The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-02-11
CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN-AN-
SWERS TO LETTERS.
BY GEORGE GEDDEs.

| ~f- BIZ GE9RGE GEDDEs.
have received a letter of friendly
scriticism on my article on Indian Corn,
from farmer whose experience has
been much greater than mine, and
| whose success in life gives great weight
to his opinion. Let me introduce him
to my readers.
Orson Smith started life in a small
| log house looking up through its stick
chimney he could see the tops of seven
pine trees. In 1921, with $500, earned
| by the month, he commenced life for
himself on lot No. So, town of Manlius,
Onondaga county, N Y. His first pur-
chase of land amounted 10 81 400. From
that he went on buying additions until
he has 230 acres ; 200 of them good for
grain and 300 cedar timber land, adapt
| ed to meadows. Thirteen deeds tell the
number of his purchases, and prove the
truth of his expression, "we bought by
/ Titles. There was not a shingle on the
| farm, but log shanty, and few acres
partly cleared" In his letter dated the
31st of December last, he alludes to his
present condition in these words: 1--WE
| do like farming, it makes us SO indie
pendent, If not rich. We raised the
most wheat, and the most corn of any
! man in town, the past season, and the
most barley, except one man; he beat
| us in that, as his boys told us, some 200
bushels. We sold the barley for S1.05
per bushel. The most of our wheat is
on hand; the corn we shall feed at
home" His taxes indicate that the as
SCISSORS find something beside land. The
last year of the war he paid 81, $50, and
in 1868 he paid 1886.
Here is man who, beginning as a
month laborer, acquires very small
capital, and bravely embarks it and his
credit in piece of heavily timbered
forest land, and begins the battle of life,
adding with his years acres to his acres |;
| contented with his lot eve do like farm
| ing, it makes us SO Independent :" read
fng but doing his own thinking, paying
his own taxes, and laying up money.
Does farming pay? Some time 1 may
write an article on that question.
Now my readers know Orson Smith,
and are ready to give due weight to his
opinions on the cultivation of Indian
corn. Leaving out what he says in the
way of approval of my views, l con-
fine my extracts to his criticisms. He
objects to my advice to plant seven kerr
nels in hill:
Suppose these garments, the crows,
blackbirds and worms do not take any !;
here is a fix. We can't risk it. If we
were sure four corns would be taken,
your rule would be good. We never
had first-rate crop with an excess of
seed. The rolling should be done after
the corn is planted, it leaves things so
NICE. You can see the rows two or
three days sooner, Every hill gets the
same pressure, and it comes up more
evenly. A good stand is of great i'm
portance for good yield. Sometimes
we get it, sometimes we do not, and no
man can foresee to help it. About four
years ago we planted 25 acres in squares,
81 feet each way. In few days you
could see the rows. We put four Guilt
vators going, and told the boys to see
if they could find one square without a
hill on the field. Not stump, or stone,
or tree took one hill. This was grand
luck and work. But we have lost en-
tire crops by worms. We have tried
many ways to keep off cFows-twine,
scare crows, tar, as you say, but for
some years find the best way is to. hire
the scamps to let it alone, by sowing
two or three quarts of shelled corn to
the acre, soon after planting. You can
go by the rows, 10 or II at through, or
% or a to a bout. This has proved safe
with u.s."
Mr.. Smith is an older, and doubtless
better practical farmer than / am, and
makes some suggestions in his letter that
are valuable. But cannot agree with
him, that it is best to plant only seed
enough to be sufficient, in case it should
all escape the perils that every corn crop
is subject to-for should every kernel
escape, the labor of thinning the hills
down to the proper number of plants is
not very great. Mr.. Smith, like my
self, has ''lost entire crops by worms"
One such loss makes farmer feel like
70
against another. But it may be said
that when the cut-worm invades a corn
field, as it sometimes does, in full force,
that no amount of seed will suffice to
feed them, and leave any for crop.
This is true sometimes, but not often.
More or less injury is done nearly every
year by the cut-worms. Constant use
of the eultivator and digging out the
worms from the hills, and killing them,
with surplus of seed, usually saves
the crop, or at any rate part of it.
However, this is a point in regard to
which farmers may be expected to diff
fer, and have thought that by giving
Mr.. Smiths views, as well as M own,
I would present the case fairly for the
consideration of corn raisers.
AS to rolling the ground after plant
ing, as proposed by Mr.. Smith, have
to say that. have never adopted this
practice though think very favorabIy
of it. 1t is a very important matter to
secure the.rapid growth of corn from
the seed, until it gets out of the reach of
what Mr.. Smith calls the yarments Zone
of my near neighbors used to call them
pesky cG1'nae1ts.) And it isalso important
to attack the weeds at the earliest momen
after they make their appearance, but a
horse cannot be used to cultivate I'M
til the rows can be plainly seen. / think
the rolling would result Just as Mr.
Smith says, in showing the rows soon
er than they ordinarily can be followed.
AS to Mr.. Smiths plan of hiring the
crows to let the corn alone, by sowing
two or three quarts to, an acre for them,
practieed his method but never when
the seed had been thoroughly treated
with tar, for in such cases it has been
unnecessary with me. Sometimes crows
have nested in woodlands near our
fields, and a very few pairs of them
have made much trouble. In such cas-
es we steep some corn in solution of
strychnine, and scatter 1t on such parts
of the field s-arel most frequeuted by
the crows. This never rails to cure the
evil, and kill the crows, as their dead
bodies in the field. gives abundant
I am much ebliged to Mr.. Smith for
his criticisIas.e They were made in
friendly spirit contain useful hints, and
come from one of that class of farmers.
who, though they really know q great
deal about farming, are generally Slow
to give the public that knowledge, not
from any lack ofdisposition to commu-
nicate and do good but from diffdence
at appearing in print.
A letter written to the Farmers Club,
by W. E. Phillips, of West Junius, Sem
eca county, N. Y, has been forwarded
to me, in which the writer objects to
my advice in regard to the best time to
select seed corn. He says: @By the re-
port of the Chicago Board of Trade, a
year or two ago, the best corn raised in
Illinois came from the Illinois River
bottom, and the very best from Lacen.
For years the farmers in that vicinity
have gathered their seed as soon as the
kernel begins to dent, which is a long
time before it is fit to husk, and the re-
suit is this they have two kinds of corn,
each variety, early and late. Take, for
instance, the white-one ripens two
weeks before the other, which is fire.
quently bitten by the frost, while the
earlier usually escapes. Therefore, /
would humbly recommend to gather
Yankee corn as soon as glazed, for