Hiiiiiiiifiiifiiiiiiiiiiitifiiiiii !# •^^di >\r# ^^0< r _ » fcf » -!. o. [^ '^^ IS, c> - ■< ■OS' _, » 's a ' A <) ^ c>, % \> a ^ • o V ^ " ,.^^ •0^ e^o^ 0^ \-m^ -^^0^ ^^^ # ^ , X -^ . \V ^-^^^ <. % f- * -cd- Q<^ ° H// m \\v -^ or ^ » «^^ -i -0.' HISTORY AND INCIDENTS INDIAN CORN, AND ITS CULTURE. INCLUDING STATISTICAL, ANALYTICAL AND OTHER TABLES ; ALSO, ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS. ,^ WILLIAM D. EMERSON. ■ '^ ^'ST9. .CSV CINCINNATI : Weightson & Co., Peintees and Bindees, 13 West Foueth Street. 1878. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S78, By WILLIAM D. EMERSON, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. As the Maize Crop is one of the foundations of the prosperity of our Republic, the results of its culture have an interest for every citizen. The early history of Maize growth in tlie United States, is associated with one of the greatest events of modern times. Us statistics, herein tabled, may be studied in the light of the most celebrated movements of our own, and the European Governments, for ninety years that have passed. It is shown herein that Maize growth has inti- mate relations, not only with the acts of civil government, commerce, navigation, political economy, and the industrial and esthetic arts, especially tho.se thn-t stimulate invention, and encourage experiment, but also with the sciences that have been built up through the long past, such as geography, astronomy, geome- try, natural philosophy and natural history; and also with later-born chemistry, geology, botany, entomology and meteorology. Although no amount of knowledge will supply the place of close observa- tion and just reasoning in practical matters, yet, where the true brain and the well trained muscle go together, the more we know of the methods of others the better, because in overcoming new difficulties, we may find in theexperiencts of others something that may save us from wading throiigh costly e.xperiments. Some prefer to walk in a prescribed path ; others, to strike out paths of their own ; but as in the Great Republic, corn is not gathered at the command of an Alcador, most men must be their own judges in choosing tlieir respective modes of culture. One may fail in a method very successful in the hands of a next neighbor, not because the surrounding circumstances and external advantages are different, but simply because the two men are differently constituted. Hence it would appear that precise modes are less to be insisted on, than general prin- ciples variousl}' illustrated. The man who does not pursue Maize culture merely to get his money out of it, will often find a pleasure in learning how others, under gi eat disadvantages, have strugsiled to bring the art gradually to perfection. He will hardly be cou- fce!it with knowing that the well to do prairie farmer of the West rides in a sulky that drags a heavy plow through the sod of centuries ; that he rides on a corn planter to mark out and plant his fifteen or twenty acres per day ; that he has a seat above his two-horse cultivator as it passes over the corn rows ; thai at the proper stage for cutting up, he drives through the com ro'ws his harvester that shocks as well aa severs the stalks; that the machine corn Imsker makes the husking pin or glove needless, for saving his fingers, and that his own, or the neighborhood corn-sheller turns out naked cobs at the rate of five hundred busliels per day. If the far West, with its multiplied machinery, gathers splendid harvests from the rich new breadths of the soil, lifting human toil off from its feet, the Kast, with its improved implements and fertilizers wrings out of the depths of its renewed soil, its own rich harvests, gradually making hu- man hands and feet far more efiective. As one of the objects in the preparation of this work has been to make it a book of reference for the leading facts and figures connected with Maize cul- ture, the lists of Contents and Tables, and Index, have been very carefully prepared, so that persons desiring further information on the various topics connect d with the main s-ubject may have little trouble in looking for it. The author has been mostly indebted to the Annual Reports of the Agricul- tural Division of the Patent Office, and of the more recent Agric\iltural Depart- ments of the United States, and the State Agricultural Reports of Ohio ; but he has also gathered from a great variety of other sources, including s;ome of our oldest as well as our youngest public journals, and also from statements of farmers in different sections made to him personally. Great pains have been taken to have the facts and figures accurately stated. The U. S. Agricultural Department estimates of the Maize product have been brought up in the tables to 1S75. The crop has been abundant in the two succeeding years. That of 1877 has been estimated at thirteen hundred and ten nnllions of bushels ; the number of swine for the .same year 32.262,500. Kar.' as is credited with the heaviest yield per acre, forty-three and one-half bushels. New Hampshire being second. The Special Report for June, 1878, speaks of the condition of this crop as favorable in the South, less so in the North and West ; a warm April inducing earjy planting, and consequent injury from the succeed- ing cool and wet season. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Page. Proximate Elements ». — «— 9 Organic ".- " ~ 10 liiorgauic 12 Process of Digestion..... 12 Material for tame 1* Analysis of Nonazotized Compounds - -~ 15 Analysis of Ajzotized Compounds..- — — 15 Analysis of Proteine - — - 1& CHAPTER II. Comparative Value of Maize as Food ; Results of Analysis _. 16 Analysis of Maize and Wheat 18 Analysis of Indian Corn, Wheat, Kye, Oats, Buckwheat, Peas, Rice, Cabbage, Meadow Hay, Clover, Wheat StraWj Pea Straw and Potatoes 19 Analysis of Ash of Indian Corn, Wheat, Bye and Oats „ 20 Analysis of Maize and Wheat Straws ~~ - ~ ~ 2X CHAPTER in. Early History of the Maize Plant 22 ft. I Incidents of the Discovery by Columbus and his Successors _ 23 b.] Maize as first seen by the Conquerors of Mexico and Peru 2-t C.J Maize as a Tradition among the Ancient Peruvians 2.'> d.\ Myths of the North American Indians touching same 27 e.) Maize in the Early American Colonies 2S f.\ Capt. John Smith's Account of Indian Maize Culture 29 '}.] Maize and the Pilgrim Fathers 30 /t.J Prices of Indian Corn in the Colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts. Bay 31 j.) Prices in other Colonies — 33 j.] Maize in Wm. Penu's Colony _. 33 K.J Exports and Imports of Maiise in the Colonies up to their Independence iu 1776 33 CHAPTER IV. Distribution of Maize 34 \a.] Compared with that of other Grains, especially iu the Old World. ........ 34 !b I Maize in England — 3t> c] Maize in Africa, &c — ~ 36 d.\ Maize iu the New World „ „ 37 CHAPTER V. Statistical History of Maize in the United States 3S la.] Prominent Points of Same 33 [6. 1 Acreage by Census; of Maize by Estimates of U. S. Agricultural Depart- ment 39 [c] Table of Improved Acres; Population; Maize Product; Bushels to each Acre of Improved land, and each Inhabitant, in U. S ... 39 [d.] Census Returns of Maize Product in U. S., severally for 1*10, 1850, 18C0 and 1870, with Yield per Acreforl850, &c 41 [e.] Remarks on same — - - 43 CONTENTS. 5 Page, [/.] Effect of Civil War on Maiie Product, and States highest for same 43 Ig,] Census Returns of Swine in the several U. S-, from 18*3 to 1870 and re- marks on same 44 [ft.] Estimates of Maize Product in the several U S. for years '42. '43, '44, '47 and '48, and remarks on same .". 47 Bushels of Maize Produced in Loval States, 1-8S2, '63, '64 and '65, and in Thirty-two suites for 1866.' : „ 50 Method of U. S. Agricultural Department in making estimates 51 Estimated acreage, total value, yield per acre and average price in loyal States, of Maize Crops for years 1862, '63, '64 and '65, 53 Remarks on these Crops....™.. 52, 54 to 56 Inflation of Gold Premium and Maize Prices during the Civil War 56 Estimated Maize Product of the several States, from 1867 to 1874, and of Acre- age from 1866 to 1874, and Remarks on same ..« 57 Estimate. — 219 Indian Corn Pudding „.. _ 222 n. Sugar and Svrup from Maize 226 ni. Whisky from Maize 229 IV. Starch from Maize ~ „ .- — 251 V. Oil from Maize „ „ 232 VI. Mattre-sses from Husks „ «*...™ ™ „ 232 VU. Paper from Maize Husks .,.« ~~. 233 CHAPTER Vm. Climate suited to Maize Culture ......>,........... 234 CHAPTER IX. Soils proper to Maize Culture „.. 