Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-01-20
Indian Corn.

Indian Corn.
At the recent New Hampshire Farmers
Convention, Joseph b. Walker Esq. of Con-
cord, read an essay on Indian corn and its cul-
ture, and we are indebted to the special cor
respondence of the Mass, PiOughman for
the following extract therefrom
In North America corn fourishes through
out a range from north to south of forty de-
grees, and of twenty-three degrees in the
United States alone being raised successfully
all the way from Canada to Mexico, and in
side the tropics, from the level of the sea, to
the height Of several thousand feet above it.
Indian corn is very flexible in its nature,
and readily accommodates itself to surrounding
circumstances. No e%0urtier or politician is
more so but while it equals him in general
hexibility, it possesses some fixed principles
which are immovable under any and all cir
cumstances. Each considerable locality soon
modifies any new variety introduced to it,
and imparts to its character adapted to its
soil and climate. To Illustrate this fact Mr..
Walker said that some years since he prOcur-
ed from the town of Georgia, in Vermont, a
variety of yellow pop corn. The ears were
very tiny, many Of them being not more than
an inch and a half or two inches long. A
few years cultivation upon the interval at
Concord, enlarged them to three times their
original size, and clearly demonstrated that
such culture for a few years more would have
changed this to a respectable variety Of field
corn.
The varieties Of corn are more numerous
than is generally supposed, no less than one
hundred and twenty having been found, it is
exist in the United States within the limits
of New England alone. The ears of different
varieties vary in length from one to eighteen
inches, and in diameter from the half Of one
to more than two inches. Some kinds have
eight rows Of kernels to the ear, some ten and
twelve, and some more even to the number of
thirty-six. Some varieties are particularly
rich in oil and gluten others in starch !;
some in fat producing properties, and others
in such as favor the production Of flesh and
bone.
Different varieties require different periods
of time in which to mature. Those common
with us require from eighty to one hundred
and fifty days. Our corn season is lanked
by a frost at each end, and at the longest,
generally extends only from about the first of
May to the middle Of October, while in many
localities this period is considerably abridged.
1t is useless to rely upon kinds which require
for their ripening more than one hundred and
fifty days.
ANU II i = G44d4i hcCACEH Dldlb I LIN
ground is cold. Corn requires for germina-
ton a higher temperature of the soil than
rye, wheat, grass, or in fact most Of our 9TH
er crops. Not until this has risen to about
sixty-eight degrees for some considerable pOr-
ton of the time will the kernel sprout and
grow. The old Indian rule of planting when
the leaves Of the birch had attained the size
of a mouse's ear, was doubtless founded upon
experience and was a good one The expand
I fnO 1ao vas Of the traaa uf.rl n far tatfar
guide tlan those of the almanac 1t IL far
safer to regard their condition than the day
Of the month. some corn land in the valley
loftthe Merimack favorably situated. may
generally be planted as early as the first Of
May For most Of it, however, the middle Of
!. that1aonth is early enough, while upon the
I c6lder1ands Of the hills most of the planting
should be done later by a week or ten days
than that.
VI planted at the proper time, corn viii
terminate and come up in from five TO eight
days, varying somewhat according to the
warmth Of the soil and the depth to which it
} is planted.
4 Indian corn loves best a deep, rich, warm,
mellow, loamy soil, with a southern exposure.
If sheltered upon the north, so much the bet
ter, as it will Oftentimes secure to the crop Il
week or ten days of good corn weather both
in the spring and autumn. The lengthening
Of the ordinary corn season from two 10 three
| weeks by shelter, the selection of proper soil
and other appliances is a matter of great con-
sequence, and one which demands the careful
/ consideration of the corn growers in so cold
5 a latitude as that of New Hampshire Indeed
b there is no one point in corn husbandry more
D worthy Of emphasis than this, viz :-Rais'
c corn on corn land. He had no douot it could
be produced upon a bog, by a little ridging
e to keep it from drowning, but we need not
c say with what success.
The manures at our command best adapted
S all things considered, to the growth Of corn
are those of the barn and the stable. o
three kinds of superphosphate tested on BIZ
d farm in 1867, in connection with corn, upOr
n land f~ertilized by no other dressing, one wal
z found to be entirely worthless, and the corr
{ dependent upon it a failure. If the other
: had been applied at the rate of two or tire
d table spoonfulls to the hill, they would have
d probably secured a fair but moderate yield.
The Office of a fertilizer was to afforC
o substance to the growing crop, and assist il
breaking down and converting to an assim
ilative state the insoluble s~ilicates of the soil
d The food for the plants support should b
evenly distributed over the whole piece, in
stead of being confined merely to its hills
y and a thorough pulverIzation of the f~ertiiize
n applied are Of much importance. The care
less spreading of coarse, lumpy manure upol
land devoted to corn will be very likely t
produce a late and uneayen growth, liable t
encounter frOsts long before it is able to bca
them.