mated and reported from different States and sections, varying from twenty-seven to thirty-eight bushels, the most competent judges rating the average at about thirty-two bushels. Some estimates from Indiana and Illinois would lead to the inference that the average for those States will reach from thirty-five to forty bushels per acre. On the other hand, there are sections of the coun- try of no small extent from which the reported esti- mates are lower than any of these figures. In some of the immense cornfields of the far "West, and on the large plantations of the Southwest and South, the cul- tivation is necessarily imperfect and neglected, and the yield being correspondingly low, contributes to sink the average for the whole country. Taking the various data and means of judging as we find them, though there is some room for differ- ence of opinion, we may yet reach a general conclu- sion that can scarcely be very wide of the mark. One writer puts the average yield for the whole country in 1860 at thirty bushels, another at twenty- eight and a fraction. The editor of the Country Gentleman places it in 1862 at thirty-five bushels. The opinion of the latter i%entitled to great consider- ation ; yet we are inclined to think that it is slightly above the mark. If we place the general average for the last five years at thirty-three bushels per acre, it cannot be very far from the truth. AVERAGE YIELD. 47 The difference between the average yield of this grain and the amount raised per acre by many of the best farmers is at first view not a little surprising-. When we observe scores of cultivators in every direc- tion counting their annual yield by the hundred bushels per acre, and others ascending to still higher figures, and yet find that the average for the whole country during the past twenty years has ranged from twenty-five bushels to a little over thirty, we can scarcely credit or comprehend so strange a contrast. Yet the matter is very simple and easily solved. The difference in crops is a difference of diffused intelli- gence ; and it is gratifying to know that the contrast is gradually melting away in the presence of farmers' clubs, and before the increasing circulation of farming journals. L I B u A K UN I V KKSITY OF I (>.-; i. \. PRODUCTIVENESS. THERE is no plant or vegetable grown by the farmer that is more variable in its yield, or more sus- ceptible of the influences of soil, season, and treatment than this grain. Herein lies a strong argument for attending to its requirements, and studying out the conditions on which its productiveness depends. On the records of State and county fairs, and in agricul- tural and other journals, the crops frequently report- ed give striking proof of the prolific capacity of In- dian corn, and well deserve the attention of the cul- tivator. The following are a few of the large yields to be found on record, and may perhaps serve as a stimulus to our farmers, prompting them to aim at similar re- sults. It should be remembered that large yields of corn tend to increase the supply of other provisions, and at the same time enable the farmer to keep up the quality of his land. Every man, therefore, who raises a large corn crop, not only improves his own condition, but contributes to the prosperity of his country. PRODUCTIVENESS. 49 David R. Bruce, of Desmoines County, Iowa, a lad of fourteen years of age, and L. H. 0. Bruce of the same place, aged sixteen years, are reported in the American Agriculturist to have produced, the former one hundred and ten and a half bushels, and the latter one hundred and seventeen and a half bushels per acre without the aid of manure or fertilizers of any kind. A writer in the Country Gentleman has stated that Joseph Wright, of Waterloo, 1ST. Y., had not failed once in the previous three seasons to get over one hun- dred bushels of shelled corn to the acre, by planting the red-cob dent corn of Illinois, imported direct from the prairies. The late Judge Buel, a most intelligent and enthu- siastic cultivator, was an advocate of close planting in drills, in which he was successful, reaching from one hundred bushels to about one hundred and twenty bushels per acre. The Messrs. Pratt, of Madison County, by the same method succeeded in producing one hundred and seventy bushels to the acre. The editor of the Annual Register of Rural Af- fairs states that one of the best farmers of his ac- quaintance has obtained one hundred and thirty bushels to the acre by planting his corn three feet apart each way. The Browne corn has produced, as cited by Mr. D. J. Browne, in his Memoir on Indian Corn, one hundred and thirty-six bushels per acre, weighing fifty-eight pounds to the bushel. The Whitman or Hill corn is stated by Mr. Fear- 3 50 INDIAN CORN. ing Burr, Jr., to have given a product of one hundred and forty bushels per acre. It has been announced in a Kentucky journal that Major Williams, of Bourbon County, succeeded in raising one hundred and sixty bushels to the acre by planting in rows two feet asunder, with the stalks twelve inches apart in the row. This is another among many proofs that corn, if rightly treated, may be planted nearer than the usual practice without los- ing its earing capacity. Mr. C. T. Johnson, of New Jersey, has reported to the Farmers' Club of the American Institute, a crop of the improved King Philip, reaching nearly two hundred bushels per acre, produced by close planting in drills. In a field of corn of six acres, planted by Henry Norton, of Western Ohio, one-half the field receiving no manure, produced one hundred and twelve bushels per acre ; while the other half, by subsoiling and lib- eral manuring, gave a product of one hundred and sixty-five bushels, the ears averaging nearly three- quarters of a pound in weight. A. B. Miller, of Marion County, Iowa, has written to the American Agriculturist an account of sev- eral crops raised by farmers in that county in 1860, yielding from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-two bushels per acre; stating that another farmer in the same county, Mr. B. Long, has produced one hundred and seventy-eight bushels per acre on three contiguous acres; and still further, that Mr. PRODUCTIVENESS. 51 Long's son, tinder fourteen years of age, raised ninety- four bushels on half an acre. A larger acreable product, however, than any of these, and probably the largest ever reached, was that of Dr. J. W. Parker, of Columbia, S. C. It is stated in the Weekly Tribune that the corn planted by him was the Bale Mountain, a variety obtained from North Carolina; that the land was under -drained, highly manured, highly cultivated, and closely planted, and that the yield was two hundred bushels and twelve quarts of shelled corn per acre. But the prolific vigor of Indian corn is not limited to its yield of grain. The stalk crop is no less re- markable for its luxuriant growth and surprising product. While the hay crop seldom exceeds two and a half tons per acre, averaging over the country probably not more than one and a half tons, the amount of stover accompanying the maize crop, forming a part of its product, and considered by many farmers quite equal in value to hay, generally ranges from two to three tons per acre, occasionally reaching four or five tons. When the stalk crop is raised for the purpose of fodder exclusively, the yield is higher still. Nine tons of this fodder per acre, weighed after curing, are re- ported in the Working Farmer and stated to be sufficient in quantity for keeping ten cows seventy or more days. This amount has not unfrequently been equalled, and occasionally surpassed. In a report to an agricultural society of South Carolina, more than 52 INDIAN CORN. twenty-seven thousand pounds of cured stover are stated to have been produced on a single acre. As a green fodder crop, raised for soiling cattle during summer and autumn , the weight of this sto- ver per acre is still more remarkable. A writer in the Country Gentleman, over the signature of a " Buck's County Farmer," says that he has frequently raised from fifteen to twenty tons of green fodder per acre, and considers one acre sufficient in a good sea- son for twenty head of cattle, from about the begin- ning of July to the middle of August. Mr. John G. Webb, a dairy farmer near Utica, who usually plants ten or fifteen acres for summer feeding, reports his yield at twenty-five tons and up- ward per acre.* R. H. Mack, of Parma, Ohio, in a communication to the Country Gentleman, gives twenty-two tons per acre as the result of his experience in growing stalks for soiling purposes. S. "W. Hall, of Elmira, K Y., has raised thirty tons per acre by actual weight (as he states in the Country Gentleman}, but considers this more than an average yield. It has been stated in the New York Dally Tri- bune, that an acre has been known to supply over forty tons of green fodder ; and a still larger product is given in ALleris American Farm Book, where one hundred and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixteen pounds of green corn-stalks cut from one * See "Tucker's Annnal Register" for 1864, p. 99. PRODUCTIVENESS. 53 acre in a single season are quoted from a report to the Pedee Agricultural Society of South Carolina. This is the same crop which gave, when cured, twen- ty-seven thousand pounds, as quoted above. It is not, however, to be inferred that such crops as the above are matters of course, or things of daily occurrence, nor that they are free from difficulty, or achieved without effort. The contingencies attending a large yield of corn are neither few nor trifling. But the persevering and resolute purpose of the well- informed cultivator is equal to them all, and the im- punity with which his successful crop escapes casu- alties and defies contingencies, is an evidence how much can be accomplished when intelligence is guided by science, and industry is aided by skill. LT lilt A , i UIS'I V teliSj Y V OF CALIFORNIA. LIMIT OF PKODUCTIOK To the yield of this grain, as to that of every other, Nature has somewhere placed a limit, or rath- er, perhaps, has surrounded it with a series of limits, which no skill or ingenuity of man may exceed. There is, for example, a limit in the prolific power of the seed ; another in the capacity of the soil ; and still another in the area or space required by each grain for perfect development and fruition. These might be called, respectively, the limit of fecundity, the limit of fertility, and the limit of area, or dis- tances. It is safe to assume that neither of these has ever yet been reached. The productiveness of Indian corn has not yet been tested to its ultimate boundary. There is a possible yield greater than any yet accom- plished. "What that yield may be we do not know. It may be two hundred and fifty bushels per acre ; probably more ; possibly less. But what we do know is, that two hundred bushels per acre have been achieved. Beyond that lies the domain of uncer- tainty, a vast undefined region of dim twilight, which LIMIT OF PRODUCTION. 