The Portland daily press., 1877-02-05
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Drills vs.. Hills.

DFlllS VS. Hills.
We have had occasion more than once to
recommend the introduction of the drill sys-
tenn of cultivation, both in garden and field
husbandry. As it substitutes the labor of
animals for that of men, and lessons the
amount required, aud as it also utilizes more
of the surface-soil and sub-soil, and therefore
returns larger and better crops, it ought to
be approved by everybody and everywhere
introduced.
In the absence Of arguments in favor of
continuing the old way, we are constrained
to believe that the reason why any farmer
follows it is because he is in bondage to an
old custom-a slave to an absurd fashion.
Many brave man who fears neither heat
nor cold, fire nor flood, and who never
shrinks from the severest test of strength or
courage, would hardly dare for single season
to abstain from the good old way of crowding
four or five plants of corn into one small hole,
or venture instead, to give them ample room
in the soil, and fair chance for the rays of
the sun and the drops of rain. Certainly he
would prefer, IL such an experiment were to
be tried, that his cornfleld should be at some
distance from the highway, or at least par
TALLY hidden by the friendly intervention of a
grove of trees. Nothing would disconcert
him more than to hear some conservative
passer-by suggest: ''That is no way to plant
corn" or, $50 much for book learning;;" or
some other unfavorable criticism-for thus
would he receive the painful information that
he had made shipwreck of good name, and
that well spent life was all in vain.
Gradually, however, this approved method
OF cultivating crop is gaining ground, and
soon it will be the common practice among
intelligent farmers. In well regulated gar
dens no other mode is practiced; beans and
potatoes and peas are thus frequently cult
waited in the field, and grain even yields
larger returns to those who try the expert
ment. To those who never trouble them
selves about the merit of question, but who
always 60 with the multitude, or according to
the weight of authority we commend the
following extracts from recent issues of the
Country Gentleman and american Agricul
turist. The former journal in referring to an
article from an Illinois correspondent on
"Corn Culture" says: "The cultivation
recommended is in accordance with the
practice of the best farmers; the enrching is
to be the turning under of green crops
clover, timothy, or blue grass sod, instead Of
looking to yard manure or artificial fertiliz-
ers. To fortity this position our correspond
ent gives two or three of his own experiments
and their results. He planted five or six
acres on old prairie, after manuring heavily
the previous autumn and winter with cow.
pig and horse manure, planted nearly four
feet each way, cultivated as usual, and in
September good judges estimated the coming
crop equal to eighty-fve or ninety bushels
per acre; but after husking the scales cor
rected the estimate and cut it down to less
than fifty bushels per acre. Another field
which had been underdrained and heavily
manured previous years was planted nearly
in the same way the year before, which was
accompanied by severe drouth, and it
brought less than forty bushels per
acre. In the third experiment, the
field was lightly manured, and planted not in
equal rows, but in drills four feet apart. The
stalks were nine inches apart in the rows.
When few inches high. each stalk had a
small handful of ashes-over ton for the
whole field. 1t was cultivated repeatedly
through the season. After husking, weigh
ing the ears. and estimating eighty
pounds to the shelled bushel, the field was
found to have yielded over eighty-four bush
els per acre. Our correspondent ascribes
this heavy product to the application of
ashes. This may have been correct in part:
but we have found invariably, when the
measured experiment has been made that
twenty-five per cent. more is obtained from
aoeU managed drills than from what are
termed hills at equal distances each way"
From the February Agriculturist. we
quote as follows: "The increase of crop in
planting corn in rows, instaed of in squares
is twenty-five per cent. With the best far
mers in the east this method is general Our
own fields, planted in this manner, have been
freer from weeds than many of our neigh
bors who planted in chock rows. The rows
are generally three feet apart and the see
may be so dropped as to give one stalk every
foot, or two stalks every eighteen inches in
the row."
In the face of such evidence, every farmer
who continues to plant corn in the old wav.
sins against light and knowlege; and he will
receive his reward in his increased labor and
diminished crop.