Daily Republican., 1882-12-22
Dam In DeIaWnre.

attendant upou the giving out OF the
college prizes to thS boys who raised
the greatest number of bushels of corn
TO the acre, according to the stipula'
Mons laid down governing the WORK.
Farmers who have been conten1to raise
fifteen and twenty bushels to the acre,
many of them mach less, should learn
a useful lesson from these boys. Inc
anil of Delaware is genial and well
adapted to the raising of corn, and the
cultivation of that cereal principally
engaged the minds and labor of farmers
before the advent of the peach, small
fruits and truck Even now the corn crop
of Delaware 10 no inConsiderable item,
1900 600 bushels having been raised IN
1878 from 1870 900 acres. In many sec
tious of Delaware yet corn is the main
crop, the soil beiug too light for wheat,
and too remote from markets to make
tie cultivation of fruit profitable.
What will these e0rn growers, who
raise from ten to twerty bushels per
acre, think when they read the news
from Delaware College? They have
been content to scratch over some eIgh
acres of sandy soil to get one hundred
and twenty bushels of corn, while Will
liam B. Walton, little boy sixteen
years of age, raised nearly one hundred
and twenty-five bushels 12l SS) from
one acre. Another boy, Charles Home
wood, raised 120.40 bushels an acre;
another, Stewart l.. Beck, 1OV64'
another, Walter S. Purvis, aged only
IA, 1O5 60 and another, Edward M. Phil
ipe, of Greenbank, 80 90.
These large yields reported and whieh
exhausted all the prizes offered by the
College, it is true are all in New Castle
County, where the son is heavy and
loamy, but the contest shows that large
crops can be raised down In Kent and
Sussex Counties as well, and We have
no doubt that little more attention
and care will show that thelrich alluvisl
soil along the bays, inletS and creeks OF
the lower counties, are as productive
as the heavier loans of New Castle.
Even in this, the first test year of grow
ing corn by these boys, who are sup
pesed to be mere amateurs in the bust
ness, Andrew NJ. Conway, Of George
town, raised At the rate of S3 "A bushels
TO the acre; JohnSM. Thompson, of Re
hOboth, SO.72 bushels; Harry Wolf, Of
Rehoboth, 1895 and Harry CahOon, of
Dover, 1928. Perhaps next year the
lower part of the State may lead, as
this has been the first year of expert
ments, and the hoys may in their anxi-
ETY. to excel have committed some very
grave errors, upon which they will i'm
prove next year. The result of the test
Mt Newark should not only stimulate
the boys to contend for the prizes offered
in gold dollars, but it should stimulate
all the farmers in Delaware, who have
raised corn and intend TO keep on rails.
ing it, to turn their minds to the cult.
vatiOn of cora after the improved meth
DDS. 1t is less labor and less expense
to raise say 120 bushels of corn from
one acre of land, than to cultivate eight
acres for the same number of Bushels.
If farmers would adopt the plan OF i'm
proving their lands, so that they will
produce 100 bushels of corn TO the acre,
they will soon usher in the times when
'little farms well titled" will be the
rule and not the exception, and it will
be q direct blow at land monopolies,
which are amongst the leading curses
of the nation. The test result shows
that with an acre..of land improved to
produce 100 bushels of corn per acre,
good sized family can live on that acre
independently, which is more than
many large families are doing on hun
dreds of acres. The test also shows the
wonderful productiveness of the soil Of
Delaware and its ability 10 support
four times the population she now has,
with less abor than her sparse popula-
tion is now supported.
The faculty of Delaware College will
fail to take advantage of the late test, if
they do not publish n. detail of the
means and material used by the boys in
raising these large crops in pamphlet
form and place pamphlet in the hands
of every farmer in the State, that they
may profit by the tests. This will rot
only help tho cause cf agriculture in
the State, but it will help Delaware Col
lege. But after all we are far behind
our neighbors in Maryland, where re-
cent test at Boonstoro in that State,
showed that 1887 bushels Of corn we're
raised to the acre. Our young friend
Walton will have considerable way
to travel yet before ne catches up with
the Maryland test We are not willing
to admit that Maryland soil is superior
to the rich rolling slopes around New
ark in our own State. But there 10 Q
gap between the two of 81 bushels tc
the acre to be closed up before Della,
ware leads the van. Our Young friend
might az we'll aim high and fix the tar
get ut 200 bushels an acre. They viii
have to do this If they expect to beat
the Boonsboro people. We hope We
shall new hear no more from farmert
of the imDossibility OF raising 100 bush
els of corn to the acre. That illusiv'
idea has been dispelled-and now IL
the light Of the recent experiments, i
lnnlra 40 In he naor putuna ~