55 theory may explore, and experiment may develop, probably with useful results. The prolific character of maize is shown, not more in the large crops spread over many acres, than in the self-multiplication of single grains. The reproduc- tive vigor inherent in each separate seed is not a little remarkable. One kernel has been known to produce in a season several thousand grains, and single ears of the gourd-seed variety have produced more than a pint by measure. Now, if the proximity of the growing grains did not interfere with this fecundity, if close planting in- terposed no limit to these prolific results, it is easy to see that an acre might be made to return a thousand bushels just as readily as it now returns a hundred. We know that a single stalk of maize will, under cer- tain conditions, yield a pound or more of grain. .And we also know that if an acre of good land, at the proper season, were literally covered with grains of corn, placed in contact and sprinkled over with earth, those grains, if all perfect, would all germinate. But would each one return a pound of corn ? Certainly not ; nor any other quantity. The close planting vio- lates a law of Nature. There is a certain interval or space between the stalks that would render a pound of corn possible for each. There is another interval that would reduce this quantity to a gill ; and still another that would render every stalk in the field grainless. These intervals, however, are not fixed quantities. They vary according to the soil, the kind of grain planted, etc. For each of these varying con- 56 INDIAN CORN. ditions there is some one mode of spacing better than any other a certain arrangement of distances that will give a larger yield than any other. Let us sup- pose that yield to be two hundred and twenty-five bushels per acre. Then the spacing which gives that product is the best possible, and no deviation from those distances in planting would increase the yield. Here, then, would be a limit of production imposed by the law of distances. But let us take another view of the matter. Every soil not absolutely sterile contains, in its nat- ural state, a certain amount of the constituents of In- dian qprn. .In a state . of perfect fertility it would contain the largest possible amount of these, and in the exact condition and proportions required by the growing plants. We do not perhaps know what is the highest point of fruitfulness to which a given soil may be brought. But this is not material. The maximum of fertility is not indispensable for a maxi- mum yield. If the space occupied by the roots of a single stalk contain one and a half ounces of the in- organic elements of corn, in the right condition and proportions, along with a small percentage of the organic constituents,* then such stalk should produce a pound of grain, so far as the yield depends on the prolific character of the soil ; and if an acre of ground contain, in each square foot, one-half the above quan- tity of corn elements, then the capacity of such acre * These being mainly derived from the atmosphere, and from de- scending rains, their presence in the soil is not required in the same proportions as the other class of elements. LIMIT OF PRODUCTION. 57 i is equal to over three hundred bushels of grain, so far as that capacity is determined by the fertility of the earth. If, then, the farmer brings his land to this stand- ard of fertility, complying at the same time with the other requisite conditions, he is entitled theoretically to expect a corresponding result. If he has made sure that his soil contains the constituents of maize in the ratio above given, he has reason to calculate on three hundred bushels per acre ; and if he fails to get that amount, it is not the fault of the soil, but because there is another limit to the yield earlier reached than the limit of fertility. He is barred out by the limit of distances. If he had fertilized his soil to a capa- city of five hundred bushels, yet by the hypothesis above stated, he could only get two hundred and twenty-five bushels, nor even that amount, unless he complied with the conditions on which it depends. The only barrier, therefore, of any practical con- sequence to the farmer is that imposed by the law of distances. This limit, being the first that he reaches, renders any others that may lie beyond of little mo- ment. He can raise but so many bushels on an acre as this principle permits ; and how many that may be, experiment alone can determine. It is assumed above to be two hundred and twenty-five bushels, which is doubtless too low. It is extremely probable that the further improvement of existing varieties of corn, and modes of culture, and, still more, the introduction of new varieties, will yet prove that the real limit of pro- duction is in fact much higher. 3* 58 INDIAN CORN. But the amount above stated may be confidently taken, for the present, as a possible yield, having been verified, on a small area of ground, in a number of instances. It is, in fact, probable that many farmers have produced, without being aware of it, even more than this, relatively, on limited portions of their fields. Though it is, doubtless, true enough that results from small areas are not to be taken as certainties for large crops, yet it is also equally true, that experi- ments on a small scale are important and valuable for determining the best methods, and for proving, not indeed the certainties, but the possibilities for entire crops. The large yield obtained on one hundred square feet will not, of course, be so easily reached on an acre ; yet the experiment, though small, will, if successful, be the sure precursor of a similar yield on a larger scale ; for whatever is actually accomplished in the one case becomes undoubtedly possible in the other. But after all that can be said, it must be admitted that the value of a large yield depends on what it costs to produce it. Nor is it at all likely that such a yield as the one above stated to be possible, would be found, in the first instance, a profitable crop. The processes by which it would be at first arrived at, would probably make it more than usually expensive. Still it would be a valuable result, and a point gained in the right direction. To reduce the cost of such a yield, would be a subsequent achievement, and one certain to follow, in due season. It is thus in a grad- ual way, and by single steps, that all valuable progress LIMIT OF PKODUCTION. 59 is made. It sometimes happens that these single operations, abstractly regarded, appear of little mo- ment, and sink into temporary obscurity, till some thoughtful mind detects their importance as links in a valuable chain; and subsequent events ratifying the verdict, shed around them a halo of light in which the world discerns their true character. YAEIETIES. r\J THE varieties of maize are chiefly distinguished by 1. The color. 2. The number of rows on the cob. 3. The size of the grain. 4. The form and hardness of the grain. 5. The chemical composition of the grain. 6. The color and size of the cob. 7. The length of time in maturing, etc. From these and some other characteristics, and from their numerous combinations, have resulted an indefinite number of varieties, which have been still further increased by hybridizing and by change of climate. To repeat here the almost endless catalogue of existing varieties would be scarcely possible, and quite unnecessary. The following enumeration em- braces most of the kinds in use, and all that are likely to be of any practical value to the farmer : YELLOW COKtf. 1. New Englcmd Eight-rowed. This variety grows from six to eight feet high, with ears averaging nearly VARIETIES. 61 ten inches in length, bearing a broad kernel of bright yellow. The number of rows is invariably eight, and the cob rather small. From this corn the King Philip and some other improved sorts have probably been derived. 2. Golden Sioux, or Yellow Flint, is a twelve- rowed variety, taking its name from the Sioux tribe of Indians, formerly resident in Canada, among whom it was first found. The grains are of medium size, and cob comparatively large. It abounds in oil, makes an excellent meal, and is very superior for fat- tening animals. It has been known to produce one hundred and thirty bushels to the acre. 3. Canada Yellow. A small, early maturing, eight-rowed variety, with a small cob, and containing a large percentage of oil. It is much used for feed- ing to poultry, as well as to swine. It admits of close planting, and is quite prolific of ears. 4. King Philip. An eight-rowed yellow or cop- per-colored corn, so called from the celebrated Indian chief of that name. It bears a long ear with a small cob, and the kernel is larger than that of the Golden Sioux. It is a hardy variety, ripening early, and very productive. It is much esteemed in New England, where it has been long cultivated, and is regarded by many as one of the best field sorts in use. 5. SoutJiern Big Yellow. This variety has a large cob, with the kernels large and very wide. It is partly of the nature of a Flint corn, but has less oil and more starch than the Northern Flint. It is late in matur- ing, but quite abundant in yield. 62 INDIAN COKN. 6. Southern Small Yellow, with grains similar in form to the preceding variety, but deeper in color. It matures earlier, is more oily, and less productive than the former. 1. Dutton. This variety was introduced by Sal- mon Dutton, of Cavendish, Vermont. The stalk is of medium height, and the cob comparatively large, with ten to twelve rows of grain. The grains grow very compactly on the cob, and the ears being well filled out at the tips, and of a rich glossy color, pre- sent a very fine appearance. It is quite prolific, early maturing, and abounds in oil. It is capable of pro- ducing one hundred and twenty bushels to the acre. 8. JBrowne. This is an eight-rowed sub-variety, improved from the King Philip by Mr. John Browne, of Long Island, in Lake Winnipiseogee. It has a small cob, with large grains, matures early, is very prolific, and being rich in oil is valuable for feeding. It admits of close planting, and has produced as high as one hundred and thirty-six bushels per acre. 9. Rhode Island Premium. A hybrid variety of comparatively recent introduction, but quite pop- ular in some parts of New England. It was produced by crossing the Canada, the Eight-rowed Yellow, and Red variety of Rhode Island. With close planting, it gives a very fair yield. 10. Yellow Gourd-Seed. This is a cross of the Southern Big Yellow with the "White Gourd-seed. It is a very prolific, many-rowed sort, with a small cob, comprising numerous sub-varieties, much in use VARIETIES. 63 at the South and "West. The ears grow very large, sometimes yielding a pound or more of grain. WHITE CORN. 1. Northern White Flint. This corn is semi- translucent, with a rather large cob. It is very sim- ilar in the shape of the ear to the Yellow Flint, and embraces numerous sub-varieties. The grains some- what resemble those of the Tuscarora, but contain a large proportion of oil, and produces a substantial and excellent article of meal. 2. Southern Big White, with twelve rows of kernels, similar in form and size to those of the Big Yellow. It is a softer corn than the Northern Flint, containing less oil and more starch. It is conse- quently less adapted for feeding, and the meal is not easily kept sound for any length of time. 3. Southern Little White. This has the grains smaller than those of the former, but similar to them in shape, growing more compactly on the cob, and containing a larger proportion of oil. This is not a prolific variety, and not extensively cultivated. 4. Whitman or Hill. An eight-rowed variety, with a small cob, with the ears well filled out at the tips, and very productive. This corn is well adapted for feeding, but is not profitable for marketing, on account of the dull white color of the meal. It admits of close planting, and is a favorite kind in some parts of New England. It has been known to yield one hundred and forty bushels per acre. 64: INDIAN COKN. 5. Tuscarora. This is an eight-rowed variety, with the kernel large, soft, and remarkably white. Though not a sweet corn, it is frequently used on the table in the green state. It is destitute of gluten and oil, and the meal when bolted resembles in appear- ance the flour of wheat. 6. Long Island White. The ears of this variety are of good size, and usually contain from eight to ten rows. It is capable of a prolific yield, and produces a meal of sweet and pleasant flavor. 7. White Gourd-Seed. In this corn the ears are shorter and much larger in circumference than those of the flint varieties, containing from sixteen to thirty- six rows of long, narrow kernels. It is a very prolific variety, extensively planted at the South, and is the source from whence many other sorts have been de- rived. Like other Southern kinds, it contains more starch, and less gluten and oil, than the flint corns of the North, and is therefore less suitable for shipping, and less profitable for feeding to fattening animals. 8. Baden. This variety is an improvement of the White Gourd-seed, and takes its name from its founder. It is very productive, with a small cob, and grows to a remarkable size, yielding from four to six ears on a single stalk, and has been known to produce as many as ten. SWEET CORN. 1. StowePs Evergreen. A late but prolific variety, with small cob, and long, deep kernels, which are much shrivelled when ripe. It is hardy, but tender, VAKIETIES. 65 continues long in a succulent condition, and is also an excellent variety to plant for soiling. 