Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1878-04-04
sarn' anO honstbol0
Two Hundred Bushels .ce.s :. lie Acrs.

At a late meeting OF the Main Board
of Agriculture, DIR. (. l.. sturtevsnt,
of South Pennington, Mass, read pap.
on Indian corn from which We lake
the following extract.
No corn is fit to seed unless it is csps-
bic of producing go bushel to the acre.
This has never been reached in New
England, sud the chief reason Is that
there are go many barren stalks Most
corn fields will be found TO contain on
IL about - bearing stalks 10 the 100.
Two grow 200 bushels to the acre, we
must get rid of the infertile stalks and
make every stalk bear an ear.
Ina stalk of corn You find provis-
ion for several ears OF corn. Corn plant
ed three feet apart in rows, four stalks
10 the hill, and each stalk bearing one
ear nine inches long, and we shall have
over 200 bushels TO the acre.
At each joint OF q stalk OF corn Is
found an embryo ear of corn. The
fifth Joint is usually the one that bears
the ear The question is, can those
embyro ears at all these joints be made
TO develop into perfect ear! The an
swer i yes.
There are several ways to improve
our corn crop. The one is TO develop
more ear. to the stalk and the other is
to render all the stalks fruitful. To de.
velop corn which will produce twin ears
bv selection, select the seed from the
lower of tie two ears. This however
i. slow process. and it is better TO re-
duce the number of stalks. We nave in
field about fifty ears TO one hundred
ta.sels.-We mast endeavor to get rid
of these chances of two TO one. Exper-
iments in this direction have been con-
tinued only one year, so are in part
theoretical. The experiment is to be
longer continued. Last season | went
through the seed field aud cut ont all
the barren and imperfect stalks before
any fertilization had taken place. On
that field there were no imperfect ears.
All were good ears.
The size of the ear is not ; true index
OF the yield. AS a rale the kernels OF
the eight rowed are larger than the
twelve. You will occasionally have q
twelve rowed ear found among an eight
rowed variety. In twelve cases | tried
ears of the same length aud invariably
the eight rowed yielded the most corn.
From two piece. Of land treated alike
! can obtain twice the corn from one
than will be obtained from the other,
by the selection of the seed. can also
do the same thing by my culture. Plant
food is the same thing from whatever
source it may be obtaine-dung or
chemicals. The getting it to the plant
the same thing.
A corn plant under certain conditions
of forced growth, may be deyelope al
most entirely into stalk. Ifthis growth
be checked st the proper time it will be
changed into ear. This is one of the
principles Of root pruning, or frequent
" cutting the roots by string the sell
with q cultivator. This checks the lore
ed growth of stalk and turns II 10 the
ear.
Shall we pillow deep or shallow? With
porus subsoil, shallow; but with a
compact subsoil, deem. A greater yield
will be obtained by planting in drills.
but the cost will be increased. SO that,
all things considered, hills are most
profitable. There shoul be four plants
to the hill Cultivation should be
commenced as soon as the plants are
well established and should be discon-
tinued as soon as the tassel appears
from its sheath. Cultivation can near
Iy or quite all be performed with horse
and culiiyator. with occasional pulling
of weed by hand. This will no.
make the field absolutely clean. but
further efforts in this direction will
cost more than it comes to. Prefers
level culture, and the application of the
manure as near the surface rs possible,
Cuts and shocks in the field afterst and
ing to ripen as long as the season will
allow.