The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-24
Chr Rutland Daily Glnbe.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER "a. 1876.
From the Boston Globe.l
THE FARM-YARD CLUB OF LOTHIAN.
By DR.. George B. Loring.

| had made up their minds that IL was time
for another meeting of the club. They
therefore issued call for the following
week, and selected as a subject for debate :
GRAIN CROPS.
The club assembled with great prompt
ness, and with an evident feeling of salts.
faction that its interests were not to be ne
| elected, nor its existence endangered by
any outside controversies. Mr.. Hopkins
| received the members with unusual cor
diality, and manifested marked kindness
| TO John Thomas, the reason for which that
gentleman could not imagine, ignorant as
he was of the trial he was to meet at the
hands of Peter Ilsley and his followers.
The discussion was opened by the Presi-
dent, who selected as the most important
grain for the consideration of the American
farmer:
INDIAN CORN.
"Maize, or Indian Corn said he, sis
perhaps the most important crop raised in
America. Adapted to local wants and inn
mediate consumption, it occupies also an
| important place in our domestic and foreign
commerce and while cotton brings us to
the great manufacturing countries of the
world, and lies at the foundation of that
export trade upon which our financial pros
perity depends. corn enters so largely into
our domestic economy, as food for both
men and animals, that it may properly be
called the corner stone of our agriculture.
Col. Taylor, n sagacous and intelligent
Virginia farmer, once said ''Indian corn
may be correctly called meal, meadow and
manure; it produces more food for man,
beast, and the earth, than any other farm
aceous plant. And so valuable is 1t that if
the discovery of America had done no more
than to bring this plant to light and intro
duce it into the list of great farm crops,
this of itself would be sufficient to immor-
talize Columbus and his adventurous COM
panions. From America it has spread ev-
cry where-into all latitudes where the
summer sun gives even sixty days of warm
weather, and where quick and rich soil
feeds the rapidly growing plant. Evident
ly tropical IN its nature, it accommodates
itself to Canada and Georgia alike. 1t has
taken so high rank among the crops of
Turkey that on the continent of Europe it
is called BE de Turque, and have found
it the common food of the Neapolitan pea
SAINT, under the name of Grana del Tureo.
In Germany have seen it cultivated as
house plant and admired as rare and
beautiful product of the Southern soil.
The question whether corn can be profit
ably raised in New England do not pro-
pose to discuss at length. Here it may be
counted, l doubt rot, rather as an atten-
dant than as a staple crop. Considering
the usual market price of corn coming from
the Western cornfields, with which the
farmer can fill his granary, it would be idle
TO devote land suited both by quality and
location to market gardening and root crops
to the growing of corn. But on remote
lands, on farms somewhat removed from
the market, corn may properly be made
one of the standard crops. As part of
rotation also, which is to end in grass, the
nSs yssaR his seSssSsaY tdt
grass.
The soil best adapted to corn Is warm
loan. l say Il warm loan, for although
corn will accommodate itself to cold soil
and cold climate, it is plant which es-
pecislly requires heat for its highest per-
lection. 1t will not even vegetate in soil
whose temperature is less than 30 deg.
And if it is exposed to the malign influences
of cold and wet soil, it will never re-
cover, no matter how favorable the season
may be. A corn crop may be injured as
much by the effects of q cold soil upon the
seed as by an early autumnal frost. Corn
should never be planted, therefore, until
the atmosphere has been tempered by sum.
mer heat and the soil has been well warmed
by the early summer sun. 1t should be
planted at such time and in such a soil
that it will terminate at once, and start
forth in life with a strong and healthy
green color. A yellow and stunted growth
in the corn crop is never followed by Wig
orous and profitable maturity. 1t is heat,
then, which corn requires-a warm soil and
warm weather. 1t is only under fortunate
circumstances like these that great crop
can be raised and 1t is only by the observ-
ance of this law that the average yield of
corn in any locality can be brought to the
highest degree.
The preparation of the soil for corn
planting is simple and similar to that re-
quired by the other common field crops.
If stubble land is to be used it should be
thoroughly pulverized by one early and one
later spring ploughing. If however, sod
land is to be used, il should be ploughed
immediately before the planting, and the
furrow set at an angle of forty-five degrees
in order to secure proper and necessary
circulation of the air through the soil du-
ring the early growing of the corn, and in
order to provide for the most effective ap-
plication of manure, to which l shall al
lude hereafter. The land should not be
ploughed in the autumn with any idea that
this will be a substitute for spring plough
ing, but only in heavy stubble land as a
valuable preliminary to the cultivation of
the next year. Nor should the manure be
applied in the autumn unless you are will
ing to lose one half of that stimulating
power which corn especially demands of its
fertilizers.
Corn is ono of the crops to which green,
undecayed BARNARD manure can be prof
itsbly applied. l have spoken of the use
of sod land for the corn crop; and it is to
land of this description that green manure
may be applied with great advantage. If
you will spread the manure broadcast upon
the land just before ploughlng, and turn
your sod upon II, not fiat, but at the angle
have designated, you will prepare for the
most rapid and sudden decomposition du'
ring these very weeks in which the corn
grows NEST vigorously. The bed which
you have thus prepared for rootlets when
they are engaged in their busiest operation,
is the best that can be conceived of. The
heat of the active decomposition, the for
tunate combination of decaying vee etable
matter and manure, and the texture of the
crumbling sod, all combine 10 make this
mode of iertiizing especially applicable to
the corn crop 1t should be borne in mind
that in addition to the manure ploughed
under the sod, some form of fertilizer
should be applied in the hill, at the time
of ploughing, in order to give the seed An
early start; or to the plant itself at the first
hoeing Half shovelfull of well rotted
manure in the hill is, l doubt not, the best
fertilizer that can be used for this purpose.
Plaster has been used, but 1t is too wet for |
this crop. Bones prepared as laid down in |
the early debates of this club are very use
full. Halt n gill of guano. or gill Of SUI
perphosphate may be applied with advan-
iage. The droppings of poultry composted
with small quantity of muck, and well de-
composed has great effect. Lime is of no
value, unless you prefer large amount of
fodder to good crop of grain. Ashes APP
piled on the surface at the first hoeing not
only stimulates the plant but they tend to |
destroy and drive away many of the In
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