2. Narraganset. A small early variety, with eight to ten rows and a red cob. It is sweet and tender, and very good to plant for a succession. It thrives best on a light soil. 3. Rhode Island Asylum. The ears of this variety are large, with eight to ten rows. It is rather late, but productive, tender, and excellent in flavor. Its name is derived from the institution on the grounds of which it originated. 4. Twelve-rowed Sweet. This is a late, hardy va- riety, with ten to fourteen rows. The. ears are large, the yield certain, and the quality tender and excel- lent. 5. Darling's Early. This is a sweet and tender variety, with eight rows, and of prolific yield. It may be planted for boiling until near the beginning of July. 6. Burr's Improved Corn. A hardy and produc- tive variety, with twelve to sixteen rows. The ears are of large circumference, and weigh, when fit for the table, from eighteen to twenty-two ounces. This corn is an improvement of the Twelve-rowed Sweet, and quite surpasses it in flavor. There are many other valuable varieties of table corn, among which are 7. Adam's Early White. 8. Golden Sweet. 9. Mammoth Eight-rowed Sweet. 10. Mexican, etc. 66 INDIAN COEN. The foregoing enumeration embraces the leading varieties of field and garden corn. Besides these, may be mentioned the following : HdBmatite, or Blood JRed, of various hues, but more generally a deep red. It comprises a number of sub-varieties, some of which have a white, and others a red cob. Rice Corn. A small variety, so named from the resemblance of its kernels in size and form to the grains of rice. It abounds in oil, and is well calcu- lated for feeding poultry. Parching Corn. A small variety, somewhat re- sembling the preceding. "When parched, it is very crisp and tender, and of excellent flavor. Chinese Tree Corn. A variety in which the ears are suspended from the extremities of separate branches. An improved variety of this corn, which is said to yield seventy-five bushels per acre with ordinary culture, has been cultivated for some years by J. L. Husted, of Greenwich, Conn. Oregon, or Rocky Mountain. A peculiar variety, in which each kernel is enclosed in a separate en- velope. Egyptian Corn, with a head bearing some resem- blance to millet. IMPKOYEMENT OF YAEIETIES. THE capability of improvement that belongs to Indian corn well deserves the attention of cultiva- tors. Progress seems to be a law of its nature, and there is probably no variety at present known, how- ever poor or however excellent, that may not be made better by adopting the appropriate means. This progressive tendency is clearly seen on com- paring the better sorts now in use with the primitive grain cultivated by the natives of this continent at the time of its discovery. The further we go back into antiquity, the fewer the sorts, and the poorer the quality appear to have been ; and if the genealogy of this cereal could be traced to its source, it is extremely probable that all the existing varieties would be found to have sprung from one original stock, which was doubtless as much below the present standard as the untutored red man is inferior to the cultivated white. The progress thus indicated in the past history of maize points clearly to an advancement in the future. The law impressed upon it at the start has never yet been suspended. Throughout animated nature 68 INDIAN CORN. the principle of life implies ceaseless activity and onward movement. To stand still is to stagnate, to deteriorate, and to decay. In obedience to this prin- ciple, no variety of Indian corn can long remain stationary. If neglected, it will degenerate. If rightly treated it will advance slowly, perhaps, but surely, toward perfection. The means by which this improvement is to be effected are extremely simple. So simple, indeed, that we might reasonably expect to witness greater prog- ress than we have yet seen. In order to secure this object, the chief points requiring the attention of the farmer are Selection and Culture. Every man who will exercise suitable care and judgment in the selection of his seed, without neglect- ing its subsequent cultivation, will find the quality of his grain and the amount of its product annually progressing ; and the difference of a very few years will be so marked and unmistakable as to excite his surprise. This principle of selection, if we did but realize it, is one of great extent and importance, and is capable of a very wide application. Its effects may be traced throughout the animal as well as vegetable kingdom, and the field of its influence is coextensive with the propagating universe. The valuable results it has ac- complished, as seen in the various improved breeds of cattle, have long engaged the attention of farmers ; and the practical application of the same law in the vegetable kingdom, though more recent, has been found no less favorable and certain in its effects. IMPROVEMENT OF VARIETIES. 69 " The principle of selection," says the editor of the London Field, " so successfully carried out among cattle and sheep, has of late been applied to the vege- table kingdom, and soon the various kinds of seeds bid fair to exhibit those qualities of superiority which can alone be produced by careful and continuous discrim- ination In adopting selection, a great principle has thus been evolved, and one manifest advantage is that it is open to every agriculturist, without any ad- ditional expense to carry out the plan for himself." Mr. Hallet, of Brighton, has applied this principle with great success to his wheat crop, and has been able by that means to more than double the size of the original ears. " It has been," he observes, " the great leading idea of my life, that the starting with an accidentally large ear is a very different thing from starting with a similar ear, the result of descent, or pedigree. Take the case of two heifers identical in every respect but pedigree the one what she is by accident, the other by design. From the former you may get any imaginable kind of progeny, from the latter only a good kind. In other words, you have fixity of type ; and the good qualities gain the force, as it were, of impetus by continual accumulation." It is satisfactory to know that American farmers are neither indifferent nor inactive on this subject. Already marked improvements have been effected by this means in some of the varieties of Indian corn. The Baden variety, so named from its originator, is a striking illustration of this principle. It was produced from the White Gourd-seed, by Thomas N". Baden, of 70 INDIAN CORN. Maryland, who, by a persevering and discriminating selection of the best seed for a series of years, with special reference to obtaining the greatest number of ears on a stalk, finally succeeded in establishing a va- riety which yields from five to seven ears, and which has been said to reach as high as ten ears to a single stalk. The Browne corn, an excellent variety ob- tained by improving the King Philip, is another illus- tration of this same principle. NEW YAEIETIES. CLOSELY allied to the improvement of maize by selection, is the introduction of new varieties by cross- ing or hybridizing. Here again the analogy drawn from the animal kingdom holds good, and the same law by which the better qualities of two different breeds of animals may be so blended in their joint off- spring as to form a third, different from either, ren- ders it equally possible to combine the best properties of opposite sorts of maize into a new and distinct va- riety superior to both of its progenitors. But here the principle of selection becomes more than ever important. This alone can give to the new hybrid that established character, or fixity of type, that shall render it reliable and of permanent value. " If nature be judiciously directed by art," said the late John Loraine, after a series of careful experiments, " such mixtures as are best suited for the purpose of farmers may be introduced in every climate in this country where corn is grown. And provided the de- sirable properties of any of the various corns be prop- 72 INDIAN COKN. erly blended together, an animal selection of the seed, with care and time, will render them subject to very- little injurious change. They do not mix minutely, like wine and water. On the contrary, like mixed breeds of animals, a large portion of the valuable prop- erties of any one of them, or of the whole, may be communicated to one plant ; while the inferior prop- erties of one or the whole may be nearly grown out. When this object is obtained, and we become ac- quainted with the proper arrangement of the plants in our fields, so as to promote the utmost product, the crops of maize will by far exceed any estimate which would at this time be considered probable by those who have not carefully examined the economy of this plant." To hybridize this cereal successfully does not re- quire in the farmer any peculiar or unusual faculty ; it is not the exclusive privilege of genius, nor the mo- nopoly of gifted minds ; but depends for success upon the plainer and more useful qualities of judgment, patience, and careful attention. A few leading prin- ciples are important to be observed, and those who may be inclined to undertake the propagation of new varieties, may perhaps find the following hints of some service : 1. Determine what precise traits or properties you intend the new corn to possess. 2. In selecting the sorts from which to propagate, prefer such as have these desired properties distinctly marked and predominating, with as few other promi- nent qualities as possible. NEW VARIETIES. 73 3. Let the varieties you employ be adapted to the climate. 4. Let the planting be so adjusted, as to time, that the tassels and silk fibres of all shall appear simulta- neously. If these be not in unity of time, the hybrid effect will not be produced. 5. Every sample used to propagate from should be the purest of its sort, and if possible free from ad- mixture. The more fixed and perfect the type of the several progenitors, the more certain and acccurately defined will be the qualities that mark the off- spring. 6. All corn planted for propagating purposes should have every opportunity of perfect development, by being placed in the best soil, at wide intervals, liberally manured, and well cultivated. It should also, of course, be entirely beyond the reach of the pollen of any other corn. 7. The surest mode of reaching the highest results in hybridizing, though it would require more time, would be as follows : After carefully discriminating the several sorts to be used, let the cultivator improve each of these sep- arately through a series of selections, as already ex- plained, and then, by crossing, let him propagate the intended sort from the more perfect types thus ob- tained. The new variety resulting from this mode of proceeding would afterwards be kept pure and still fur- ther improved by continuing the same process of se- lection. It would not perhaps be easy to foretell the extra- ct 74: INDIAN COKN. ordinary results that might and probably will yet be reached in thus improving and multiplying the varie- ties of Indian corn, by the joint aid of careful selec- tion, judicious crossing, and thorough cultivation. "This plant," says a writer in the New York Daily Tribune, " hybridizes with great facility. Some choice varieties have originated in this way, and others will undoubtedly be forthcoming, as no topic occupies more space in our agricultural journals than corn and its culture. Small fortunes have been realized by the originators of new strawberries, rasp- berries, and other perishable fruits. Others have grown rich by providing machines for shelling and grinding corn, and chopping the stalks into fodder. But to the fortunate author of a variety which will measurably supplant all others, there will be a rich reward." We have every reason to believe that there is at least as wide a margin for improvement, in the case of Indian corn, as Webb and other eminent breeders have found, in the case of cattle and sheep. The results already achieved in this direction clearly enough indicate that a broad field for useful and re- munerating effort is here presented to the culti- vator. Whoever will apply to this subject the requisite care, judgment, skill, and patience, will find ample compensation in the production of a quality of maize superior to any yet known. The competition is open to all. The humblest farmer in the country is just as NEW VARIETIES. 