Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-01-15
Maize or Indian Corn.
From a letter addressed to Joseph Harris,
of More,on Farm, Rochester, n. Y.

From a letter addressed to Joseph Harris,
; of More.on Farm, Rochester, n. Y.
BY DIR. J. d. LAwES, ROTHAMSTED, ENG
LAND.
There seems to be some doubt in the
minds of yourself and farmers generally
in the United States with regard TO this
important crop, maize or Indian corn.
You are divided in your opinion whether
il should rank rs cereal or leguminOus
crop.s do not, of course, mean that you
question its botanical position, but you say,
" In its capacity to obtain manure FROM
the soil. it resembles leguminous rather
than cereal crop" Your argument is
this: Take n field in equal condition,
divide it into two portions, sow maize on
one-half and wheat on the other. and you
will obtain say thirty bushels per acre of
maize and fifteen of wheat.
The average yield of maize in the states
for ten years is twenty-six bushels per
acre: of wheat, twelve bushels. This
shows rather more than twice us much
maize us wheat, and as maize generally
precedes wheat in ordinary farming, and
consequently has some advantage in re-
gard to the condition of the land, we may
accept your figures. and say that with
equal condition of soil, the produce of
maize will be double that of wheat How
is this to be explained?
As an unfavorable climate has prevent
ed me from experimenting in maize, the
remarks | am about TO make must be ac-
cepted us suggestions to elicit thought in
others, rather than us opinions of my own,
upon which too much confidence should
not be placed. Maize belongs to the great
family of graminacee, which supply the
food of almost the whole of the human
race Botany, in advance of chemistry,
settled the natural order; later on, chem
istry, by showing that all plants in their
natural order resembled each other in
their chemical composition, confirmed the
arrangement. The large amount of silica
which is found in the ash of the maize
! proves that it has no connection with II
leguminous plant; it may also be distin-
gulshed from the latter plant by the low
amount of nitrogen and large amount of
starch which its seed contains.
Ibis, howevtr, does not explain why il
can appropriate so much more food from
the soil and atmosphere than the wheat
plant. Assuming that maize and wheat
live upon the same soil food, which l am
quite disposed to think is the case, we
must not lose sight of the capacity of one
plant, us compared with another, of col
Letting and assimilating food. Even in
two different varieties of the same species
of plant this property is shown in u very
distinct manner.
Every year we grow for experiments
above twenty varieties of wheat. They
are all sown the same day, side by side,
and MANFRED exactly alike. One sort of
wheat, called Rivitts, generally exceeds
all the others in lis produce; it is very
coarse wheat, disliked by mllers and bak-
ers, and commands very low price. This
year (lS7S) it. yielded siXty-six bushels
per acre; while the old fashioned variety,
called Red Lammas, of high quality and
well adapted to the soil and climate,
yielded forty-siX bushels, or twenty bush
els less.
1t may possibly lie supposed that, al
though Rivtts wheat produced nearly
one-third more produce than the other
wheat, it might not have removed more
manure ingredients from the soil in its
large crop than the other did in its smaller
crop. So far from this being the case
although we have not made special analy-
ses to prove the fact, it may, | think, be |
taken for granted that the coarse, inferior
wheat removed from the soil, in the same
weight of produce, much more manure
ingredients than the wheat of high quail
ty Many years ago we investigated the |
composition Of wheat grains and of their
various products, us separated in the mill
by grinding. We found that the value of
the product increased in proportion to the
absence of soil ingredients. The finest
flour contained comparatively minute
quantities of nitrogen or mineral matter,
while the bran contained the largest
amount Of these substances. The objec-
ton made against the Rivitts wheat is that
it contains so little fine flour. We may
therefore conclude that it contains too
much husk and otfal, and also much of
the food of the soil.
1t is possible that maize may, from its
vigorous habits of growth, possess a
greater capacity for taking up food from
the soil than the wheat, but maize has
other distinctive properties, which require
to be noticed. Compared with wheat, the
active life of maize extends far longer into
summer and autumn. In the south of
France maize sown in the beginning of
May is ripe ut the end of October; in the
same locality wheat is ripe in July. The
most active growth of maize takes place
after the wheat has ceased to collect its
food. During the summer and autumn
nitlic acid is largely formed in the soil
and is taken up both by wheat and maize
but the early ripening of the wheat stops
further collection by that plant, while
maize continues to collect until late in the
autumn. The formation of nitric acid goes
on in the soil after the wheat is removed,
but much Of this is washed out of the soil
by the winter rains. We see, therefore,
that maize, by its habits of growth, has
access to more nitrogen, in the form of
nitric acid, than wheat.
And we have also in this fact an expla-
nation of the action of mineral manures.
is said by you TO be bet
ter manure for maize than for wheat 1
both require phosphates and nitrogen, but |
the maize gets more nitrogen, and conse- l
luently can take up more phosphate In !;
Ill soils exhausted by corn crops, you !
may predict with certainty that ammonia
IL nitric acid applied rs manure will in
crease wheat crop. there being large
balance of mineral food which cannot be Y
AIKEN up by the wheat in the absence of +
nitrogen. @
One other point may be noticed. Maize S
contains II smaller amount of nitrogen than +
wheat; have seen analyses which only $
showed one-half as much; probably one y
ourth less would be nearer the average. f.
Taking all these matters into considera- s
ion, if wheat and maize were grown con- d
for experiment, should expect d
hat maize, if MANFRED with manure such Fl
IS wood ashes and superphosphate, would S
rive II larger produce than wheat. But to @
produce full crops both would require in a
edition large quantities of nitrogen, to be T
applied us ammonia or nitric acid. Il