243 \'A 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. Page. Improvement of Land for Mai^e Culture 2(53 'ij The Soil must furnish certain Elements 263 ).J Must be fitted to impart these to the Plant 263 ■.1 I/rainage, Ditches and Drain Tiles 265 i.) Irrigation 268 '.] (.Ueariug and Fencing New Land 270 /.J Rotation of Crops 272 CHAPTER XI. Enemies to Maize Culture -.. 279 CHAPTER XH. Large Crops of Maize 205 'a.l In Jessamine Co., Ky 2U) V).t Brief Enumeration of Ohio Prize Crops 25*7 c.l Fairfield Co., Ohio; Prizes and Mode of Culture 297 d.] Champaign and Union Co.'*., Ohio, and Prizes and Mode of Culture... 2^7 '•.] Carroll Co.. Ohio, Prize Crops ; 298 /.J Hamilton Co., Ohio, Large Crop 298 f/.| Harrison and Lorain Cos., Ohio, Large Crops and Methods 299 h..\ Lawrence ■<;< I.. Ohio, Large River Crop ^99 Premium Crops in N. W Ohio 300 i.] Large Crops, Ears and Stalks 300 j.l How One Hundred Bushels to Acre, or more, were raised in Penn'a... 300 k.] Premium Crop.s in New York 302 L] Large Crops in Connecticut 3U3 m.] Mas.sachusetts and Vermont Prize Crops 304 What Might be Grown on One Acre 304 n.] Prize Acre on Georgia Swamp Land 305 o.] Prairie Prize Crops and Methods 306 p.] Prize Crops in Washington and Trumbull Counties, Ohio 306 q.l E.xperiment, deep, against shallow Plowing, near Columbus, Ohio 307 r.J Great Yield on OneAcre, Reported from South Carolina ;;07 .".I Requisites for Large Yields per Acre 308 t.] Proper Depth for Planting Maize 310 CHAPTER XIII. Fertilizers- 310 Section i. Light and Heat, and Air 310 'a.^ Atmosphere, Electricity and Water 311 b.] Derivation and Definition of the term Manures. Steeps for Seeds 312 c.j Uses of Manures 313 (i.J Manures; Organic or Inorganic; Conditions Required of all Manures... 313 e.] Inorganic Manures Defined, &c - 313 '/.] Lime; Hydrate and Carbonate 314 (7.1 Bi-carbonate of Lime, &c 356 ft.1 Chloride of Calcium 318 i.[ Chloride, or Oxy-muriate of Lime 319 jJ Gas Lime « 319 1-.| Nitrate of Lime - 320 I.] Oxalate of Lime 320 [to] Phosphate of Lime, Bone, Earth and Apatite 320 n.] Silicates of Lime, 322 o.] Gvpsum 322 p.] Marl: Clav, Stony and Shell 326 <7.| Corals and Coral Sand 327 r.l Coprolites 327 s.] Magnesia aud Compounds - 328 CONTENTS. 7 Page. t] Hydrate of Oxide of Potassium, Potash and Compounds 331 u.] Sodium and Compounds 333 v.] Silicium and Compounds 334 !('. ] Aluminum and Compounds 335 x] Oxides of Iron and Manganese 337 y.] Ash of Plants 337 z.] Sulphur and Compounds 340 ,&.] Phosphorus and Compounds 340 Section ii.— Organic Manures. Sub-section 1st. Manures of Vegetable Origin 347 'a.l Green Crops Plowed in 347 &.T Stubble and Weeds Plowed in 350 c.\ Waste Straw and Stalks, and Other Vegetable Refuse 351 d.J Muck or Peat 3.31 €.] Charcoal 352 /.] Soot 353 g.' Seaweed 353 h.] Cotton Seed 353 i.) Spent Tanbark 353 J.] Tobacco Dust 353 Subsection 2d.— Manures of Animal Origin 353 'a 1 Dead Animals „ 353 6.1 Fish not valuable as Food, and Fish guano or poudrette 354 c] Blood, &c., dried (poudrette) 355 d.) Bones ground, &c 356 [e.l Waste Feathers, hair, &c 356 [/■.] Excrements of Dojnestic Animals, Deer, Rabbits, &c 357 ((7.) Pigeon Manure 361 r/i.i Night Soil _ ~ 302 [i. J Licjuid Manures » 363 Urine and Sewage of cities 364 Guano 365 Bat Manure 369 Analyses of Guanos, Bone Dust, &c 370 CHAPTER XIV. The Plow 371 As to the Pick being the first formed 371 Hesiods Plow .371 Roman Plows ™ 372 c.] Supposed First Plow 372 d.] Early Welsh and Norman Plows 373 e.f Oriental Plows, those of the Morea, Poland and Castile 373 '/.] Dutch, Flemish and English Plows ., 374 g.' Scotch Plow— Principles of English Plow 374 7(.J Early American Plow 375 j.J Side Hill Plow.— Mr. Bateham's Description of it, &c 377 Centre Draft and other plows 378 Gang, Steel and Prairie Plows 379 k.^ Plows for stubble and turning under Green Crops; cast Cast-Steel, &c., 379 I.] Sub-Soil Plows 380 TO.] Recent Plow Patents ,381 n.] Recent Side Hill Patents 381 Premiums for Plows at Ohio Fairs 382 [o.l Plows at the Centennial in 1876 383 [p.] Steam Plows; Stationary and Traction Engines for 384 Steam Plows at Chicago Exhibition, &c 385 CHAPTER XV. Plowing for Maize Crops 386 [a.] Fall Plowing 386 [6.1 Plowing Soils wet 387 [c] Importance of Deep Plowing 387 [2;j O CONTENTS. Page. d.] Sub-Soil Plowincf 3;i9 e. I Width iuicl Depili of Furrows ^. 3'.I0 /.J Fiat or Kidge Plowing 891 How Ridge.s laid out ^ 392 g.] Do up .-teep Slopes 391 h.\ Plow Team —How managed 3y'> i. I Pitch of Plow. — How regulated 393 j J Line and Power of Draft 397 CHAPTER XVL. Harrowing, Rolling and Planting 393 [a 1 Ancient and Modern Harrow 39S [b.] Rollers, Wooden and Iron 400 [C.J Furrowing out for Planting 401 [d.] Solving .Seed Corn ., 402 [e.\ Soaking Seed 402 I/.] Time of Planting 403 [a.] Hand and Machine Planting 403 [h.] Number of Kernels Dropped and left in Hill; How far Apart 405 Same in Drills _ 406 [i.J Depth of Planting or Covering 405 CHAPTER XVII. After Culture of Maize .^ 407 [a.] Maize in Gardens and Small Fields 407 General Maize Culture 408 Successive Cultivations; Implements 409 Commencing with Bull-Tongue Plow 409 Improved Cultivators 410 e.J Number of Cultivations Required 411 Note on Cultivators and Corn Planters 410, 411 Note on Corn Huskers, Shelters and Bins 412 Different Methods in Cultivating 413 As to Deep Plowing in Dry Weather 414 ■/.J When Culture to Cease .» 415 j7.1 Planting Corn with Tomatoes 415 h.] Corn and Potatoes Growing Together 415 i.] Beans and Pumpkins with Cora 416 ./.] Listing „ „ 416 [Ic.] Irrigation in New Mexico 416 Irrigation in Colorado 417 Irrigation in Texas— Best Time 418 [{.] Navajoe Maize Culture 419 CHAPTER XVIII. Cutting Up, Harvesting. &c 419 'a.] Topping Corn 419 6.J Cutting Up by the Roots 420 e.1 Implements for Same 420 d.] Best Methods of Shocking Corn 421 e.T How Long Left in Shocks for Curing ~ 422 /.] Husking, Huskers and Husking Gloves... 422 //.] Corn Cribs 423 h..\ Advantages of Corn in the Ear 424 Standard Weights of Shelled Corn ~ 424 Shelling Corn by Hand 424 Corn Shelling Machines 425 [i.] Corn Mills; Ancient Mills 425 Buhr stone and Iron Corn Mills 426 Ij.] Cost of Cultivating Corn 42ii [A-.l Shrinkage of Corn 428 [L] Corn Sowed for Soiling and Fodder 428 liroom Corn Culture: Statements as to 433 Late Statistics of Maize and Swine, up to 1875 and 1876 435 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. CHAPTER I. PROXIMATE ELEMENTS. The first great fact of the human system is the fire that keeps up its action. The atmosphere supports this, as well as all other fires, by supplying oxygen, one of its two chief constituents, nitrogen being the other, and the normal proportions of these being one of the former to four of the latter in volume. They are not, however, chemically com- bined, but only mechanically mixed. Nitrogen, a great conservative force in nature, fond of keeping itself distinct, acts as an effectual diluent of oxygen, so prone to combina- tion, and so intensely energetic. As we inhale a volume of air, a quantity of venous blood in the lungs, rich in carbon, combines with part of the oxygen of this volume, and forms carbonic acid ; while another part is taken up by the glob- ules of the blood, now made a fit nutriment for the growing or wasted organs, and is driven through the arteries to every part of the system. The oxidation of the blood evolves heat, which is doubtless also produced by other processes within the system. The special heat-producing materials are furnished toother than carnivorous animals, in the starch, sugar, gum, oil, and dextrine ready formed in the grains, grasses, and other vegetable substances on which they feed. The second great fact of the system is that repairs are constantly made necessary by the waste of the organs. The 9 10 INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. more violent the action of these organs, the greater the waste. To keep them in condition requires nitrogen, com- bined with carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and also various mineral substances in small proportions. This nitrogen does not appear to be derived from the atmosphere in its simple form, but only when combined ; and it is said to be ready for combination only when in presence of decomposing matter, animal or vegetable; one of its most important com- pounds being ammonia, the result of its union with hydrogen. It seems a most wonderful provision of nature, that this essential element, which is all around us, and enters our bodies at every breath, to keep us from living too fast, should be only willing to give up its independence, and sup- ply matter for making new, or restoring wasted forms, when some organized substance contiguous is going to ruin. But, ordinarily, the animal system has not power to convert oxy- gen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen into those proximate elements which are necessary to the repair of the wasted or- gans. The simple elements must first be resolved, through the agency of the vegetable world, into the proximates. Of these, albumen, the principle of the white of an egg, seems the most important, being largely found in the brain and other parts of the body. Fibrine is the chief material of the muscles. Caseine is that element of milk from which the young animal receives the constituents of its blood. Albu- men, fibrine, and caseine are called compounds oi proteine — the "starting point" of all the animal tissues — a compound of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, in which the rela- tive proportions of these constituents are invariable. These compounds of proteine, which contain a small proportion of sulphur or phosphorus, or both, are produced in the vege- table organism, and "out of them the various tissues and parts of the body are developed by the vital force, with the aid of the oxygen of the atmosphere and the elements of 1X1)1AN CORX AND ITS CULTURE. 