7"5 likely, as the wealthy owner of a thousand acres, to be the founder of a new variety of corn that shall be, to all other varieties, what the South Down or the Merino is among sheep, or the stately Durham among cattle. LIP, It AiiJ II UN I V KKSiTV (>} CALIFORNIA. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COEK THE chemical constituents of maize, according to Dr. Jackson, are starch, dextrine, gum or mucilage, sugar, gluten, albumen, oil, phosphoric acid, phos- phate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, silica, potash, and oxide of iron. The proportions in which these elements are combined vary according to the variety of corn, and also, but in a less degree, according to soil and other circumstances. A careful attention to the component parts of this plant, and a general acquaintance with the subject, are both useful and essential to the practical farmer. ~No man who goes on from year to year planting, culti- vating, and harvesting his most important crop, with- out any definite idea of the elements composing it, can consider himself creditably posted in his business. The following is the analysis of Dr. Dana: Flesh forming principles, (gluten and albumen). 12.60 Fat forming principles, (gum, starch, sugar, woody fibre, oil, etc) V7.09 Salts 1.31 "Water 9.00 100.00 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN. 77 In the ruta baga, according to Dr. Dana, the fat- forming principle amounts to 13 per cent., and in the potato to 24.34; while the proportion of flesh-forming substance in the former is equal to only 1 per cent., and in the latter to 2.07 per cent. As these roots are used, more or less, in feeding to stock, it is of some interest to the farmer to compare their nutritive and fattening properties, as here stated, with those of In- dian corn : ANALYSIS OF INDIAN COEN (when dried at 212 Fahr., to expel the water), by PEOF. JOHNSTON. Starch, etc 71.6 Proteine compounds 12.3 Fatty matter 9.0 Husk 5.9 Mineral matter 1.2 100.00 ANALYSIS OF PEOF. PLAYFAIE. Proteine 7.00 Fatty matter 5.00 Starch 76.00 Water 12.00 100.00 The following table, by Prof. Johnston, gives the composition of the ash of corn-stalks, as compared with a similar analysis of the straw of wheat, barley, oats, and rye. The proportion of each constituent is given for one thousand pounds of the ash : 78 INDIAN CORN. Corn Stalks. Wheat Straw. Barley Straw. Oat Straw. Kye Straw. Potash . . .... 96 125 92 191 173 Soda 283 2 3 97 3 Lime 83 67 85 81 90 Magnesia 66 39 50 38 24 Oxide of Iron 8 13 10 18 14 Phosphoric Acid. 1T1 31 31 26 38 Sulphuric Acid 7 58 10 33 8 Chlorine 15 11 6 32 5 Silica 270 654 676 484 645 1,012 1,000 963 1,000 1,000 The ash of the grain of each of the above, when analyzed, gives the following proportions : Corn. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Eye. Potash ) 237 136 262 220 Soda V325 91 81 116 Lime 14 28 26 60 49 Magnesia 162 120 75 100 103 Oxide of Iron 3 j 7 15 4 13 Phosphoric Acid 449 ! 500 390 438 495 Sulphuric Acid 28 3 1 105 9 Silica 14 12 273 27 4 Chlorine 2 Trace. 3 997 998 997 999 1,009 These tables will serve to guide the farmer in the application of fertilizers to his corn. They indicate the proportions in which the various constituents of both the grain and the stalk should be found in the soil. If, for example, he is about to plant a corn crop exclusively for the fodder, he finds that soda and silica are required in the soil, in far larger proportions than any other inorganic element, and next to these CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COEN. 79 phosphoric acid. If, on the other hand, his corn is planted primarily and chiefly for the grain, he learns that phosphoric acid is required in a proportion nearly equal to that of all the other elements together, and that next to this in importance are potash and soda. An inspection of these tables will also throw some light upon the relative feeding values of corn-stalks, and the straw of the other included grains, as well as upon the comparative nutritive values of the grains themselves. The proportion of ash contained in any plant or grain represents the amount of inorganic matter that enters into its composition. When the plant is burned, all the other constituents, amounting gener- ally to over ninety per cent, of the entire weight, dis- appear. We are thus able to determine what grains contain the smallest proportion of inorganic matter, and are consequently least exhausting to the mineral elements of the soil. f; . . In the following table, Prof. Johnston has given the quantity of ash yielded by one thousand pounds of each of the plants named : Indian Corn 15 Ibs. Corn-stalks 50 Ibs. Wheat straw 50 " Barley " 50 " Wheat 20- Barley 30 Oats 40 Eye 20 Peas.. ...30 Oat " 60 < Eye " 40 " Pea " ..50 " The investigations of Dr. Jackson, of Boston, in regard to the properties of corn, are equally curious and instructive. Among other interesting facts, he 80 INDIAN CORN. has shown that the proportion of phosphates in each variety of maize depends on its assimilating power. It was found that of two varieties ol corn (Tuscarora and sweet) growing on the same cob, the former had less than half the amount of phosphates contained in the latter. To those who have not seen the report of Dr. Jackson, a brief statement of his further researches will perhaps be interesting. In most of the yellow varieties, the oil is the seat of color, the hull or epidermis being transparent. In the white varieties, the oil being colorless and pellu- cid, and the hull transparent, the farinaceous portion of the kernel, which is white, gives a similar appear- ance to the grain. In the haematite varieties the red, purple, and blue colors are chiefly derived from the epidermis. The proportions of oil vary from six to eleven per cent. ; the flint corns of the ISTorth being found to con- tain more than the Southern varieties. The oil is analogous to animal fat, and is readily converted into that substance by a slight change of composition. The gluten and mucilage contain nitrogen, which is necessary to the formation of fibrous tissue, muscle, nervous matter, and brain. Starch is convertible also into fat and into the car- bonaceous substances of the body, and during its slow combustion in the circulation, gives out a portion of the heat of animal bodies ; while, in its altered state, it goes to form a part of the living frame. Sugar acts in a similar manner as a compound of carbon, CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN. 81 hydrogen, and oxygen, in the formation of fat of ani- mal bodies. From the phosphates the substance of the bones and the saline matter of the brains, nerves, and other solid and fluid parts of the body are in a great meas- ure derived. The salts of iron go to the blood, and constitute an essential portion of it, whereby it is enabled by its changing degrees of oxidation, during its pas- sage through the lungs, arteries, and veins, to convey oxygen to every part of the body. Thus it appears that in each kernel of corn all the elements have been deposited by Nature, that are essential to a healthful, invigorating, and nutritious food. DEVELOPMENT AND STEUCTUEE. THE vital principle of maize is lodged in the em- bryo, or rudiment, a small, clearly defined interior division of the seed, or kernel. This embryo is the starting point of life and growth. It extends from the base of the grain upward, about two-thirds of the distance toward the crown, and lies in contact with the epidermis on one side of the kernel, through which it can be distinctly traced by the eye. The earliest movement of the seed in developing the new plant is termed germination. When the plant has advanced so as to form leaves that contrib- ute to its growth, the process is termed vegetation. Three conditions are essential before germination can take place. The presence of heat,* moisture, and air is indispensable. After the seed is planted, and these agents have had time to exert their quickening influence, a small root shoots out, with a very rapid growth, from the base of the embryo, and, after another interval, the stem rises slowly from its apex. * 48 Fahr. is about the limit of temperature, below which corn will not germinate. DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE. 83 The progress made by the roots during the first few days is quite remarkable. They not unfrequently attain to a length of fifteen or eighteen inches before the stem has made three inches above the surface of the ground. From the relative positions of the stem and the early roots, the former springing from the crown, and the latter from the base of the embryo, it is evident that the most natural and favorable position of the grain for incipient growth is with the base downward and the crown above. When this condition is re- versed, as continually occurs in planting, the stem and root are each compelled to describe a curve, sometimes equal to a half circle, in order to acquire their normal position. When this position is reached, if the seed should be turned over, the stem and root would again promptly bend themselves through an- other curve, to recover once more the situation natu- ral and indispensable to their proper growth. That the position of the kernel when planted is calculated to affect the progress of germination is an obvious and natural conclusion. The author has found, in some experiments having reference to this point, that grains planted in an inverted position are retarded from ten to fifteen hours in the time of their appearance above ground, as compared with others planted in an upright position. As soon as the germination of the seed begins, the stem, obeying a natural instinct, springs upward tow- ard the sunlight, while the roots, equally obedient to an instinct of their nature, travel downward into 84: INDIAN CORN. the earth, and away from each other, spreading them- selves in every direction, and penetrating many thou- sand cubic inches of soil, in quest of nutriment to satiate a voracious appetite that began with their existence, and will only be extinguished at their death. The natural proclivity of the roots of plants to push their way into congenial darkness, and of the stem to seek the presence of the light, may be illus- trated by a simple experiment. One, among several tried by the writer, for the purpose of observing the early tendencies of germination, gave a very clear re- sult. Having planted some grains of maize in glass jars filled with earth, the kernels being arranged against the side of the glass, one of these jars was placed in a dark room, and the other exposed to the light of a window. . After an interval of about thirty-six hours the roots began to show themselves, and after another brief interval the stems made their appearance. The only peculiarity about the latter was, that in the jar exposed to the light, they assumed, before reaching the surface of the soil, the green tint pe- culiar to the stalk and leaf above ground, while in the other, they remained nearly white after rising above the soil. In the jar from which the light had been excluded, the roots formed rapidly and abun- dantly against the side of the glass, while in the other jar they retreated from the glass almost in a direct line, evidently shunning the light, and seeking to hide themselves in the recesses of the soil. When in the progress of its growth, the stem of DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE. 85 the corn plant has struggled up from its earthy bed, and approaches the point where germination ceases and vegetation begins, it pushes its bodkin-shaped cylinder of compact foliage through the surface of the earth, changing its color at once from white to green, and opening out its uppermost leaves to enter upon their function of respiration. As the growth advances, other rolled-up leaves are successively developed from the crown of the stalk, un- til the tassel is fully formed and the plant assumes its perfect outline. The leaves grow broader and longer as they rise, one above the other, from the base of the stalk more than half way to the summit ; after which they gradually and uniformly diminish in size to the upper- most leaf which is near the tassel. " One leaf grows from every joint in the stalk, but in such a way as to alternate sides. The first formed leaf, and after this every leaf in regular succession, clasps the stalk closely until it approaches near to the under side of the leaf above ; after this it grows out from the stalk, and a beau- tiful fan-like appearance