The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-07-30
VOLUME 3.
The Most Valuable Of all Grain.


aud, probably, in the world; and corn
growing in the West Is a part of every
farmers business Western farmers
specially may be wheat, or tobacco, or
cattle. or wool, or pork, or broom-corn.
or castor beans, or fruit; but whatever it
is, raising a crop of corn is an indispen-
sable appendage to it. He must have
corn for his own use, if not to sell. 1t
is the cheapest of all stock feed, and its
conveTtibility into 40 many useful forms
increases its hoInely value. 1t can be
turned into cattle. horses, mules, hogs,
poultry and spirits; and it is considered
the most easily raised of all crops-one
breaking up, one planting and four
pIowings being the regulation allowance
of work for an average corn CROP
And yet it may be questioned wheth-
er Western farmers really understand
corn growing. This is an audacious
statement, we know, and the Missouri
Granger who has been raising the grain
off and on for forty years will, when he
reads it, wonder where these city news
papers have learned more about his bus
iness than ne knows. If there is one
thing every old farmer fiatters himself
he knows all about it is how to raise
corn; and to have his Knowledge ques-
toned at this time of life is enough to
cause his honest face to flush with an
ger. But let us go to the record and see
what the facts are. The amount of
corn raised in this country is enormous;
in 1870 it was 761 100000 bushels, and
five years before, ir 1865, it was estimat-
ed at 932, 900, 900 bushels-an average of
over 26 bushels to every soul in the
land. OF this Illinois produced the
largest portion, 130,000,000 bushels;
Iowa came next with 100000 bushels,
and Missouri next to Iowa with 66,000,-
600 bushels. These figures show how
important the crop is-how easily it is
raised and what immense quantities of
it are consumed. But statistics careful
ly collected by the Department of Agri
culture at Washington, from the year
1865 to the year 1873, force the convic-
ton that the average yield per acre,
compared with the maximum yields Sc
cured by careful cultivators, is very low
not more than one-fonrth what it
might be. In Maryland the average is
23 bushels per acre; in Virginia it is %
h,,gh hoIe = - - bol...
in Ohio it is 81 bushels, and for the
United States the average is "a bushels.
The very highest average for any one
State il 80 bushels, for Kansas. How
insufficient these averages are may be
judged when it is stated that there are
numerous well-attested cases in which
yields of 20 TO 40 bushels, and even
more, of shelled corn have been obtain
ed from one acre of ground. In 1873
the Carroll County (Md) Agricultural
Society offered a premium of 500 for
the largest amount of corn raised on an
acre, and 1t was taken by Mr.. J. Brown,
of Baltimore county, who produced
1903 bushels of shelled grain and $3.50
pounds of good fodder on the limited
area. The ground was a timothy mead
ow, broken deep, subsoiled and lightly
spread with stable manure; il was then
treated to an application of 500 pounds
of bone-dust sown broad cast, and after
ward narrowed and rolled. 1t was
marked off in burrows three and half
feet apart and compost of hog ma
nure, salt and gypsum sprinkled in the
burrows; the grain was planted six inches
apart on the 10th of May. After COM
ing up it was carefully narrowed sever
al times and afterward p)owed with
shovel pillow. The result was as we
have stated.
In 1873 Mr.. Hudson raised on one
acre of ground on the "Oakridge Farm"
in Amherst county, Va, 10 bushels of
white corn, the fact being attested by
Mr.. Fortune, a notary of the county. \
copy of the Virginia Farmers Register,
printed by Edmund Rufin, at Peters
burg, thirty-fve years ago, has this
statement: "Mr. Meggison, of Abe
marie county, was reported by the coun-
ty society to have raised 11O bushels of
sound shelled corn on one measured
acre of ground, being river bottom and
thoroughly cultivated; large white
sort of corn" In the Department of
Agriculture report for 1868 there is an
authenticated statement that Joseph
Goodrich and Luther Page of Worces-
ter, Mass, each raised Ill bushels of
the same report gives instances in Ohio
where 80 and 101 bushels per acre were
raised. The Rockbridge county, (Va.)
society, at its meeting in 1871, gave a
petition for the premium for the largest
yield of corn: J. D. II. Ross raised on
one acre 76 bushels. and on five acres
253 bushels; A. L. Nelson raised 81
bushels on one acre, and 317 bushels on
five acres; and g. W Pettigrew raised
81 bushels on one acre, and 400 bushels
on FIVE acres. The treatment in each
case consisted of deep plowing from ten
to fourteen inches, and the application
of homemade compost, a handful to
every three hills of corn. At the meet
ing of the South Carolina Agricultural
and Mechanical Society in 1869 the re-
suits of two interesting experiments
made by John w. Parker were report
ed. He took piece of swamp ground
two acres in extent, and raised corn on
it two years in succession; it wac
thoroughly drained, subsoiled, heavily
manured from the coward, and the
hills additionally fertilized with guano
salt and plaster at the rate of zoe
! pounds to the acre; the grain was plant.
ed in drills, ten inches apart, and
thoroughly cultivated, one feature be-
} ing the irrigation of the field by turn
ing ON it a stream of water SO as to flow
. | between the burrows The first wear tht