11 water." Water is composed of one part by volume and eight parts by weight of oxygen, and two parts by volume and one by weight of hydrogen. Some mineral matters are utilized in forming the tissues. Albumen, fibrine, and ca- seine are so largely found in the blood as to be considered its proper, constituents. They are required to be ready formed in the food, whether vegetable or animal. There is another nitrogenized compound, produced especially in the grains, called gluten, which is of great use in the animal , economy. It gives the dough of wheat flour that adhesive- ness which makes it rise so well for bread. When gluten is dissolved in alcohol, and water is added, there falls to the bottom of the vessel a white substance resembling albumen, caWed glu/ifie, or vegetable gelatine. Vegetable fibrine and vegetable caseine are also components of gluten, which sometimes contains also a fatty substance. We have now mentioned four nitrogenized or flesh form- ing proximates — three simple and one compound — and five other organic substances, ready formed in vegetables, and not containing nitrogen — starch, sugar, gum, dextrine, and oil, which are called heat or fat producing compounds. Oil is especially fitted for the production of animal fat, which, as a rule,* contains no nitrogen. Starch is a well known sub- stance, insoluble in cold water, which seems also, accord- ing to a distinguished physiologist, after undergoing some changes, to assist in forming the bile, one of the most im- portant of the animal fluids. He asserts that brain and nervous matter are " formed in a manner similar to that in which bile is produced, either by the separation of a highly nitrogenized compound from the elements of blood, or by the combination of a highly nitrogenized product of the vital * One of the exceptions is the fat of the brain, mainly a compound of soda with cerebric acid, which contains 2^^ per cent, of nitrogen. — IJebi^''s Animal Chemistry. 12 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. process with a non-azotized compound (probably a fatty body)." Dextrine, into which starch is converted by "diastase and acids," has a gummy appearance; has the same compo- nents as starch, and easily changes into sugar. INORGANIC MATERIALS. Phosphorus is found in the bones and elsewhere, combined with oxygen, z.^ phosphoric acid ^ and this usually with lime or magnesia as a.phosphate. Sulphur is utilized in the muscles, hair, etc.; chlorine in the gastric Juice, milk, etc. (it being one of the constituents of chloride of sodium, or common salt). Other inorganic materials are compounds of oxygen with metals; as potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, and silica, being ox- ides respectively of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, andsilicium, Potassa (potash), and soda are found in the bile and other fluids; lime, in the bones, combined with car- bonic and phosphoric acids, (carbonates and phosphates). Silica or silex is one of the components of hair.'^ The red globules of the blood owe their coloring matter to iron. Some other inorganic elements, 2i^ fluorine, are found in min- ute quantities in the system. All these substances are fur- nished by the grains and other vegetable substances; but common salt seems necessary to keep the living frame in the best condition, and is very much prized by man and his do- mestic animals. The process of digestion in the human system may be briefly described as follows : The food, mixed with saliva from the salivary glands, after being well masticated and swallowed, is shaken up in the stomach by the contraction of its muscular fibres, and, being dissolved by the gastric juice from the lining membrane, is reduced to the state of * Cutter's Anatomy. INDIAN CORX AND IT9 CULTURE. 13 chyme. This, in successive portions, is transmitted into the duodenum (the highest part of the intestinal tube), which suppHes the chyme with mucus, while it receives bile from the //zYr and pancreatic juice from the siveet bread, and be- comes diyle, (except what passes as residuum into the large intestines to be excreted). The lacteal vessels, (their ex- tremities abutting on the upper part of the small intestine), absorb the chyle, and transmit it through the mesenteric glands into the thoracic duct, which conveys it to a large vein on the left side of the neck, where the internal jugular vein joins the subclavian.* There the chyle is mixed with venous blood, and then carried to the right auricle of the heart, the motion of which drives it into its right ventricle. From the right ventricle it is forced into the pulmonary artery, which conveys it to the lungs, where it meets the inhaled air, and is changed from venous into arterial blood of a bright red color. The pulmonary veins then carry it to the left auricle of the heart, from which it is forced into the left ventricle, and then into the aorta, or great arterial trunk, and through its branches permeating the whole system, into the capillary blood vessels, from which the different tissues of the living frame take up the needful new matter. The old Avaste matter of the tissues is removed by the lymphatic ves' sels, which carry it, or a portion of it, into the thoracic duct, to be mixed with the venous blood in its return to the heart. The lungs and kidneys aid each other in purifying the blood ; the former by removing an excess of carbon, the latter by draining it of chemical compounds produced as the change of matter goes on. As to the processes of digestion in domestic animals, the discussion will be more proper in treating of cattle and other feeding. It may be said here, that however little \S\q. porcine '^' See Bushnan's Physiology. 14 ISDIAN CORN AXD IT3 CULTUEE. system has in common with the human physical system, the digfestive apparatus has a similar simplicity in each ; that the horse has a comparatively small stomach, calculated for rapid digesjtion of more concentrated food taken in more frequently, and developing more heat and activity ; the aids to his stomach being of large size and great power ; that the ox, cow, and sheep have each four stomachs, fitted for receiving large quantities at once ; the food suited to them being coarser and more bulky, and the power of rumi- nation to reduce it being a special gift. The crop and giz- zard of the fowl are too well known to need mention. As material for the digestive process, a due proportion of animal and vegetable products is probably best. Leaving out of view Nature's milk for her newly born, an exclusive diet of animal food is not favorable, except for the carnivora. Grain, that furnishes bread as well as forage, is the great resource of nations that improve most rapidly in all that en- nobles humanity. The hunter lives from hand to mouth, and slaughters immercifuUy and often wastefully, and dies out before the march of the planter. The great advantage of animal food is that it requires less preparation, when freshly killed, to prepare it for the stomach. Some kinds are more stimulating ; others may be better fitted for weak digestive organs than most vegetable food; but there is an excessive use of animal food which is unfavorable to health and good morals. What are technically called vegetables stand not far off from grain in the service they render to man and his subordinates. Grain has the advantage of being both seed and food in a highly concentrated form. Wheat has the broadest reputation in this respect; yet, though it has attained a much wider usefulness as a bread crop, it can not compare with Indian corn in the extent and variety of its uses as food for man and his domestic animals. This will more fully appear when we have considered the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 15 history and varieties of wa/s^ — a name for the latter grain more accordant with its origin. Although no chemical an- alysis can reveal its desirable qualities with such truthfulness as the past and present of Indian corn, it may be more in keeping with the foregoing to give here certain results of ul- timate analysis, as follows, (being condensed from tables ap- pended to Liebig''s Animal Chemistry, published in this coun- try more tlian thirty years ago) : HEAT PRODUCING OR NON-AZOTIZED COMPOUNDS. Ill loo parts, by weight of Starch from Waize. Grape SUjjar. Cane Sugar. Hogs' Lard. Gum. Carbon, . Hydrogen, , Oxygen, . . . 