is at length produced which is not equalled by any other annual plant cultivated for the value of its fruit." Farmers Encyclopaedia. The stems on which the ears are formed proceed from the joints, commencing usually at the one near- est the ground. The number of ears on a stalk vary from one or two, to five or six, in rare cases reaching as high as seven or eight ; though it is not often that more than two or three ears are matured on the same stalk. The ranks of grain on the ear vary in number from eight to thirty-six, being always an even number, 86 ' INDIAN CORN. and the product of single ears is about five ounces on a general average, though occasionally reaching over a pound. The dimensions of the ear range, according to the variety of grain, from less than two inches in length in some of the dwarf varieties, to over sixteen inches in the largest, and sometimes reaching, in the gourd-seed variety, more than half that number of inches in circumference. From the extremity of each ear flows out a cluster of soft and silk-like fibres falling like drapery over the husks. These little threads are charged with one of the most important functions in the whole economy of the plant. Each fibre proceeds from a separate grain, and every grain on the ear has a fibre to represent it. The Farina fecundans is a fine, light, powdery substance dislodged by the wind from the flowering tassel that crowns the stalk. This powder or pollen, descending from the tassel, lights upon the silken drapery of the ear, and the rudimental grains are thereby fertilized. In the absence of either fibre or pollen, or even in the failure of their contact, the re- sult would be, not an ear of corn, but a naked cob. How curious and inscrutable is this recondite pro- cess ! How full of mystery indeed are all the pro- cesses of vegetation ; and how humiliating to the tow- ering faculties of man to reflect, that though his mind may range at will through infinite space, measuring spheres and orbits and periods of revolution with amazing accuracy, penetrating sidereal systems on the confines of creation, and aspiring to embrace the uni- verse in its grasp ; yet when he walks abroad in the DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE. 87 vegetable kingdom of his own little planet, at every footfall he treads upon a mystery, and on every side his intellect is overmatched by each tiny flower and every blade of corn ! The wide range of climate in which Indian corn can be grown to maturity necessarily occasions a marked difference in the length of its season, or the time it requires for ripening. This period varies from two months to six or seven ; and some precocious kinds, in high latitudes, are found to ripen in less than sixty days. The average rate of daily increase in the size of the stalk, during the period of growth, differs with the climate, the soil, and the variety of grain. In some observations made by the author, the growth was found to be seventy inches in fifty days, being an average of one and four-tenth inches per day. The greatest increase noticed in a single week was twenty- two inches, and in a single day four and a half inches. Some of the largest varieties, especially in warmer latitudes, would probably show a more rapid growth than this. But an increase of even four inches in twenty-four hours, though small when compared with some other instances of vegetable growth, is yet, in one aspect, curious and remarkable. The movement of this in- crease, which is equal to an inch in six hours, slow as it seems comparatively, may be converted, under a pow- erful lens, into a velocity of two inches, or more, per minute a rate of motion easily detected by the eye. In thus bringing the movement of vegetable growth 88 INDIAN CORN. under the distinct perception of one of the senses, the mind seems to come into closer contact with the mys- teries of vegetable life. The height to which this cereal is capable of at- taining is exceedingly variable. It is determined in part by the soil, in some degree by the climate, but depends still more upon the variety of grain. It ranges from less than two feet to over fifteen, and in tropical climates a still larger and ranker growth is not unusual. The roots, in a deep, mellow, and fertile soil, are capable of penetrating to a depth of over two and a half feet, and horizontally have been traced to a length nearly equalling the height of the stalk. The prop- roots appear at that stage of the growth when the increasing size and weight of the stalk, and the ac- cession of tassel and ears, render such support need- ful. They usually spring from the first joint above the ground, taking an oblique direction toward the earth, which they soon reach and penetrate, spreading through it in search of nutriment, and anchoring the stalk more securely to the soil. The juices that nourish the plant are absorbed from the earth through the fine and thread-like fibres of the roots, passing in succession through the roots of large size until they reach the stalk, from which they are transmitted to every portion, and to the smallest extremities of the plant. From the leaf-stalk this sap is distributed in very minute veins through the whole expanse of the leaf, which brings it in con- tact with light and air. The watery portion of the DEVELOPMENT AND STKTTCTUKE. 89 sap is here in part exhaled, while carbon and oxygen are alternately imbibed and given off. " In the day- time," says Professor Johnston, " whether in the sun- shine or in the shade, the green leaves are continually absorbing carbonic acid from the air, and giving off oxygen gas When night comes, this process is reversed, and they begin to absorb oxygen and to give off carbonic acid. But the latter process does not go on so rapidly as the former ; so that, on the whole, plants, when growing, gain a large portion of carbon from the air." Thus does respiration keep up its unceasing work through the leaves or lungs, and, by appropriating from the air with nice discrimina- tion precisely what the plant requires, and rejecting whatever is needless or hurtful, purify it from noxious elements, and minister to its healthful growth. In whatever light, then, we contemplate this inter- esting plant, whether in its curious structure, or in the processes of its rapid and vigorous growth, or in the flowing and graceful outlines of its foliage, or in its tall, erect, and majestic stature, we equally recognize the hand of its Author, who has attested its value to man, by impressing upon it the stamp of nobility and clothing it in forms of beauty. L I B R A R i " ! V KKSITY OK CA i A KOI r: may depend entirely upon the single hour that he did or did not employ in selecting his grain for planting. If such considerations as these, that go right into the farmer's pocket, are not sufficient to arrest his attention and influence his practice, his in- difference may indeed be considered hopelessly incu- rable. II. PREPARATION OF SEED FOE PLANTING. It is a very general practice, with the best farmers, to steep the seed of this grain before planting, and the prac- tice seems to be justified by reason and experience. 94: INDIA!* CORN". It is attended with a twofold advantage : in quicken- ing and promoting germination, and in offering a means of protection against the earliest and most dangerous enemies. There are various liquid prepa- rations employed for tins purpose. Some of the more usual are solutions of saltpetre, guano, copperas, wood ashes, etc. The sulphate, nitrate, and muriate of am- monia, and chloride of lime have also been used with advantage, as well as urine, and other forms of liquid manure. These solutions, however, require to be used with caution, and most of them should be made very dilute. Some cultivators are in the habit of employing powerful solutions, and others recommend to raise them to a very unusual temperature, as if they imag- ined that some extraordinary effort in starting the crop were going to have the effect of a charm all the way through. But the object of steeping is to pro- mote, not merely a quick but a healthy germination ; and this is not to be accomplished by the use of ex- cessive stimulants. A morbid growth, however rapid, is no ultimate advantage. The results of experience combine to prove that in this, as in every other stage of the growth of corn, there is nothing gained by doing violence to the processes of Nature. Some solutions are more effectual than others in protecting the grain against its enemies. Saltpetre and copperas are each considered good for this pur- pose, but a moderate coating of tar is found to be still better, and this practice is now pretty generally adopted. SEED. 95 The late Judge Buel recommended a moderate solution of crude saltpetre, to which he added half a pint of tar for eight quarts of seed ; the tar previously diluted with a quart of warm water. The mass is to be well stirred, and when the corn is taken out, let as much plaster be added as will adhere to the grain. The experience of years, he adds, will warrant me in confidently recommending this as a protection for the seed. Coal or gas tar is now preferred by many farmers, and when used should be limited in quantity and ap- plied as evenly as possible. Mr. G-. Haines, of New Jersey, in writing to the Country Gentleman, re- marks : " I have used both kinds of tar for that pur- pose, but for the last ten years have preferred gas or coal tar, because it is much more easily applied, and equally safe. If the corn is made jet black with it, it may not grow, but there is no occasion for that. Take a paddle and dip from the tar to the corn once or twice, then stir till the corn is all coated, and appears through the tar of a yellowish brown color. It may easily be tested by throwing a little to the poultry. The crow blackbirds have about twenty nests in the pine and cedars of my yard each spring ; but if my planted corn was tarred (which is gener- ally the case), I have not the slightest objection to it." Mr. G. F. Saxton, of Williston, Vt, writes to the American Institute Farmers' Club as follows : " You are mistaken in supposing coal tar will injure seed corn. I have used it for five years upon seed for sev- eral acres annually with perfect success, as follows : 96 INDIAN COEN. Soak the seed ten or twelve hours, drain off the water, apply the tar immediately in proportions of half a pint of tar to one bushel of corn, and stir until coated equally. If the corn is cold it is better to put hot water with the tar to thin it, as much water as tar, as it will be easier mixing. If this mode is followed, I will warrant the seed to grow as well as without tar." In the further discussion by the Club, it was re- marked : " We are glad- to be set right by a practical man in relation to the use of coal tar. "We will also state in this connection, that it is recommended as a good preventive of the ravages of worms and bugs. "Adrian Bergen said he always soaked and tarred his corn, and believes the tar some protection against crows as well as insects. " John G. Bergen said the trouble about using coal tar is that those who have complained of its in- juring the seed have used too much. The quantity recommended by Mr. Saxton is quite sufficient for the purpose for which it is applied, yet not enough to in- jure the germ. To obviate the trouble of seed stick- ing to the hands, mix it with dry ashes, plaster, or dust." LI nn A u \ UKJ YKKSITY OF I TIME TO PLANT. THE proper time to plant corn depends on circum- stances so many and various, that no specific rule can be laid down on the subject. It differs according to the variety of grain planted, the character of the soil, the climate, the season, etc. Between the extreme northern and southern sections of the country, the difference of time amounts to three or four months. In some parts of Maine and Minnesota the usual sea- son for planting is June ; while in Florida or Louisi- ana it is usually March. Throughout the Middle States and most of New England, the period consid- ered safest, as a general rule, is the middle of May. Yet such is the difference of seasons, that in some years a crop planted during the last week in April, and in other years the first week in June, would give a better result than if planted at the middle of May, showing a difference of more than a month m the same latitude, produced by a difference of seasons. Thus it appears that the vicissitudes of the weather in different years have a more disturbing effect on the time for planting than any of the other causes. In 5 98 INDIAN CORN. fact this question of fluctuating weather, of early or late season, is after all the only real difficulty in the case, and the one on which all the others depend. The other contingencies are made so by this. They are variable, but all of them are determinate. If, therefore, the question of soil, of latitude, and all the other variable elements could be separated from the vicissitudes of temperature, the time for planting corn, so far as relates to them, might be reduced to fixed rules. It is true that latitudes vary, and each differ- ent degree requires a different period for planting. Yet every farmer knows that his latitude is a fixed, assignable figure, and that it always remains the same. It differs from that of other men, but for him it is unchanging. The same is true in regard to soils. A sandy loam may require a period for planting dif- ferent from that which would suit a tenacious clay. But the farmer who has a sandy loam one year, will not find it changed into clay the year following. Though soils differ for different individuals, yet for each man they remain the same. So also in regard to all the other circumstances affecting the ques- tion. Could we, then, reduce the inconstancy of the weath- er to a condition of like certainty, or bring it within determinate limits, it would be quite possible to assign a precise day of the month for each kind of soil, for every variety of corn, and for every degree of latitude, which might be adopted in planting with perfect safety. We might lay down an accurate time-table TIME TO PLANT. 