Connecticut western news., 1883-03-28
POINTS IN CORN CULTURE.
The Result of Some Experiments Made by the New York State Agricul-
 tural Bureau.


 by the New York State Agricul-
 tural Bureau.
 In recent bulletin Dr. Sturtevant re- views ill brief some of the corn expert ments made at the New York Experiment Station, with remarks pertinent to the same. Some of the results substantiate opinions already held by the majority of farmers; others are surprising and will hardly be accepted as conclusive until further veri6cations take place.
 Better results were gained from shallow than from deep planting. Experiments carried on in the greenhouse proved that the corn grain has the power to germinate after being dried repeatedly and under conditions apparently far more adverse than would ever occur in the field. This fact seems to indicate that the depth of planting corn may best be described as the region of the upper soil, which. upon the average, contains moisture during the vegetating period in the spring. Even if this depth at first appears to shallow, yet the occasional drying would probably have but little injurious effect.
 It also appears that the composing of the soil about the seed is of more import ance than has been supposed. In the region of New York, Dr. Sturtevant thinks it probable that corn planted under scant inch of soil, we'll com posted by the feet or by machine, is the proper depth. Until some observations last year showed the difference in germi- native power between seeds we'll composted in the soil and those upon which the soil was cast loosely, he was unable to under stand why machine-planting in his former farming gave so much better stand of plant than when the grain was planted by hand; but now it seems evident that one value of the Western corn-planter is that the wheels passing over the grain after it is deposited, press the earth firmly in contact with the seed.
 The bulletin under consideration de- scribes the physiological processes which are concerned in the nutrition of plants. The first is assimilation, through which the plant food is taken in the pres ence of sunlight. Then, by process called metastasis, this stored material from the air is deoxidized and formed into soluble material, designed for the support of growth or storage. It there | H>11 %1ox S,> k1o n r,1o ol can only grow from the material which has hitherto been elaborated, and that when this elaborated material has been utilized there can be no more growth until, through the action of the sun, new material is supplied by assimilation The corn kernel is composed of germ or chit, surrounded by a mass of msteria placed there for the use of the germi hating plantlet. The distance to whict the plant can grow apart from the light is determined by the amount of this preserved food.
 Consequently, the large seed is en abled to force its plantlet through { greater depth of soil on its way to tn, l dinary-sized seed of flint corn can carr, it's plantlet, in some cases, through eigh inches of soil, but many plantlets vii perish in the endeavor. The seed vege tates under one-half inch of soil nor quickly than under six inches, and tn growth passes into the formation of lea and the increasing of the organs of as similation. The root of the shallow form of tap root, and longitudinally i the form of fibrous roots, giving tn plant secure hold of the soil; and tn closest observation upon plants grow 5 from seed planted at various depths from one-haf inch, one inch, two inches etc., to eight inches-showed like fir roofing and power to withstand tn , heavy winds which came in autumn. In the case of flint varieties it wa u found that the seeds from under-rip ears will germinate as readily as wi those from ears thoroughly ripened. I the flint variety the kernel hardens frol the outside inward. The dent varieties e which harden from the inside outward :, do not seem to germinate from unde f ripe seed, and in general, so far as D.
 Sturtevant's present experience goe n these varieties are less certain to gro e than are the flints.
 Observations made seem to indicat d that manuring in the hills is of lit
 benefit toward increasing the growth e the plant in its early stages. It appear
 quite probable that the same manu
 around the hill, instead of being place II in it, would have larger influence upc
 the growth. It is probable that the il
 fluence of manure has been ascribed |
 the farmer to it's location under the plan
 rather than to the fact that it Is manur
 Plants grown in clear sand and thos e grown in high, rich soil under pot GU u ture appear to do equally well, unt
 after the nutritive substance has been e. o hausted from the seed. Many observ
 tions appear to indicate that the your , plant feeds in it's first stages very slight :, :. from the soil. although this statemel
 seems so surprising that it is not give y as fact. In the potato, however, U seems far different, the young plant fee, ing in it's early stages apparently fro D the ground, ill preference to using u stored nutriment of the cut, if the SC
 be fertile.
 The roots of the corn plant exter IS widely in their ranging for food; in son n cases the seeding roots are found at lea