44.27 6.67 49.06 36.80 7.01 56.19 42.39 6.53 51.07 79.098 I 1. 146 9.756 42-37 6.63 50.92 The proportions of cane sugar, hogs' lard, and gum, aver- aged from several authorities quoted by Liebig. Azotized (from azotes describes those compounds containing nitrogen. II. FLESH FORMING OR AZOTIZED PROXIMATES. When it is considered that the analyses can only be approximately correct^ the slight difference in the figures for these substances, said to be identi- cal in composition^ will be accounted for. In 100 parts of Carbon, Hydrogen, Mitrogen, Oxygen, Sulpliur & Phosphorus FiBRINE, Animal. Scheter. 54-45 7.069 15.762 -715 Vegetable. Scherer. 54.60 7.302 15.809 22.08' Albumen. Animal. Scherer. 55-46 7.201 15-673 21-655 Vegetable from Wheat Jones. 55.00 7-23 15.092 21.84 Caseine. Animal from Fresh Milk. 54-823 7-153 15.628 Vegetable. Scherer. 54-138 7.156 15.672 Oxygen & Sulphur. 22.394 j 23.034 16 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, It will be seen that fibrine and albumen are credited with both sulphur and phosphorus ; caseine, with sulphur only. Composition of proteine averaged from seven analyses by Scherer: III. In loo Parts— BY Weight. The Proteine Samples Taken, Carbon, . . . 54.983 Hydrogen, . . . 7.085 Nitrogen, . . . 15.809 Oxygen, . . . .22.118 1st, from the crystalline lens. 2d, from albumen. 3d, from fibrine. 4th and 5th, from hair, 6th and 7th, from horn. 99-995 CHAPTER II, COMPARATIVE VALUE OF MAJZE AS FOOD. ALYSIS. RESULTS OF AN- These will depend very much on the variety analyzed, its ripeness, or degree of dryness, and other circumstances, as well as the skill of the operator. Sir Humphrey Davy, one of the earliest analysts (U, S. P. O., 1855), credits maize with about 77 per cent, of nutritive matter, as compared with the 95 per cent, of wheat. As the term "nutritive matter," however, with late writers, has generally a tech- nical meaning, confining it to the flesh forming elements of food, his statement can not easily be placed by the side of later analyses. Two of M. Payen's are referred to in the Ag'l Reports; the first rating the quantity of oil in maize very high, and its nitrogenized elements very low. A critic mentions this as an error resulting from a misapprehension of the effect of ether employed to dissolve the oil. Another INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 17 of his is quoted in the Report for 1865, which gives maize about 71^ parts in the 100 of starch, dextrine, and glucose ; I2i^ of gluten and other nitrogenous matters; 8| of fatty matter; 5,-^^^ of cellulose; and i)^ of silica, phosphates of lime and magnesia, and soluble salts of potash and soda. Water, an item in most analyses, is not included. Professor Johnston, a British lecturer on Agricultural Science, credits maize with starch, gum, and sugar, 70 parts in 100; gluten, albumen, etc., 12 ; fatty matter, 5 to 9 ; husk or woody fibre, 6; other matters, i}4', water, 14. This is more favorable than M. Payen's statement; for, if a similar quantity of water had been included in the latter' s analysis, it would have reduced his other items considerably. As early as 1847, Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, was noticed as having found more starch, flour, and albuminous matters in Southern white maize, and more oil and gluten in the yellow, hard maize of the North. Some of his analyses Will be found in United States Agricultural Report, 1857. Dr. Salisbury, of Albany, N. Y., is a distinguished analyst of this and other products. His analyses of five varieties of Indian corn appear in Agricultural Report, 1849-50, and will be quoted herein under the head of varieties. Various other analyses of the maize plant, in its different stages, and of its different parts, are scattered through the Reports, some of which we shall use in what are deemed appropriate places. The greater part of them, however, are designed to represent the fattening properties of this plant, or rather its fitness as food for domestic animals. Those varieties most used as human food seem generally to be left in the back- ground. Aside from corn meal, for a long time so large an item of consumption in the South and other parts of the Union, the use of this grain as hominy, and green corn boiled or roasted, has been very considerable, even in the cities, where wheat flour, in the shape of bakers' bread 18 INDIAN CORN AND 1T8 CULTURE. and pastry, has such predominance. Some analyses of S7veet corn have shown a very large proportion of nitrogenous matters, as well as sugar, though very little starch, as com- pared with other varieties. =i^ It is asserted that a sample of Golden Sioux contained 1 6^ percent, of albumen, caseine, and gluten; and a small white Flint, 76^ per cent, of the fat producers — sugar, starch, oil, and gum ; and that differ- ent analyses of maize show a difference of 6 to 8 per cent, in the albuminous and flesh forming substances, and of 15 to 16 per cent, in the fat and heat producing elements. — U, S. Agricultural Report, 1864. The following shows the range of different classes of items, in analyses, from U. S. Agricultural Reports for 1843 and 1844, and 1847 to 1871 inclusive: IV. Ik 100 Parts. Nitrogenous or flesh forming substances, Non-nitrogenous or fat " •' Salts or mineral matters, Fibre, etc., ...... Water, Maize. 7 to i6j^ 60 1 < to So 1.31 to 2 5 9 to 15 Wheat. 112^^ to 20 50 to 68^.4; 1.2 to 3.02 2.61 to 15 14.3 to 15.26 *See Prof. Norton on Agriculture. IXDIAN CORN AXD ]T3 CULTUKE. 19 S pa V) w :ix * « « « « u. M t, « « « o if^ >^ v» a i; o •♦ ■<■ iR ^ .J.J= u ^ o hc «J c c C U-- ^ < 20 INDIAN CORN A.VD ITS CULTURE. Some writers designate the nitrogenous principle of maize as zein. As to the inorganic elements of maize and maize stalks, the result of several analyses is that the grain has lyi to 2 per cent, of ash (after burning), and the stalks nearly 5 per cent. The quantity of ash varies with the place of cultiva- tion ; varies also in different plants, and different parts of the same plant ; that of the grain being largely phosphates, lime, magnesia, and potash ; that of the stalks largely silica. 6000 grains of corn yield 100 of ashes. The following table, with the columns headed as follows : VI. Indian Corn. Whc-it. Rye. Oats. a 6 c d e f S Potash and Soda, - 30.S 32.48 P23.92 S22.5Q 27-93 1.8^ 33-87 33-91 19.25 Phosphoric Acid, 501 44-87;*35-5 45.6 46 46-34 18.19 Lime, 1-3 1.44 0.16 2.28 3-4 4.19 3-92 Magnesia, 17 16.22 2.41 14.98 12-3 II. 17 7.70 Silica, . 0.80 1.44 9.50 1.88 3 35 3.36 47.08 Sulphuric Acid, 2.77 4 3« 1.30 0.33 0.71 1^9 Oxide of Iron, . 0.30 1.26 0.79 1-25 64 Chlorine, 0.40 1.42 0.09 to. 34 Organic matter, . 36 Totals, . 100 100.12 99-23 98.48 100.13 100.93 98.41 Ashes, Wheat 1.67 to 1.93, Rye 1.36 to 1.60, Oats 2.9 to 3.02. •Phosphate. tChloride of Sodium and Potassium. a — Analysis of maize ash, from Letellier in U. S. P. U. Report, i860, the plant analyzed cultivated at Bechelbronu b — Average of two analyses of same, from U. S. P. O., i860. c — Dr. Salisbury's analysis of ash of flint corn. d — Average of nine analyses, ash of maize, from E. Wolff. e — Average of thirty two analyses of ash of wheat. f — Average of three analyses of ash of rye. g — Average of seven analyses ash of oats grain. All mentioned in the U. S. Agricultural Reports. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 21 The analysis of maize straw in the following table is from U. S. Agricultural Report, i860, and credited as a mean of two analyses by Hruschauer, as of Styria, Other analyses, by American authorities, of maize stalks, leaves, cobs, etc , from the U. S. Agricultural Reports, may be quoted herein- after. VII. Analysis of Maize Strata, compared with Wheat Straw, averaged frotn European and American authorities. In 100 Parts. Maize Straw. Wheat Stra%v. Totash, . 