99 for planting corn that would apply to the whole coun- try, and meet the case of every farmer. Bat, unfortunately, the question of season is not determinate. Temperature rises and falls according to no settled or ascertained law. Frost comes and goes apparently at the dictate of its own humor ; and the weather is capricious to a proverb, and filled with elements of uncertainty. Man has learned to explore the earth, and detect the causes of its fertility, to reg- ulate its production, and make it obedient to his pur- pose. But he cannot subdue the atmosphere to his will, nor assign limits to its phenomena. He can classify all the plants in the vegetable kingdom, and tell with accuracy their times and seasons ; but he can- not reduce storm and sunshine to a system, nor bring the clouds up to time.. He may subdue the most incorrigible soil, but he cannot subjugate the ther- mometer. He can dominate the mysterious energy of the electric fluid, compelling it to traverse the bed of the ocean, or to circulate around the globe on aerial wires to give swift wings to his flashing thought ; yet can he not arrest for a single hour, nor even predict, the fall of the mercury that shall blast a thousand crops. Thus science becomes the sport, and man the vic- tim of fluctuating weather. Subject to no fixed laws, and recognizing no assignable limits, it defies alike all human calculation and human control. It comes into the arrangements of husbandry with the reckless power of an autocrat, setting aside appointed days, and thwarting plans innumerable. 100 INDIAN CORN. On this subject, therefore, the farmer is left to depend very much on his own resources. Yet in all this he finds no occasion for despondency. He finds that a sound judgment carefully exercised in the light of the experience of former years, and guided by those hints and indications that Nature is ever presenting to inquisitive minds, will nearly always shape out for him the course of safety and success. In settling prac- tically the question when to plant his corn, he ban- ishes from his mind all those maxims that embody their entire wisdom in a specified date, or in a pre- scribed stage of the moon, and examines the condition of the soil and the state of the vegetable world for traces and indications more to be relied on. " There is a right and a ~best time for planting corn," says a very sensible writer in the Country Gentle- man, " and by employing just that time for the pur- pose, a farmer may all the more confidently calcu- late, if he do not fail or err somewhere else, on raising a maximum crop, not only of the grain but of the stalks also. And the right and best time is to be dis- covered, not by the almanac, nor by the practice of neighbors, who ' think that from the 10th to the 20th of May is the proper time for planting,' nor by blindly copying after some one whose whim it may be to plant < seldom or never later than the fifth day ' of May, but simply by observing the progress of vege- tation in soils resembling that in which the planting is to be done. Vegetation will start sooner in sandy loams, and all such soils as contain much sand or humus, than in those in which clay predominates. TIME TO PLANT. 101 Making allowance for this fact, the right and best time for planting corn, let the latitude and the local- ity be what it may, is to be discovered and determined by observing the natural vegetation. "Whenever there is good reason to think that the ground i& warm enough to cause a speedy germination and growth, then is the time to plant. And to ascertain this, I know of no rule so safe and sure as that which Judge Buel taught me and others many years ago, namely, to plant when the apple is bursting its blossom buds." But human judgment is not infallible ; and if the husbandman is not always sure of his time in plant- ing ; if, notwithstanding the utmost care and attention, he discovers that his grain has been committed to the earth a little too soon, or a little too late, he yet finds with satisfaction that the consequences are not very serious, if he has faithfully pursued the right methods in planting, and in the treatment of the soil. The careful, well-informed farmer, the man, who, by read- ing, adds the experience of others to his own, has always a twofold advantage in such cases ; for he is not only less likely than others to commit an error, but in case an error should be committed, he is meas- urably insured against the consequences by the re- sources of skill and science which have already been employed in his favor, and which are still at his com- mand for any emergency that may arise. LI IJ.R A ; ; - 1 JK 1 V KUS i V >F CALlKOiiXiA. THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. ALTHOUGH Indian corn will grow, as already stated, on nearly every kind of soil, from the lightest sand to the heaviest clay, yet, like other plants and grains, it has its preferences, and the interest of the farmer lies in consulting these as far as possible. However well it may succeed on lands where other grains would fail entirely, or make a feeble growth, it is only in a well- adapted soil that its best capability is developed. Give it a congenial element, in which its hungry roots can range and riot without limit, and it will make generous returns, that will even exceed the liberality of the treatment. " It delights," says Mr. Harris, " in a loose, pliable, warm, porous, deep soil, abounding in organic matter. It does well on all good wheat soils, yet it often does better on soils too light and mucky for wheat. It is a gross feeder. We can easily make land too rich for wheat, but I have never yet seen any too rich for the production of Indian corn." The fertility of soils is determined chiefly by the amount of available plant-food contained in them. The cereals, and nearly all cultivated plants, are found THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. 103 to contain more or less potash, soda, lime, magnesia, silica, alumina, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese, sul- phuric acid, phosphoric acid, and chlorine. There are three other substances, iodine, bromine, and fluo- rine, that enter into the composition of most plants, but in proportions so minute as to be of no practical importance. The first-named substances, eleven in number, constitute the inorganic parts of a plant, or that portion which it derives entirely and exclusively from the soil. Hence these elements, in one propor- tion or another, will be found contained in every well- conditioned soil. There is evidently, therefore, in corn-culture, but one proper course for the farmer to pursue. It de- volves upon him to ascertain, as nearly as possible, what proportion of the constituents of maize his soil already contains, and in what condition these con- stituents exist. The latter point is especially import- ant ; for whatever be the quantity of them, unless they are in such a state that the plant can appropriate them, they might nearly as well be entirely absent. On this subject the science of chemistry will enlight- en the farmer up to a certain point ; beyond that he must rely upon other sources of information. Chem- ical investigation will determine, with sufficient accu- racy, the elements of the soil on the one hand, and the elements of maize on the other ; and a comparison of these would seem to indicate precisely what ingre- dients are yet wanting for the intended crop. But this indication is, after all, not entirely reliable. As the constituents of plants exist in the soil in various 104 INDIAN CORN. conditions, it is necessary to know, not merely whether they are present, but whether, also, they are in that peculiar state in which the growing plant can use or appropriate them. This condition chemistry has not yet been able to discriminate with certainty. It may, indeed, determine very correctly what proportion of potash, or soda, or phosphoric acid is contained in a cubic foot of any given soil ; but what the cultivator needs to know is, how much of these substances it contains in that state, that will enable them to minister to the immediate wants of the plant. Nearly all soils contain, in a state of nature (as elsewhere remarked), the principal elements of maize, in greater or less quantities, and some of these ele- ments are found in proportions even much larger than the plant requires ; but their value depends entirely upon their state of adaptation. If, from their peculiar combinations or other causes, they are impervious to the descending rains, and unfitted to the requirements of vegetation, they add nothing to the present fertility of the soil. There are fertilizing elements in the hard impracticable rock, and the chemist can doubtless de- termine the proportions of them ; but it does not fol- low that the rock or any part of it is at present an available soil for the growth of plants. The analysis that reveals the relative quantities of plant-elements, leaves the quality and fitness of them still obscure and uncertain. If the chemist could indeed resolve the soil into its elements, with an absolute precision and certainty as THE SOIL ASTD ITS CONSTITUENTS. 