The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1843-05-16
The Farmer.
s METHOD OF PLANTING CORN.

Mr. John w. Sweet, of Tyrngham Berkshire Co,
informs us that he plants his corn, in the following
manner and has realized ITO bushels of sbeed corn
10 the acre.
He spreads what manure he intends for the field
on the surface of the green sword then he ploughs
the land into ridges about feet apart in the fall
each ridge row being made Of two back burrows
turned upon strip of sword which is not dis
eturbed In the spring he rolls and harrows these
rJges and the top of each ridge, IL ID inches
apart, he plants his hills of corn, or kernels in
in the hill, and cultivaes it through the season with
the hoe, cutvator and plough, as much as he deems
necessary. In this method he remarked that he was
not troubled with weeds or drought.
In the fall, soon as his corn is ripe, he gathers
she then pulls up all the stalks and lays
them down lengthways between the burrows, and then
splits his ridges with the plough and covers these
stalks up completely. Thus is made his second crop
of corn, to be plant ed the succeeding spring. The
ITO bushels was the second crop, planted over the
buried stalks.
The above is sufficient to give the reader idea Of
this system He contends after the first crop he
wants no for his corn except the stalks ap-
Piled as we have described.
1t is quite probable, the sods and manure being
der the corn the first year, that while these under
going decomposition, being the whole period ofthe
growth of the corn, the crop will suffer less from
drought than it would there vegetable mat
ter beneath it to attract and deain moisture until its
decomposition is completed.
As to the fact that corn-staks are the best
for corn, the idea is strictly philosophical and full
ly sustained by chemical anaysis.-The doctrine
seems to be well settled that each crop requires its
peculiar food, and unless the soil contains this,
the crop will not flourish Hence the necessity ofro
tation of crops of the well established fact with par
tcuIar men, that potatoes will not thrive for many
years in succession on the same principle, because
the crop has almost exhausted the soil of the peculiar
bod of the potatoe, while other crop, requiring
a different kind of food from what the potatoe re-
quires, will succeed well on the same land where
the potatoe has failed-thus the and the
sheep, when put to the same stack Of hay, the one
will eat what the other leaves; it is with plants.
Now, if you shoot partridge, and open its crop
and find in it and buds you at once infer that
acorns and buds the nat ural food of the bird
So when by chemical analysis you ascertain the pre-
else elements of which corn-st ilks made, you
have ascertaned precisely what kind of food the corn
crop requires. Now, as stalks contain the very
elements of the food required by the crop, and
return to the soil all the substances Of which they
hausted the SOIL the chemistry of agriculture teaches
US that corn-stalks, while undergoing decomposition,
furnish the growing crop with those very gases
required for the elaboration of the solid stock and
ears.
But this is not the only conclusion of sciencebut
universal law of the vegetable world, by which an
a-wise and bountifu God has provided that each pre-
else species of plants shall be reproduced and perpet
uated Thus the forest land, for centuries subject
mighty growth, from year to year, not only IN
ceases in fertility, but annual top dressing, fitted to
the very purpose for which it is wanted, and COM
posted by the unerrng hand Of Deity, but also from
year to year, has something to spare for the good OF
and beast.
Thus, in the vegetable as in the animal world.
there is wise provision that each shall be sustained
and reproduced; and as these natural laws are more
developed by science, we may expect the purposes
of Infinite Wisdom, to the Vegetable world will be
less and less frustrated by the hand of unskful Gull
ture [Boston Traveller.