9.62 13-07 Soda, . . 26.30 0.71 Magnesia, . 6.64 3.01 Lime, . 7-97 6.23 Phosphoric Acid, . . 17.08 4.44 Sulphuric Acid, • Il9 4.05 Silica, . . 26.97 66.92 Peroxide of Iron, • . . . 0.81 0.74 Chloride of Sodium and Chlorine, 3-42 1.00 100.00 4.40 100.17 Ashes, . 4.S5 The above table shows the superior virtues of Indian corn fodder for feeding domestic animals. The amount of phos- phoric acid is nearly four times that of wheat straw, and of soda more than twenty times. It is the right material for the heavy bones of the ox, and for making good his enor. mous consumption of bile. The large proportion of silica in wheat straw is doubtless necessary to insure a firm stand- ing during growth. 22 JMDIAN COR.V AND ITS CULTPBE, CHAPTER III. EARLY HISTORY OF THE MAIZE PLANT. The origin of Indian corn, as well as that of wheat and other grains, is hid in the mist of long gone ages. Was it indigenous to the Old or New World? Some have claimed it for the former, supposing it to be the Roman _/ar,* one of the three chief grains credited to ancient Roman agriculture, or the bread corn mentioned in Isaiah xxviii. Others have conjectured that the Mohammedans brought it into Asia Minor after the taking of Constantinople. The only ground for this last supposition is the name it commonly bore through- out the continent, of He de Turquoise. The best authorities, however, agree that it was first known to the Old World after the discovery of America. One or two statements have been made to the contrary, but in 1853, it was denied that it was mentioned by any ancient author, or found in any ancient monument, or represented in any ancient work of art, of the Old World. The reverse of all this is true in re- gard to its connection Avith the New World, The New World records and monuments, and paintings and sculptures testify to its existence within its limits from time immemorial. But this grain that was not mentioned in the Orius Sanitatis, of Joan di Cuba, a singular work on plants, trees, etc., issued in 147 i,t was so much of a novelty, a few years later, when imported by Columbus and his successors, that it spread very rapidly throughout Europe and Asia. * See Loudon's Encychpedia of Agriculture. t See Wilson's Rural Cyclopedia ; Prescott*s, Fertt ,- U. S. P. O., 1 853, Indian Corn ; ditto, 1859 / Dr. Unger's Plants for Food of Man, etc\ Lindley's Botany ; D. J. lirowne's >^/<7«('rr. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 23 Had it been a native of either of these continents, its culture would have been by this time much more fully wrought into the habits of their peoples, and its uses and advantages bet- ter understood and appreciated. But, the better European authors now admit that it is a gift of the New World to the Old; and Loudon, the Encyclopedist, describes it as the New World's best gift, giving food to a greater number of the human race than any other of the cerealia, except rice. {a) Incidents of its Discovery by Columbus and his Succes- sors. — Cat Island, of the Bahamas, furnished the first landing place for the discoverer of America. It was then the Gua- nahani of the natives. In answer to his inquiries for gold, they pointed to the south. Several of them accompanied him in his voyage thither. Touchmg at a point on the coast of Cuba, he sent an embassy to the king, in the interior, which returned with the report of fields cultivated with sweet pepper, and this strange grain, which in Hayti, the island next visited, was called mais or mahiz. When, in 1494, the natives of Hayti were brouglit under the yoke of the Span- iards, the former combined to* starve out the intruders by neglecting the culture of this and their other usual food plants, and came near starving themselves. In his third voyage (1498), Columbus sailed inside of Trinidad, and re- ceived from the natives presents of maize, bread, and other eatables. In his fourth voyage (1502), in August, he was doubtless similarly entertained ; for he found, as he sailed along the coast of Honduras, near the cape of that name, one hundred Indians, laden with the same comforts, wiih the addition of fish and fowl. In October of the same year, on the coast of Puerto Bello, three small islands and the main land opposite were seen cultivated with Indian corn and fruits. Passing Veragua, in 1503, he formed a settle- ment near the river Belen, where the plantain and pine apple and maize were abundant. The Cacique of Comagra, 24 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. near Darien, whose dwelling was 150 paces long and 80 paces wide, with storerooms, in one of which were beverages made of Indian corn, found a visitor in Vasco Nunez, who after- ward (15 13) discovered the Pacific Ocean. It was Pedro Martyr, a cotemporary of Columbus, who published an ac- count of his first voyage, and stated that mais was the name given by the natives to the Indian corn found cultivated among them. {b) Maize as first seen by the Conquerors of Mexico and Peru. — In his first adventure (15 18), when Cortes reached the heights that revealed, in the distance, the capital, Tenoch- titlan, he witnessed, beyond the vast intervening forests, the fields of this noblest of cereals in its most glowing colors. When he partook of the hospitality of Montezuma, he had a view of its products in the course of solid dishes, followed by one of sweetmeats and pastry. Out of maize flour, eggs, and sugar from the aloe, the Aztec cooks made famous dishes* Cortes found ready dressed in the markets of Mexico, "pastry, bread of Indian corn, cakes, and confec- tionery." Pizarro, who landed at Panama, in 1526, and conquered a march through Peru, in 1533, was fre- quently charmed with the beauty of the hillsides, clothed with this grain in all its stages, from the green and tender ear to the yellow ripeness of harvest. The Peruvians, it was stated, although acquainted with the various methods of preparing maize, did not use it for bread except at festi- vals, but made a sort of honey from the stalk, and strong drink from the grain. Four leagues from Cuzco, the capital of Peru, was Yucay, the favorite residence of the Incas. Here, at a great elevation above the sea, was a natural gar- den full of the richest plants and flowers of the temperate overhanging the torrid zone. In the midst of it was the *See Prescott. IJIDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 25 artificial *' garden of gold and silver," with an artificial field of Indian corn, in all its beauty of outline, faithfully sculp- tured in these precious metals. The Inca was captured; and, to meet the blood-thirsty adventurer's demand for a ransom, this wonderful work of art was broken up and melted down.* (c) Maize as a Tradition Among the Ancient Peruvians. — The cultivation of maize in Peru extends back of all rec- ords. The Peruvians were an agricultural people. At one of their great annual festivals, the Inca proceeded to the environs of Cuzco, and, in presence of all the people, turned up the earth with a golden implement that answered for a plow. As the ancients of the East had traditions of the gift to mankind of their several bread plants, with the right methods of culture, by their gods \ East India of the gift by Bjrahma ; Egypt, by Isis ; Greece, by Demeter ; and Italy, by Ceres — so had the Peruvians of the gift of maize by Manco Capac. This first of the Incas taught some of his subjects the arts of house building and tillage. Their country was part of those vast elevations not far from Lake Titicaca, which is overlooked by one of the highest mountains in the world, and though in the Torrid Zone, was surrounded by tracts too cold for maize production. But they leveled the land and cleared it of rocks and stones ; brought manure from afar and applied it to their gardens, which were artificially cov- ered with good earth, and maize culture became a success. Of its products they sent presents to the Temple of the Sun, at Cuzco, and to the Select Virgins, chosen for their royal lineage and beauty — a sacred order, completely shut out from the world at their home in that city, and visited only by the Queen and her daughters. These oiferings the Vir- * U. S. P O. Report, 1853. 3 26 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. gins had orders to distribute in all other sacred places through the realm, some being planted in gardens belonging to the Temple and other public edifices, and some divided among the people. A portion stored in the royal and public granaries was believed to possess a divine virtue, giving increase to the corn with which it was mixed, preserving it, and making it more wholesome for human food.