105 to the condition of each ; if, while he tells the farmer exactly what proportion of each constituent of corn is lodged in every square foot of soil, he could also tell him, with the same accuracy and certainty, what part of that proportion is perfectly adapted to the imme- diate use of the gro'uoing plant, the effect would be most remarkable. Fertilization would be reduced to an exact science, and agriculture would be revolu- tionized. But though chemistry, that has done so much for agriculture and for the other useful arts, has not yet achieved this needed revelation, it has before it never- theless, like other sciences, a future of indefinite pos- sibilities ; and there is some reason to believe that the time will arrive when the analysis of the soil will be so thorough and complete as to disclose to the culti- vator not only this information, but all else in this connection that he needs to know. But meantime the question remains, How is the farmer, while waiting for this chemical illumination, to obtain the desired information? How is he to know what amount his soil contains, and what amount it lacks of the available elements of his grain ? The answer to this inquiry is plain and simple. There is just one method, and only one, of arriving at this knowledge consult Nature. Interrogate the soil in a series of experiments. This is an old doctrine, but a very sound one, and no less true to-day than it was in the time of Lord Bacon. The testimony of Nature can always be had, and is always more valuable 5* 106 INDIAN COBN. * than any other. Put your soil on the witness-stand. Subject it first to an examination direct, and then to a rigorous cross-examination, and you will compel it to disclose those reluctant secrets that chemistry has not yet arrived at. PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. IN order to determine what manures are best adapted to a given soil, there is no method more cer- tain and successful than to institute a series of trials or experiments, which, if well devised and rightly conducted, will enable the farmer to understand the wants of his land, so as to proceed intelligently in sup- plying them. These trials may be, for the most part, accomplished in one season, but require for the best and the most assured results a longer period. The most important experiments may be consummated, and the most essential information acquired in a single year ; while other results may be added, and those of the first season verified or corrected, by trials contin- ued through a series of subsequent years. The farmer who is accustomed to experimenting on a limited scale, with reference to but one, or a few points of inquiry, does not perhaps realize how greatly the results may be enlarged, with but little extra labor. By introducing additional elements into the investiga- tion, and by properly combining them, the effects may 108 INDIAN CORN. be multiplied in a ratio equally surprising and profit- able. If, for example, he plants a portion of his corn- field without any manure whatever, and then adds separately to other successive portions of the same field the various fertilizers in general use, that are known to contain one or more of the elements of maize, he performs a very usual and doubtless an in- structive experiment, and the greater the number and variety of fertilizers employed, the larger will be the stock of information acquired. But this, however useful, is still a limited and par- tial investigation. The experiment may easily be ex- tended, so as to render it much more comprehensive and valuable. Let us suppose the fertilizers he has selected to be ten in number. Then, by applying each of these in three different and distinct quantities, the number of effects will be materially augmented, and the knowledge acquired will be greater in amount, as well as more accurate and more valuable. He will not only discover which are the best manures to ap- ply, but will also obtain some useful hints as to the proportion of each required. Again, he may still further extend and vary this in- vestigation, by applying the several fertilizers in three different modes, viz. : 1, by ploughing them into the ground before planting ; 2, by placing them in the hill or drill at the time of planting ; and 3, by com- bining these two methods into one. This would again multiply the whole number of results, and greatly in- crease the total sum of acquired knowledge. If the PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. 109 number of fertilizers, which is assumed to be ten, be multiplied by three, and that product bj three again, it will show how many points of information would arise from such a combination of experiments. To make this clearer, we will suppose that he ap- propriates to each fertilizer several rows through the field, amounting to two square rods of ground ; making, when the fertilizers are all applied, twenty square rods. He next applies, on the adjoining twenty rods, the same fertilizers in larger proportions ; and again, on a similar section, the same fertilizers once more in still larger quantities. He now has sixty rods planted, and thirty different conditions of manure. Thus far, however, the applications have all been made in one way only. The manures have been ploughed into the soil before planting. On the next sixty rods, therefore, he duplicates the amount already planted, making no change, except that the manures are now applied in the drill. Finally, he plants a third section of sixty rods, in the same manner as be- fore, with the exception that the fertilizers are applied differently, by combining the two previous methods into one. He now has his corn growing under ninety different conditions of fertilization, on one hundred and eighty rods, or a fraction over one acre. In whatever way these experiments may each one terminate, if they have been rightly performed, his object is gained. The results, it is true, may not all be equally definite and certain ; this is not to be ex- pected. Yet he derives some hint, or information, more or less plain and positive, from each separate 110 INDIAN CORN. application, while in many instances the instruction is clear and unmistakable as language can make it. Some of the fertilizers employed will perhaps add nothing to the yield ; showing that the constituents of corn contained in them were already present in the soil in suitable amount and condition. Others will add to the product in various proportions ; some of them increasing the yield probably fifty per cent, or more as compared with the product on the unmanured ground. A careful comparison of all the results, and of the ratio they bear to that of the unfertilized sec- tion of his field, will teach him which of all the fer- tilizers employed contain those precise elements of corn that were either absent from the soil, or, if pres- ent, were deficient in quantity or availability. Before this trial was made, he did not know, and could not have predicted, the precise effect in any one instance out of ninety. He now has, if the experi- ments have been carefully and accurately executed, an intelligible result for each condition. With proper caution in making his deductions, he may derive from this experimental crop an amount of instruction and practical knowledge that could not have been ob- tained from any other source. Even though some of the results should appear doubtful, and some of his deductions prove erroneous, there would still be a clear and decided preponder- ance of positive and reliable information that would pay him many times over for the extra time and labor it has cost him. PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. Ill He may not have achieved a very remarkable crop, as to the aggregate number of bushels, but he has accomplished a more important object. He has not been aiming at a large present yield. He has merely been laying the foundation for many boun- tiful and remunerating crops during many years to come. Still the chances of a large product are all in his favor, even for the current year. It is not only probable, but nearly certain, that, while he has been solving questions of permanent importance to his farm and to his future crops, he has at the same time obtained more than an aver- age yield. While gathering an ample harvest of corn, he has gathered along with it a still more ample har- vest of valuable information. The trial crop here described, and the experiments embraced in it, are suggested, as one out of many plans, that will doubtless occur to the mind of the practical farmer. Those who find the subject of suffi- cient interest, will very likely be able to improve upon these hints. But the one essential idea that the au- thor desires to impress upon the mind of the farming reader is, that the system here illustrated is capable of great expansion, and of an infinite variety in its application. Single and isolated experiments, however useful in themselves, give no adequate idea of the increased effect that may be produced by a series of them, when ingeniously combined and accurately performed. In the hands of a skilful cultivator, a true method or system of experiments may become an invaluable 112 INDIAN CORN. instrument of knowledge and of power; for there is scarcely any kind or degree of needed information which it may not be made to develop, and few practical problems in agriculture which it will not help to solve. J^J UK A ;< v TJN1VKKSITY OF CAIJFORN1A. PEEPAEATIOK OF THE SOIL. Lsr preparing the ground for corn, the subject re- quiring the farmer's earliest and most careful atten- tion is disintegration. To impart to the soil, before planting, a suitable tilth and mellowness, by mechani- cal processes, is an indispensable preliminary. The means of doing this, and the methods practised, are various, and of different degrees of merit ; but the amount of disintegration they are capable of impart- ing is the great and leading consideration. The in- strument, or the practice that will most completely effect the pulverization of the soil, carrying the sub- division of its particles nearest to the point of ulti- mate possibility, is the one to be adopted by the cul- tivator. In every branch of husbandry, yet in none per- haps so much as in corn culture, the thorough re- duction of the earth by mechanical division and subdivision is a matter of primary and fundamental importance. There are, it is true, exceptional cases requiring a 114 INDIAN CORN. different treatment, but deep, thorough, and repeated ploughing is the great general rule, and the exceptions are comparatively few. Land that is naturally sandy and porous, with a subsoil of like structure, rendering it incapable of retaining manure, requires, of course, another meth- od. It demands, in fact, not so much a different mode of culture, as an entire change in its con- dition. A liberal addition of clay, ashes, and marl of the right kind, either or all in due proportions, fol- lowed with stable-manure and green crops ploughed under, would in time reconstruct such a soil, and would probably pay well for the process. But apart from such instances as this, it is perfectly safe to ad- vise a more frequent, careful, and accurate use of the plough than that commonly practised. If, on the other hand, the soil intended for corn is naturally wet, with a subsoil impermeable to water, it must be under-drained. This treatment is simply a matter of necessity, and cannot be superseded by any other. Even in most of the ordinary soils, it is the opinion of many farmers that under-draining pays well in the long run. But, in such a case as the one under consideration, it is not merely advantageous, it is indispensable ; and to attempt to raise corn, or any other important crop without it, is a criminal waste of time and labor. The Working Farmer, for May, 1861, has some useful suggestions for the treatment of the ground in corn culture. In reference to the first breaking up of the soil, the writer remarks : PEEPAEATION OF THE SOIL. 115 u This should be performed by running the surface plough to full depth, and following with a lifting sub- soil plough, the latter propelled by a separate team, with its beam in the bottom of the furrow left by the surface plough, and not skating along the surface, merely scratching or slightly disturbing the bottom of the furrow. This lifting, subsoil plough not only under-cuts the land side so as to enable the next fur- row-slice to break off more deeply and pulverize more completely, but at the same time it lifts the previously turned furrow-slice for a short distance, perfectly dis- integrating its particles; for the resolution of its forces being upward and outward, renders all the soil above it, like that above the mole-track, perfectly divided." Nearly all the large crops we have any account of, have been produced, to a large extent, by thorough tillage. Manures are doubtless highly useful,,and have their share in producing results. But it is tillage, beyond any doubt, that gives to fertilizers their great- est value and effect. The true philosophy of thoroughly aerating the soil, so that it may not merely admit, but invite, the approach of air and water to the growing roots, is suf- ficiently shown in the fact, that the chemical elements of water and of air constitute ninety per cent, or more of nearly all growing plants. In addition to this, it is to be remembered, that the plant-food already in the soil, as well as that applied by the farmer, depends upon the action 116 INDIAN CORN. of these same agents for its availability and nutri- tive effect. Of all the fertilizing elements con- tained in the earth, or added to it, there is not one that can produce its proper and legitimate result in supplying food to the growing plants without the pres- ence and influence of either air, or water, or of both combined. These facts are well understood, and clearly indi- cate the necessity of facilitating, by every possible means, the access of descending rains and of atmos- pheric influence to the roots of growing corn. But in order to accomplish this, the earth must be brought to a proper condition before the grain is planted. The soil must be made mellow and porous, by deep and searching processes of pulverization often repeated. It cannot, then, be too frequently or forcibly sug- gested to the agriculturist that, the more he contrib- utes to break up, crush, grind, triturate, and subdivide the particles of the soil, before planting, so much more does he cooperate with Nature, and assist her generous efforts to return him a liberal yield. In thus dwelling, with some repetition, upon what is deemed an important subject, we may perhaps weary the patience, or provoke the severity, of some critical reader ; yet such is the consequence of this principle, and such the extent of its influence, that if we could thereby impress it more effectively on the minds of our cultivators, we would not hesitate to employ yet a dozen more terms to express the same idea, did the PEEPAEATION OF THE SOIL. 117 language contain them ; for there is no reason to doubt that, if a more thorough system of tillage were prac- tised by every one of our four million farmers, it would add to the corn-crop of this country, in a single season, many million bushels. LI BE A !