Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-06-27
NUMBER 50.
AGRICULTURAL. A
CULTIVATION OF CORN

CULTIVATION OF CORN.
The Rural World discusses as as follows
the level and hilling culture of corn:
The method formerly practised by most
farmers, and which is continued by many
| now. In cultivating corn, is to break up the
land not over three or four inches deep. and
lay it off and cultivate both ways with the
common turning plow. If the crop re-
ceives the number of plowings deemed ne
cessary the soil between the roots is mostly
thrown up to the base of the hills. leaving
| water burrows running at right angles over
| the whole field. If the land is rolling or
billy the surface is liable to constant waste
from the effect of washing rains. This
method of working corn exclusively with
the plow, we are satisfied from practical ex-
] perience and observation, is erroneous. The
nearer level the ground is left after cultiya-
| tion the better it is both for the crop and the
land. 1t is false idea that corn should be
hilled to prevent it from being prostrated
by the wind. If the ground is well cult
waited, leaving level surface, nature am
| ply provides each stalk of corn with braces
for its support. Nor is it necessary, if the
cultivation has been properly conducted, to
hill up corn for the purpose of killing out
or smothering the weeds Some of the
largest premium crops now on record were
produced by level culture. If the first plow-
ing Is done with the bar next to the corn.
throwing the furrow from the hills, and the
earth returned with the next plowing, the
cultivator should be used for all subsequent
working. This leaves level, mellow bed
for the thousands of minute roots which fill
the entire space between the rows, and are,
in fact, the mouths through which alone
the plants are fed. By keeping the surface
level and mellow it readily absorbs the rain
as it falls, where it is held in reserve for the
growing crop. But when the last working
Is done with the plow and the earth is
thrown from the centre of the rows to the
corn, large portion of the roots are cut
off and destroyed, which must necessarily
diminish the yield The idea advanced by
some farmers, that plowing corn at this
time, and rending and breaking these roots,
Is beneficial to it, is simply absurd. Corn
delights in well pulverizeG, mellow soil,
and if the ground is sufficiently moist and
the weather warm, after thorough work
ing with the plow and causing the loss of |
these roots, the corn will continue to grow |
rapidly, notwithstanding the violence done; |
but If the weather is dry, the injurious |
effect OF such cultivation is clearly and IA |
tally marked by the firing" of all the low
er leaves, and necessarily results in great |
injury to the crop.
DOES FARMING PAY?
William Merriman, of Glover, being now |
at the age of fifty seven years, and having |
at the age Of seventeen years been cast out |
into the world, let US take an - inventory of |
effects at that period. 1t embraced one |
hardly respectable suit ofclothes. He work
ed out by the month for the next seven
years, never receiving more than twenty
two dollars per month, which, for "a month
in haying, was paid him by Royal Ross. of
St. Johnsbury. Now he has in one body,
called his = home farm" seven hundred
acres, besides two other farms containing
four hundred acres, making in all eleven
hundred acres
During the past year he sold ten pairs of
oxen and three-year old steers, and from
his dairy of fifty-seyen cows and heifers
sent two tons of butter direct to the Boston
market. He sent two and one-half tons Of
dressed pork to market cut three hun
dred tons of hay raised fourteen hundred
bushels of small grain, besides two hundred
and fifty bushels of corn from five acre of
green sward. Muck thrown in to the
swine during the season composed the fer
tilizer used to raise the corn. He has kept
during the past winter one hundred and
one head of cattle, four horses, seven sheep,
anu ulHtlttu llO8s y lew years dBO ne |
crossed the native with the Devon cattle,
which enables him to match steers hand
somely and give uniform color to his
stock.
For about fifteen years he has practised
going to Boston with his produce, thereby
securing to himself the profits that enable
the proprietors of commission houses in
that city to live up town in marble front es-
adjustments while handling the produce of
his less fortunate neighbOrs.
Mrs. Merriman, now 81 years of age, has
performed with the assistance of an invalid
daughter all the labor required to prepare
so large an amount of butter for market,
besides all other labor incident to farm of
such magnitude.
Mr.. Merriman attributes his success to
always having lived within his means, at
tended strictly to the improvement of his
farm, patronized no kind of patent until
proved valuable. Vermont Farmer.