* During the month corresponding to our July the subjects of the Inca made ready the ground for planting, and emptied their chica (a drink brewed from maize) into the aqueducts and rivers, as a sacrifice to obtain sufficient water for their fields. fDuring the next month {Capac Asi'iua), our August, they began planting corn, &c., which they finished in their last month {Capac Raymi) November. At the feast, Cusquic Raymi (Winter Solstice), they prayed the Sun to shield the planted corn from excessive heat. In Agrihuay (April), which signifies an ear of corn with divers colors, the harvest came in, with dancing, music and out-pourings of chica, and the distribution of premiums for the finding of certain colors in grains of full ears, the lucky ones receiving a national ovation. In Aymuray (May), the corn was taken to the pub- lic depositories amid festive games, and the cultivators began pulling up the stubble. But their greatest feast was Jntep Raymi, at the Summer Solstice , which was preceded by a three days' fast on a little white corn and a certain herb. Bands of women were detailed from the provinces to cook , for the great throngs at the capital, and especially to knead the Zancu, a cake of boiled maize, eaten only at the solemn feasts. The same food, with other dishes, was prepared for the Court of the Incas by the Virgins of the Sun. The In- dians of Peru were not mere Sun worshippers. In harvest "•■ Garcilasso de Vega, a descendant of the Incas, and early Peruvian historian ; quoted in Allen's American Farm Book. tPeruvian Antiquities. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 27 time they offered to the Earth corn and chica, and prayed for a good harvest. They threw corn into the river they were about to cross, or fish in, to propitiate its god. Among the idols of these Indians were the Canopas, to some of which Zara (maize) gave figure — such as stones cut in the shape of ears of corn. Idols made of cornstalks and clothed with an Indian mantle, were called Zaramana. Cornstalks with many or double ears, and ears with grains of many colors, or so ranged in rows as to form a cone, were held sacred, but not as deities. The ancient Peruvians buried with their dead, in round earthen pots, chica and corn as food. {d^ Myihs of the North American Indians touching the same corn. — The tradition of the Ojibwas, as given by School- traft, is a fair illustration.* "A young man went out into the woods to fast, at that period of life when youth is exchanged for manhood. He built a lodge of boughs, in a secluded place, and painted his face of a sombre hue. By day, he amused himself walk- ing about, looking at the various shrubs and plants; and at night, he lay down in his bower, which being open, he could look up into the sky. He sought a gift from the Master of Life, and he hoped it would be something to benefit his race. On the third day he became too weak to leave the lodge, and as he lay gazing upwards, he saw a spirit come down in the shape of a beautiful young man, dressed in green and having green plumes on his head, who told him to ari'se and wrestle with him, as this was the only way in which he could obtain his wishes. He did so, and found his strength renewed by the effort. This visit and the trial of wrestling were repeated for four days, the youth feeling, at each trial, that, although his bodily strength declined, a moral and supernatural energy was imparted, which promised him the final victory. On the third day his Celestial visitor 28 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. spoke to him. " To-morrow," said he, " will be the seventh day of your fast, and the last time I shall wrestle with you ; you will triumph over me and gain your wishes. As soon as you have thrown me down, strip off my clothes and bury me on the spot, in soft and fresh earth. When you have done this, leave me, but come occasionally to visit the place to keep the weeds from growing. Once or twice cover me with fresh earth." He then departed, but returned the next day, and, as he had predicted, was thrown down. The young man punctually obeyed his instructions in every par- ticular, and soon had the pleasure of seeing the green plumes of his sky visitor shooting up through the ground. He carefully weeded the earth and kept it fresh and soft, and, in due time, was rewarded by beholding the matured plant, bending with its golden fruit, and gracefully waving its green leaves and yellow tassels in the wind. He then invited the parents to the spot to behold the new plant. " It is Monda- min," replied his father; "it is the spirit's grain." They immediately prepared a feast and invited their friends to partake of it, and this is the origin of Indian corn." {e) Maize in the Early American Colonies. — The first European settlement made in the territory of Pennsylvania, was in 1584, and rich fields of maize were even then found cultivated by the natives. The aborigines taught, (U. S. Agricultural Report, '59), the original Dutch and English settlers in America the uses and culture of maize, and they gave names to many of its varieties. In North America it was first successfully cultivated by the English in 1608, on James River ; the colonists of the London Company following the methods then practiced by the Indians. Two hundred to a thousand fold was said to have been the yield on a crop of thirty or forty acres raised near Jamestown by the Colonists. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 29 {/^Captain Joh?i StniWs Account of Indian Maize Cul- ture.^ — " The Indians divide the year into four seasons. Their winter some call Popatiow ; spring, Cattapeuk ; the summer, Cohattayough ; the earing of their corn, Nepinough ; the har- vest and fall of leaf, Taguitock. The greatest labor they take is in planting their corn, for the country naturally is over- grown with wood. To prepare the ground, they bruise the bark of the trees near the root ; then they scorch the roots with fire so that they grow no more. The next year, with a crooked piece of wood, they beat up the weeds by the roots, and in that mould they plant their corn. They make a hole in the ground with a stick, and into it they put four grains of wheatf and two of beans. These holes they make four feet, one from another. Their women and children do con- tinually keep it with weeding, and when it is grown middle- high they hill it about like a hop-yard. In April they begin to plant, but their chief plantation is in May, and so they continue until the middle of June. What they plant in April they reap in August; for May, in September; for June, in October. Evdry stalk of their corn commonly beareth two ears ; some three ; seldom any four ; many but one, and some none. Every ear, ordinarily, hath between two hun- dred and five hundred grains. The stalk, being green, hath a sweet juice in it, somewhat like the sugar-cane, which is the cause that, when they gather their corn green, they suck the stalks ; for, as we gather green peas, so do they their corn, being green, which excels their old. They plant also peas they call assentamens. Their corn they roast in the ear green, and bruising it in a mortar of wood with a polt, lap it in rolls in the leaves of their corn, and so boil it for a dainty. They also preserve that corn late planted, that will not ripe, by roasting it in hot ashes, the heat thereof drying *See his History of Virginia, &c. tMaize. 30 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, it. In winter they esteem it, being boiled with beans for a rare dish they call Pausa Rowmena. Their old wheat* they first steep a night in hot water, in the morning pounding it in a mortar. They use a small basket for their Temmes,t then pound again the great, and so separatmg by d.ashing their hands in the basket, receive the flour in a platter made of wood, scraped to that form with burning and shells. Tempering this flour with water, they make it either in cakes, covering them with ashes until they be baked, and then washing them in pure water, they presently dry with their own heat, or else boil them in water, eating the broth with the bread, which they call Ponap. The groutes and pieces of the ',orn remaining, by fanning in a platter or m the wind, the bran they boil three or four hours with Avater, which is an ordinary food they call Ustaiahamen. But some, more thrifty than cleanly, do burn the core of the ear to powder, which they call Pungnough, mingling that in their meal, but it never tasted well m bread nor broth. In May, also, amongst J:heir corn, they plant Pumpeo?is." Under date of May 28, 1620, Captain Smith asserts that, " Whatsoever is said against the Virginia corn, they find it doth nourish better than any provision that is sent thither." {£) Maize and the Pilgrim Fathers. — The Plymouth Colonists, a few days after their landing at Cape Cod, in 1620, are said to have stumbled on a quantity of Indian corn, buried in the ear, after the manner of the natives, near the site of a recent hut, under hillocks of raised earth, which were at first mistaken for graves. In 1621 the Pilgrims, now settled at Plymouth, had a visit from the Indians, Samoset and Squanto, who gave them lessons in corn -planting and manur- ing. They obtained a good yield from twenty acres in maize. In the same year, Messrs. Winslow and Hopkins ■•'Maize. tSieve. ISDIAX COEJJ AND ITS CULTURE. 