Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-05
WILL 1T PAY TO RAISE CORN.

menced work after the first of April on
an eight acre piece of new land that
had been cultivated one or two years.
AT the same time we commenced the
practice of bookkeeping according to
the Fulton & Eastman's system. We
rolled the logs and picked the chunks,
and cut a ditch estimated at sixteen
dollars. We charged the field with
seed corn, and every day we labored in
preparing the land and cultivating the
crop.
When we gathered the corn, we
set aside sixty-four bushels to balance
the ditch, and had left six bushels for
every day we plowed, and four bushels
for every day we labored without a
pillow, replanting, thinning, hoeing, etc.
This was new land and large crop of
corn was made that year, throughout
the State. Yet it is the opinion of the
writer that corn is the surest crop we
can plant; and viii pay best according
to its labor. Other crops may pay
more per acre, but require more labor.
And there are some others that pay
better. when the season suits them;
but no crop is so sure to pay for its
labor as corn.
We sowed three bushels of wheat and
reaped forty-fve; the next year we
sowed fifteen and reaped twenty-five of
an inferior quality. We planted three
bushels of potatoes and dug one hun
dred bushels; the next year we plant
ed ten bushels and gathered ten bush
els, and two years ago we
planted two-thirds Of bush
ell Of new and fine va
riety ard made a whole bushel
1t IS also the opinion of the writer that
a paying crop of corn can be made on
any quality of land that Will produce
weeds or grass. If the land is thin APP
Ply small handful of manure, direct
" from the stable. to each hill when
planting, and it will increase the crop
one-third; stables should never be
cleaned cut until needed in planting;
and always applied to the corn-hill or
cotton drill. We know that this is OBJ
jected to, as it is said to burn up the
corn, IN a dry season. 1t is likely that
manure taken from an old compost
heap, that has taken a winters rain,
and lost all of its vitality by evapora-
ton and drainage, might prove inju-
rious IN the hill, and do but little good
anywhere. We have tried chip ma
nures and scraped up the top soil IN
the woods, all to learn that it didn't
pay. Yet we are satisfied that judi
ciOus application of stable manure to
the hill viii pay double for its labor,
and viii not burn up the crop. The
philosophy is this: The manure is ex-
hausted IN making the stalk, and
there is nothing left to injure the corn.
In making the stalk it sends out roots
throughout ali of the surface soil and
deep into the sub-soil, which roots sup
ply the stalk with nutriment in a
dry season. 1869 was the dryest sea-
son we have had for many years, and
We raised better corn on poor land,
with manure, than ON good land with
out it. J.S.D.
REMARKS:
Our correspondent has our best
thanks for his communication on rails
ing corn. Should our population con-
tinue to increase for the next fifty
years at the same ratio it has during
the last fifty, in that time there will be
one hundred and fifty million inhabi-
tants in the United States to be fed and
clothed and housed. 1t is only ques-
ton of time when the comparative
value Of our cereals, and heritage gras-
ses for producing pastures, hay, meat,
wool and horse flesh, will be a question
of the highest national Importance.
When that day comes, our native
maize or corn will stand so far ahead
of all the old world plants, that some
viii wonder what they were
brought to this country for.
But the civilized white race needs a
variety of vegetable and animal pro-
ducts, and wheat, English peas, beans,
fruits, field and garden vegetables are
simply above all price useful and de-
sirable. Pointing out the superiority
of corn as a life and comfort sustain
ing crop, is not assailing any other pro-
duct of the soil From five to ten tons
of good corn fodder and hay are now
annually raised to the acre by large
dairymen. They drill the seed pretty
thick, on highly manfred land, and
plant from two to three bushels of seed
corn to the acre. Forty years prac-
tice by hundreds of good farmers
has fairly tested the value of this
hay for all cattle and horse stock.
Some readers may be surprised that
our correspondent sets so high value
on the first quality of housed stable
manure used by ''the handful In corn
culture Farmers are slow to see and
understand how a first best concentra-
ted fertilizer can do so much good. AT
one of the early meetings of the New
State Agricultural Society, Friend
Humphrey, then Mayor of the city of
AAbdilB ACSClADCu III tApCIlluSuO Hc
had made with horn shavings obtained
at a comb factory. The soil was nat
urally poor sand; yet small handful
between the thumb and fingers to each
hill Of corn under the seed, returned a
crop of sixty bushels per acre on two
acres. The same soil without this ferti-
izer gave only fifteen bushels per acre.
Friend Humphrey was one of the most
careful and reliable men IN the State;
and this gain of ninety bushels of
shelled corn on two acres, over and
above what was grown on land Of the
same quality and character every way,
tells what a little plant food will do
when it hits just right. Sometimes a
little land-plaster, saltpetre, and COM
mon wood ashes do the same. Strong
oak, poplar or hickory ashes are worth
more per bushel than corn is worth to
increase ones crop of corn. Save and
fully utilize all fertilisers on the farm.
Chancellor Austin Pollard. of MississipDi.