Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-05-02

to choke the corn. The next modifea-
ton Of the eorn-planter should be
one that viii enable the machine to
open its trench not by pressing the
earth downward and sideways, but in
such a manner as will leave the earth
in a natural state. The next thing is
to drop the seed so that it will not lie
in a nest like a crate of eggs, but scat
tered in a bed at least four inches in
diameter. The seed must then be COW
cred in such a manner that while the
earth lies pressed about it, the surface
is LIGHT and mellow. Thus planted
good seed will always germinate, un-
less the earth is completely saturated
with water for a considerable length of
time. 1t may be too cold for the seed
to germinate at once, but if the land be
IN fair condition it viii lie intact until
the soil is warm enough to induce
termination. This every market gar
dener knows who plants his extra early
crop for green corn. The seed viii
often lie two weeks before germinat-
ing, and then come up evenly and
strong. Some of the corn planters do
work partially on the principle we have
stated, but there is room for improve
ment.
The first work of the farmer about
the time the corn should germinate is
to thoroughly harrow the field. If it
be not too trashy, this is considered,
and with truth, the best cultivation the
corn gets, and for the simple reason
that it loOsens the earth, squeezed tight
- - aud
haps baked hard by the sun. For this
very reason it is sought to be narrowed
across the line made by the corn plant
er Then the corn cultivator fol-
lows still further, tearing this
groove made by the corn planter, and
at last the corn begins to grow, and
makes q crop good, Indifferent or bad,
according as the season permits work
ing. 1t is fact, however, that, one
season with another, the average corn
crop is less than twenty-seven bushels
per acre, when it should be fully forty
bushels. In fact. our dry seasons are
our best average corn years, nOtwith-
standing the fact that corn requires
more moisture with heat than any
other crop raised in the West.
One of the absolute necessities for
the successful termination of corn is
that the soil shall be moist, not wet.
Another is a temperature of the soil of
about IS deg. Another is, that while
the soil shall be in direct contact with
the seed, is shall at the same time be
light and friable. One more condition
is that it be covered not more than
two inches, except, indeed, in the case
of very puffy soils, or those quickly
dried at the surface. Let any farmer
examine for himself and see how often
or how nearly the average corn-planter
gives these conditions. If not, he is
in danger of losing labor and mOneyin
his crop, and had better set about rec
tifYing his error by selecting such
machine as will most nearly do this, or
else prepare and plant his corn in the
Old-fashioned way, and, while cultivat-
ing less acres, get more corn; or, in
other words, do not buy machinery of
any kind blindly. No man is fit to use
a machine of any kind unless he first
knows how it is going to do its work.
Yet not One.half of those who operate
machines so manage the best of them
that they will do their work in the best
form. With the more faulty ones, the
work is simply execrable. Is it won
der that so much farm machinery
is left rotting in fence cornersP-
enough. it is said, in Illinois, to pay
the mortgages that are eating out the
farms. s
The best corn we ever raised was
before the advent of machinery, when
corn was planted by hand, narrowed
once before it was up, plowed once
from the corn, with a one-horse turn
ing plow, the hills cleaned with hoe,
the earth then turned back to the hill,
the after cultivation to keep a little
earth moving to the hills at each SUBJ
sequent cultivation, until the corn was
nearly in tassel. The next best since
the advent of the corn-planter and the
straddle-roW cultivator, was, after har-
rowing, to use a narrow bull-tongue,
deep next the corn, at the first culti-
Vation both ways, and at the subse-
quent cultivation reversing these mar
row bull-tongues to the outside of the
cultivators. By this means we were
able to get close to the hills while the
corn was young, and keep them free
of weeds. Our corn cultiVators, some
of them, are nearly perfect. There is
large room yet for improvement in
corn-planters. While this is being ac-
complished, the next best thing to do
is to so work those you buy as to make
them do the best they are able. Not
all farmers do this, and it will apply
fully as pertinently in the cultivation
of the crop. There is too much land
half run over in the West.-PraiTie
Fnrnner.