31 were feasted by the Indians at Namasket on corn-bread called viaziufn. In 1629 Massachusetts Bay produced fifty- two hogsheads of this corn, seven bushels each, from thir- teen gallons of seed — two hundred and twenty- four-fold. (Ji) Prices of Indian Corn in the Colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay. — In 1 62 1 maize sold in Virginia for 2s. 6d. , or 62 cents per bushel. This was two years after the first General Assembly for that Colony was called by Governor Yardley, the result of which was a great increase of private enterprise. The Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay state that on the 28th of September, 1630, at a Court of Assistants, it was ordered "that noe person inhabitting within the lymitts of this patent shall, either directly or indi- rectly, give, sell, trucke or send away any Indian corn to any English without the lymitts of this patent, or to any Indian whatsoever, without license from the Governor and ■Assistants." In June, 1631, persons were prohibited from buying corn out of ships coming into the bay without such leave. October 8th, corn was made a legal tender, unless money or heaver was expressly named. 1633, April ist, at a court held at Boston, it was ordered that the " price of corn, formerly restrained to 6s. the bushell, is now sett at liberty to be sold as men can agree." November 5, price set at 6s. till next court, 1634, March 4, price fixed at 5s. in payment of taxes — no Indian corn to be sold above 6s. per bushel, under penalty of forfeiture. April i, price left open ; in September, 1636, March and April, 1637, price fixed at 5s. for taxes, and at last date, same for all sub- sequent bargains ; but on ist of August, " price of corn set at liberty." Nov. 2, it fell to 3^5. for taxes. In 1638 those planting were to secure their corn in day-time, but owners of cattle hurting the crop at night to pay damage. 1640, May 13, "Good ould Indian corn growing hear 5s. the 32 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. bushell." In October, 1641, the price was again set at liberty. Servants and workmen's wages were ordered to be paid in corn ; if parties could not agree on the price, it was to be " valued by two indifferent freemen, to be chosen, ihe one by the master, the other by the servant or workman, and if they can not agree, then a third man is to be chosen by the next Magistrate," &c. At a General Court in March, 1648, Benedict Arnold was given leave to take up fifty bar- rels of Indian corn for " suppliing ye Indians," who were to pay in wampum. In the following May, there not being sufficient for necessary " sustentation " of the inhabitants in all the towns for two months, this and other grains were forbidden to be transported out of the jurisdiction. In May, 1649, a committee was appointed to secure a magazine of corn. In October of the years successively from 1647 to 1650, Indian corn, for taxes, was 3s. per bushel. In 1650 "wheate and barly" five shillings, and rye and peas " fower" shillings. In 1651 the "country rate was payd " in Indian corn at 3s.; and also in 1652; and in 1654, if brought in after March 10; if before that, to be " ac- coumpted" 2s. 8d. The question of shrinkage had evidently been discussed. In 1652 orders were issued in regard to the mint, every shilling to weigh three-pence, troy weight, and lesser pieces proportionately, deducting allowance for " coynage ; " Spanish coin to be melted and brought to the "allay" of sterling silver, (the just alloy of new sterling English money). In November, 1654, it was ordered that the loss by shrinkage of corn paid in for taxes should be borne by the towns. In May, 1655, complaints being made of short measure in dealings with the sailors, measurers of corn were appointed for the sea-ports. Two shillings six- pence was now allowed on taxes for Indian corn, and also in November following, "pajable" loth of March. In Oc- tober, 1656, 2S. 4d. was allowed ; in 1657, 2s. 6d., fixed for all INDIAN tORX AND ITS CULTTTEE. payments;* in 1658, corn scarce and high, and law fixing price repealed, as between man and man ; in October of 1660 to 1666 successively, 3s.; in 1667, 2s. 8d. ; in 1670, 3s.; in 1674, for the country rate, 3s. was allowed ; in 1675, 3s. 6d.; in 1676, 3s., and so on till 1685, except in 1681, when the fixed price for the country rate was 3s. 6d. (/) Prices in other Colonies. — In New Netherlands, the country north of, and bordering on, the present New York City, the price of maize in 1650 was 10 to 15 stivers per skepel (15 to 20 cents per bushel). In Rhode Island (1670) it sold for 25 cents per bushel, there being a reign of plenty and continued peace. In 1680 the price was 75 cents per bushel on the Piscataqua River, the boundary between Maine (shortly before made a province of Massachusetts) and New Hampshire, which had, in 1679, become a separate royal province. (y*) Maize in Wm. Fenn^s Colony. — In the early colonial records of Pennsylvania it is stated that, at a provincial council, held 23d of first month, 1683, at Philadelphia, Wm. Penn, Governor, and others present, it was ordered that the seal of Kent county should be three ears of Indian corn, and that of Sussex county one wheat sheaf. At another council, held in the seventh month of same year, sundry bills were presented, including as items sundry bushels and barrels of Indian corn, as well as pounds of pork and to- bacco. (Ji) Exports and Imports of Maize in the Colonies, up to their Independence, in i776.f — The Colony of South Carolina. ex- ported 39,308 bushels of Indian corn in 1748, and 16,428 in 1754, Philadelphia exported 90,740 bushels in 1752; ^Unless otherwise concluded by mutual consent. fU. S. P. O., 1853. 4 34 IN'LIAN CORN AXD ITS CULTDRE. 60,206 in 1767, and 259,441 in 1771. North Carolina, iii i753» exported 61,580 bushels; Savannah 600 bushels in 1755, and 13,598 in 1770. Virginia's annual exports of same, for several years previous to the revolution, were 600,- coo bushels. Total exports of Indian corn in 1770, from this country, were 578,349 bushels. Into Piscataqua River were imported 6,498 bushels of same in 1765; 4,097 in 1769; 16,587 in 1770, and 4,096 in 1772. In every part of the continent now occupied by the United States, the aborigines connected with our earliest history seemed to be familiar with the culture and consump- tion of Indian corn as food. CHAPTER IV. DISTRIBUTION OF MAIZE. (a) In considering this, maize should be viewed under three aspects: 1st. As a bread corn; 2d. As supplying other forms of human food ; and 3d. As forage, or food for domestic animals. As cereals, wheat and rice had divided the empire of the Old World between them, probably, for three thousand years, giving way, in certain districts and at certain elevations, to rye, barley and oats ; when maize came from the New World and made rapid and extensive inroads on this empire ; in Europe chiefly, where wheat ceased to. be the exclusive bread corn, and widening southward ; in Asia, where rice was not too firmly established, say in the south-west ; in Africa, along the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and at the Cape of Good Hope, and prevailing, side by side, with rice in the Torrid Zone. Wheat, moreover, made inroads on the maize empire in America, after its dis- covery by Columbus, and cassava bread had already estab- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 35 lished, in South America, a rival kingdom before that. Within the tropics maize will grow at the height of 7,200 feet above the sea level ; but, according to Prof. Lindley — (Lindley's Botany), only predominates between 3,000 and 6, 000 feet elevation — wheat abounding above the latter