Richland beacon., 1873-09-27
A Successful Failure with Corn.

In paper read before the expert
mental farm clnb of Chester county,
Penn, VIM. i. Schelmire detailed at
length how he failed to take the pre-
minm offered for the best acre of corn,
and vet raised 79} bushels. In view OF
the amount of the crop, and of the mis-
takes made in its culture, We have called
this successful failure, though, in ad-
dition to not getting the premium, MIR.
Schelmire figures ont that the corn and
fodder cost more than they were worth
at the price in his neighbo hood. We
give the substance of his p' per, and of
the alleged reasons for his failure.
|. He chose comparatively a poor
piece of land for the experiment. 1t
was on the top of hill ; soil thin and
stony; had been in Grass for several
years. and in wheat in 1871.
2. He manured in the spring, when
he should have done it in the fall to get
the best results applied nineteen loads
to the acre--best yard manure.
3. He applied Pacific guano, 300
pounds, broadcast, when he should have
applied it i'll the hill.
4. He depended for drill on his
neighbors, and when lie wanted it,
couldn't borrow or hire so he had to
resort "to our old way of checkering."
The moral is, he says, to own your own
machinery. Planted in rows, 3! feet by
81. four grains per hill.
:. To guard against cut-worms he APP
piled, on the surface after planting, one
handful of salt to every four or five
hills, and thus injured and killed quite
a good many plants. Cut-worms were
unusually scarce on the rest of the
field last season so the salt precautlOn
was not necessary, but, in addition, the
preventive, as such, was worthless, as
the few worms which did appear paid no
attention to the salt. He thinks, how
ever. that the salt hal the effect to keep
crows away. Had to replant good
many hills.
6. His i'll lnck at starting his "pre-
MUM acre" disgusted and discouraged
him. and when harvest came on, or from
July II to August %, he lost mnch OF
his interest in the matter and neglected
the corn when he should have given il
at least one more hOe-harrOwlng, al
though he had given it six.
At husking the crop measured IA
bushels of ears, good and poor. About
nine days after he weighed it, ant
counted the ears. Result: OF gOO6
corn, 5,137, fbs., or y bushels 53. Tbs.
at y ibs. per bushel nubbins, bush
els 59lbs.t :, Number of good ears, $3.50
mostly very large, 40 to 45 making {
bushel. The stalks measured from
eleven to twelve feet in length, an(
there were 295 bundles. Number o
hills. nearly accurate, 3, $50; average o
stalks per hill should have been about
three, bnt good many were missing o.
bore nothing, as the total number O
ears were only about 6,000. With only
two stalks per hill, but each stalk bear
ing one ear of corn, he thinks he would
have had IL bushels more OF corn. This
he confesses is guessing, but after all
the observation-disclosures the wisdom of at.
tempting to raise corn rather than bar
ran stalks, and let in light as to wha,
the product will be when two or three
ears can be grown per stalk.
The financial result he figures out as
below:
|
! 400 ms PACIFIC guano ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ~
81 bushels unleached ashes 1.V
l? days labor one man, at Sis, with board. d.
ii do of . horses at 81 .......... GO
Total cost.............. ......... s'oS
VALUE OF CRoP.
7a'} bushels of corn n, SOC oc............. sf9.7 :
80 bundles Of fodder at 6c IL
Total vaiue .....-... fS'.4
Net loss, sl2. S5, without counting in
terest on value of the land, which j
worth S1.50 per acre. Cost Of corn pc
bushel. after deducting value of tn
fodder, 66 cents-not altogether encour
aging, certainly.
The rest of the field was treated ex
actly like the "premium acre, excep
that only 10 loads of manure per acr
were applied instead of 19, and no ashe
or guanO, and with this result:
10 loads manure at &. 40, half only used by
crop. slIo
Labor "a above........ ~
Tota! ..............-...--.-- s49.
| VALUE OF PRODUCE.
bushels Sheled corr
- bundles fodder at &C.. ...... xl5.o
Tntal........ A''
Value over expenses, $0.75. This, o
least, is our result with Mr.. Schelmire
, figures, though he puts the value of 6
bushels of corn, at Soc, per bushel, q
amounting to only 327 ian evident e.
f ror,) and thus suppOses loss of 81.
per acre.
2 AS to the apparent result OF high mi
| nuring in this instance he says, thu
, while it points to no profit he still thinl
2 there is gain, "because this acre Wi
D converted by it from one of the pOore
G OH the farm to one of the best" IN
g that the benefit will be shown in su
t ceeding crops.-Co"nfry Genfttmdn.
;. "A Chinese official provincial trc
o surer of Hupie has issued an edict TO
o bidding the drowning of female chi
: dren, which he says takes place To II
; number of eighty per cent. lie reg
a larly argues with his people, tells the
v they can send their children tn Il
. founding hospital. assures them th
o their daughters will find husbands
n which must be true enough, II this d
o struction goes On-and at last threatel
/ the people with the vengeance of he
y ven, in the form of repeated fema
= births. Killing female babies, he r