|1 : r XIVKi;si , V u CALIFORNIA MA1STUEES. THERE is no grain crop in this country that so well remunerates the cultivator for a liberal application of manure as Indian corn. Although it is capable of a fair and sometimes even a generous yield on indiffer- ent or unmanured soils, it is but short-sighted econo- my, on the part of the husbandman, to take advantage of this fact, by attempting to raise it without enriching the land. If the object of the agriculturist is to get the largest possible return for the manure applied to his ground, he will effect it more certainly by a gen- erous allowance to the maize crop than in any other way. The fertilizing materials that may be usefully ap- plied to the cornfield are so numerous, so various, and many of them so readily procured, that no cul- tivator is justifiable in neglecting to apply them on a liberal scale. The standard manure for Indian corn, as well as for other crops, is undoubtedly that of the farm-yard and the stall. Nature has ordained that domestic animals, which consume so largely the products of the earth, shall in some measure compensate the proprie- MANURES. 119 tor, by supplying him with the best and surest means of restoring its fertility. Yet this supply is not alone sufficient for the requirements of the soil, and the farmer finds it necessary to have recourse to other sources, which are fortunately neither few nor inac- cessible. After exhausting the contents of the cattle-yard and the compost heap, or, what is perhaps still better, in connection with these, he may employ, and often with great advantage, some of the various fertilizers in the market. In doing so, however, great caution is needed to avoid the impositions continually prac- tised by the venders of worthless ad alterations. There are several of the commercial manures composed of such articles as nearly all farmers either have or can readily and cheaply procure ; and many have adopted the habit of preparing these on their own premises. There is no good reason why this practice should not be universal. The man who uses fertilizers prepared by himself is always sure of their quality, and will generally find them less expensive. The following enumeration embraces most of the fertilizing materials in general use for the corn crop as well as some that are not usually employed, though they might be, in many cases, with advantage : 1. The manure of the FARM-YARD, comprising the excrement, solid and liquid, of horses, cattle, and other stock, and also the decomposed vegetable mat- ter combined with them. The latter includes straw, weeds, leaf-mould, swamp-muck, and every variety of vegetable substance, which, if well managed, will 120 INDIAN CORN. not only largely increase the aggregate amount, but will be fully equal in value to the best animal manure. 2. POUDRETTE, or the various preparations of night- soil. This is a highly concentrated and valuable fer- tilizer. The simplest, and perhaps the best mode of preparing it, is to combine with the night-soil a lib- eral proportion of dry mould, charcoal-powder, or sulphate of lime (gypsum). These may all three be added with excellent effect. Home-made poudrette, when rightly prepared, is much superior to the com- mercial article. 3. The various GUANOS, of which the Peruvian is by far the best. The powerful nature of this fertilizer requires caution in the use of it. In solution it is found useful for steeping, and is also applied as a liquid manure. 4r. BONE-DUST. The value of this fertilizer, for im- mediate use, depends in a great measure on its being finely ground. By the usual mode of grinding it, the effect, though more lasting, is comparatively slight the first season. The Flour of Bone is a finer preparation than the other, and though more costly, is far better for immediate effect. 5. SUPER-PHOSPHATE OF LIME, or vitriolized bones. The immediate value of bone-dust is increased, and the effect rendered much more speedy, by converting it into super-phosphate of lime. This is done by add- ing to the ground bones from one-half to one-third of their weight of sulphuric acid (according to the strength and purity of the acid), with a like quantity MANURES. 121 of water. But an equal effect may be obtained, at a less cost, by decomposing ground bones with green manure or swamp-muck. 6. WOOD ASHES, leached and unleached. The former, though less valuable, still retain most of the constituents of the unleached, having lost only a por- tion of their soda and potash. In either form, ashes are a most useful fertilizer, and adapted to nearly every description of soil. 7. PLASTER, or sulphate of lime. Plaster is the name given to ground gypsum. It is generally bene- ficial to corn, and sometimes in a remarkable degree ; its effect depending very much on the character of the soil. 8. LIME, oxide of calcium. That obtained from burnt shells is by many considered superior to any other. The best results from the use of lime are found in soils that abound in vegetable matter. This mate- rial is found to be much better applied in small quan- tities, occasionally repeated, than in large quantities at one time. 9. SALT, chloride of sodium. There is much dif- ference of opinion in regard to this fertilizer, but there are doubtless soils on which it is useful. It has a tendency to check the growth of weeds, and its effect on grain is to increase the solidity and weight. 10. LIME AND SALT MIXTURE. This may be pre- pared by adding two parts of lime to one of common salt, or by slacking the lime with a saturated solution of salt. The preparation should be made several months before usin g. 6 122 INDIAN COEN. 11. NITRATE OF POTASH, saltpetre. The effect of this fertilizer has been found in some instances quite remarkable ; but like most other manures, it varies with the soil. It makes an excellent solution for steeping. 12. NITRATE OF SODA. For soils deficient in soda, this application can hardly fail to be useful. It is sometimes applied in connection with the sulphate of soda, with an increased effect. 13. SULPHATE OF AMMONIA. ) 14. PHOSPHATE " j All growing plants require ammonia, and what they do not obtain from the atmosphere by the agency of descending rains, must be derived from the soil, or from the manures applied to it. Hence any fertilizers containing this principle may be applied to Indian corn with un- doubted advantage. 15. PHOSPHATE OF MAGNESIA AND AMMONIA. This compound is highly commended by Professor Johnston for its marked effect upon Indian corn. He cites a case in which three hundred pounds per acre increased the crop of grain six times and the stover three times. "It is prepared by pouring mixed solutions of sulphate of magnesia and sulphate of ammonia into a solution of the common phosphate of soda." All of the above fertilizers contain a greater or less amount of the constituents of maize, and are therefore adapted to that crop, though in different degrees. Which of them may be used to the best ad- vantage in a given case, or how many of them, or in MANURES. 123 what proportions, are questions to be determined chiefly by the character of the soil. If the farmer has ascertained the requirements of his soil ; if he has determined, either by experimental processes, or otherwise, in what constituents of maize it is deficient, he is then prepared to apply his fer- tilizers with intelligence and effect, and so far as it depends upon the mere presence of enriching material in the earth, he will easily be able to bring his land up to any capacity of yield he may choose, being only limited by the expense. He will, however, discover that the mere presence of manures is not all that is required, even though they contain the precise ingredients that are lacking in the soil. The condition in which they are applied has no small influence on the effect they are capable of producing. If they are in a hard, concrete, undi- vided mass, they should be pulverized. If they are not, indeed, already in a state of minute subdivision, they should be brought to that condition before ap- plying them. Some of the saline fertilizers are pro- cured in a state of powder, others in hard lumps that need to be finely crushed or dissolved. But the manure requiring most attention in this respect is that of the farm-yard. It is not a little remarkable that in the very case where the process of reduction and disintegration is most of all needed, it seems to be most neglected. The contents of the stalls and of the compost heap, which, from the variety of materials they comprise, need to be elaborately worked over and subdivided, in order to be thoroughly 124: INDIAN COEN. intermingled, are yet frequently carted upon the land in rude lumps and unbroken masses that strangely contrast with the fine roots and fibres through whose minute mouths they have yet to enter before they can nourish the growing corn. " Few farmers," says the editor of the Agricul- turist, " comprehend the importance of attending to this item in the preparation of their stock of fertilizers. They are often carried to the field in the spring, in the coarsest form possible, the hay and straw not fer- mented at all, and the coarse clods carried in to the yard last summer, not broken. They are spread in this state, and the large lumps are ploughed under so that they are not immediately available for the suste- nance of plants. Plants feed mainly at the extremi- ties of the rootlets, through mouths too small to be seen by the naked eye. The finer the manure is made, the more easily it is dissolved in water, and the sooner it passes into the circulation." The cultivator who intends to secure a maximum crop, or even a tolerably liberal and paying yield, will find it necessary to attend to his fertilizers, whatever may be the kinds employed, and to reduce them to a suitable degree of fineness before applying them to his soil. But, in order to secure to the growing plant the full and legitimate effect of the manure applied, there is still another condition remaining to be complied with. The fertilizer and the soil require to be intimately blended. It is not enough that they are, each of them, completely and thoroughly pulverized ; they must MANURES. 125 also be, and with equal thoroughness, intermingled. The particles of manure must be effectually and uni- formly distributed among the particles of the soil. Prof. Way, in a lecture before the Eoyal Agricul- tural Society of England, finely illustrated the rela- tions of the soil to the plant that grows in it, by com- paring the former to the stomach of an animal, ob- serving that Nature had given to the soil the function or office which in animals is performed by the gas- tric juice and the chyle that of preparing and di- gesting the food of plants. Nothing can show plainer than this analogy the importance of incorporating fer- tilizers with the soil. LI n k \ , , UNIVKJISITV UK <'AUFO B s O5> IO ^^ 00 ^t lr^ CO B B g m 2 3 O O 00 O CO O a5 Jb- CD O (M CO (M Oi co 10 os 10 co cq oo i cq co ^^ ^^ os ^H ^^ OQ CO inches to i Stalk. rH rH CO Tt< CO r}< JO il o* (B IN i co ^H co co *^ ^f ^^ 02 |*5 .3 *""' -2 S ^ T^ O CD CD W CO 5^ G^l C^l CO CO CO ^* "^ Q a a TH CO rH )0 co J> PLANTING. 131 CO