The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-05-01
M;[nyke EARN.
CORN AND ITS CULTIVATION.
From the MARYLAND Farmer.

From the Maryland Farmer.
Taking all things into consideration,
the corn crop is the most important
staple crop of this or any other country.
1t is the bread, and produces the meat
for nine-tenths of our entire population,
besides large amount exported to aid
in keeping down the balance of trade
between the United States and Europe.
: Immense quantities are by dlstlllatlon
converted into the popular drink of
America Among the four millions of
people engaged in agriculture, but few
are found in any part of our expansive
domain who do not to greater or less
extent cultivate this valuable and indis-
pensable plant food There are not less
than 1900, 100000 of bushels of corn
grown per annum in this country.
Indian Corn, or Maize, is purely a
plant, or grass, indigenous to the West
ern Hemisphere. 1t is suited to all the
climes of America, growing under the
burning suns of the South and in the
cold regions of the North, and in the
highest luxuriance from the Atlantic
slope Of the Middle States to the Paci
fc Ocean. Its uses are innumerable.
The green or cured stalks and blades
are the best of food for all kinds of
stock the grain in an unripe condition
is delicious vegetable, and when ripe
may be cooked in a hundred ways to
make palatable, nutritious and health
full food for man and beast.
Ia, 4 al fhoco foo
our corn growers, almost without ex-
cepton, have done nothing to increase
the productiveness of this plant, but
year after year plant the same seed and
cultivate in the same slovenly way that
was pursued by our forefathers hun
dred years ago, relying on the natural
efforts of the soil and the sturdy ener-
gies of the corn of itself to grow and
bear grain.
We think it is not an underestimate
to place the present average product IN
Middle and Northern States at not over
FOUR barrels or twenty bushels per
acre, except on the new and fertile lands
of some Western States, in the blue
grass region of Kentucky and few
favored sections of limited extent in the
Middle States Yet by proper culture,
100 bushels, as has been accomplished
might be grown: certainly, with but a
little more labor and a small outlay in
money, the average crop of the country
could be doubled or trebled, at the
same time the land on which it grew
would have increased in fertility to in
sure a better small grain crop and q
good stand of grass.
MODE OF CULTURE.
We have found from our own eXper-
fence and that of others who have
grown heavy crops, that the best met b.
Cd of corn culture is as follows:
Break the land up at least six inches
deep with subsoil plow in every third
row. Give heavy manuring, of sta
bic or barn-yard manure, say twenty or
thirty cart or wagon loads per acre,
then 200 or 800 pounds of bone dust or
ashes and harrow thoroughly. Soak
the seed in copperas or saltpetre solu-
ton, strong Twenty-four or forty-cight
hours in the brine. take it out, drain and
rub dry in plaster of paris, or ashes
Put it three inches in the ground -
Work it every week with the Thomas
Smoothing Harrow until it gets foot
high, then thin, so as to stand eighteen
inches in the drill, the drills three feet
apart, so the plants will be IS by sc
inches distant.
When foot high, give good plow-
ing with the iron shovel plow, throw
ing the earth to the corn. Continue
this for three weeks and then have the
ground leveled by good cultivator.
Then leave the field in the hands of ma
ture and you will, in large majority of
years, get from ten to twenty barrels
of corn per acre, and have your land in
nice order for a wheat crop and good
stand of clover.
Let US advise you, either at planting
or afterwards, to drop a spoonful of
salt and plaster intimately mixed, on
every hill of corn; or sow it in the
drill. This can be done easily if you
use one of the improved drills.
This salt and plaster will keep off
the worm which often kills half the
corn crop, and will start the young
plants with an energetic life action that
makes the observer wonder why that
corn grows so fast and looks so green.