height, and rye and barley above that, up to 9, 260 feet. Of five grand divisions of the earth's surface, as respects the bread plants, maize has the greatest range of temperature; rice supports the greatest number of human lives ; the three other grand divi- sions being the wheat, the rye, and the barley and oats region. As to the limit of successful maize culture Northward, European and American authorities differ. Loudon (1844) says that maize was then cultivated in " almost every part of the universe," where the summer temperature equals or ex- ceeds that common to latitude 45 degrees, or even to 48 de- grees, Lorin Blodget, the climatologist, (U. S. P. O. Rt. 53) makes " its profitable cultivation as a staple and in competi- tion with the best products of the several districts," to be " very precisely defined on the north by a mean temperature of sixty-eight degrees for July." It appears, from eminent European authorities,* that maize, as a bread corn, prevails in Portugal, Spain, Southern France, Italy and Greece, the Levant, Arabia, East Persia and Northern India, and that it is common in Hindostan and Ceylon, China produces nearly all the European grains. Southern Russia exports maize, which is extensively grown on the shores of the Black Sea, It is grown in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Turkey gene- rally ; in Albania, Transylvania, Hungary and Austria. It has traveled in France since the time of Arthur Young, (1787), from latitude 48° 35' (in a line connecting Bordeaux and Strasburg) to Nancy, in 49 degrees. The "J^oudon, Lindley, Wilson's Rural Cyclopcedia. 36 IVDTAJf COR.V AND ITS CULTURE. maize product in France for 1826 was 17,280,000 bushels; in 1841, 33,400,000 bushels. Some of its varieties have been shown, by experiment, to grow successfully in the. north of France, Belgium, many parts of Germany, and in the southern and central parts of England. As a forage plant, the celebrated German, Thaer, long ago, recom- mended its culture. (Jf) Maize in England.— It had been cultivated for upwards of a century before Loudon's time, in the neighborhood of London, to supply the seedsmen throughout Great Britain with ears to ornament their shop windows. It was also grown for roasting-ears in the kitchen gardens of some who had lived in America. Cobbett, in 1828 and 3829, did much to draw attention to its cultivation. The results as to field culture Avere not then considered very successful, be- cause the heat of tlie months in which it usually ripens was of too low a range. These efforts bore fruit in later years ; cautious and judicious experimentalists, as far back as 1853, had proved that the 7naiz quarantine and viaiz d poidet were quite suitable for many districts in the southern and midland counties of England, and could be easily acclimated in more backward districts, and that other and better varieties could, in a similar way, be introduced into Southern England. Parts of Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny were tliought as favorable for this culture as South-west England. {c) In Africa, &^c. — Morocco and the other Barbary States, Egypt and Nubia are enumerated as maize districts, and in parts of the South this grain is very productive. It is a success in the Canary Islands, It is a specialty in New South Wales, and is succeeded in the sam.e season, in Mauritius, by a wheat crop. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 37 (d) In the New World. — In the West Indies maize grows very luxuriantly, but is probably not so profitable a crop as in the United States. Cuba produces two crops in a year on the same ground, and the forage crop is very abundant. It is grown in Jamaica in fields by itself, and in fields mixed with other plants. On the continent south of the Tropic of Capricorn, it is produced in Paraguay and Chili. The Val- paraiso variety, (akin to popcorn) is named from one of the Chilian seaports. It is also grown in Brazil, Bolivia, French Guiana. In Peru it is still extensively cultivated for human food, as well as for cattle and swine. Maize is among the plants grown abundantly in Guatimala. It is largely culti- vated and consumed in Mexico by the descendants of the people conquered by Cortez. These people raised it in floating fields, on the lake near the capital. Sonora, in 1864, is spoken of as one of its most barren States, and yet there are choice spots, especially along the rivers, where, under very simple culture, with very old-fashioned imple- ments, the maize and bean fields, without manure, rarely, or never fail to produce two crops in the year. In the United States domain the existing Indian tribes have, as a rule, kept up the maize culture after their several removals. In the Indian Territory, so-called, south of Kansas, there was raised, in 1868, of this corn, 31,700 bushels, valued at $24,000; in 1872, 214,190 bushels, valued at $106,998, (see U. S. Agricultural Report, 1870). The ruins of the Pueblo villages show that the culture of some varieties had been continuous for centuries past. Up to 1870 maize was still the staff of life to the Indians of Arizona, California, Ne- vada and Utah. Indian corn in British America is not the article it is in the United States, but it is much cultivated in i Canada, and to some extent in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick, and also on the Saskatchewan, near Lake Winnepeg. Only the smaller and earliest ripening kinds succeed there, 38 INDIAN CORN A\D ITS CULTURE* unless, by acclimation, others have been lately introduced. The value of exports from the British American Colonies of maize and meal for the year ending 30th June, 1849, were stated as §600,000. CHAPTER V. STATISTICAL HISTORY OF MAIZE IN THE UNITED STATES. (a) Probably it is a safe rule that a soil or climate, taken on an extensive scale, will produce that which is most needed for the sustenance of the inhabitants. For a very high lati- tude more of a meat diet is required, to restore the great waste of the system resultnig from the amount of movement necessary to keep life in the body. Hence in Arctic regions population is thin and animal food comparatively abundant. For high latitudes, lower than the above, a concentrated and richly endowed grain, like wheat, or, still better, some va- rieties of oats, may be more suitable. Not only the latitude, but the elevation, has much to do with the nature of the food plant, as well as its capacity for production. Other circumstances modify the effects of latitude and elevation, such as the situation with reference to large rivers and mountains, and to ocean and lake shores. For the more temperate, as well as high tropical regions, the average maize is better, because, though not so highly concentrated food, it has more elements suited to a life of temperate ac- tivity. On the whole, as the inhabitants of a country can best judge Avhat productions of their soil best suit them, their estimation of any product will probably be shown by the extent of its planting, or acreage, the choice of soil, the pains taken to make it productive, and the capital invested in the manure, implements and labor applied — all expressed in the amount produced. The demand for it, shown in its INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 39 average price, is another witness in its favor, though, for several reasons, not as satisfactory, as far as general useful- ness is concerned, as the former. {b) The acreage of improved land is given by the census of the United States since 1840, but not, as a rule, the acreage of the several crops. Of these, in recent years, es- timates in reference to acreage, product, value, yield per acre, and average price, have been annually made by the ' Agricultural Department. Previous to its establishment as such, about the year 1861, annual reports were issued on agricultural subjects, by the U. S. Patent Office, containing statistics of a more general character. These commenced with a thin volume in 1842, containing a small portion of agricultural matter, the rest relating to mechanical inven- tions. Some of the States have regular Boards of Agricul- ture, and give, in their annual reports, the maize products. Ohio has issued such reports for many years. {c) It appears, from DeBow's Compendium of the Census for 1850, that the maize product for 1840 was 377,531,875 bushels, and the population being then 17,069,453, would give 22 1-9 bushels to each inhabitant of the United States. The following table shows, in column No. i, the acres of improved land at the several decennial periods, beginning with 1850, as returned by the census of the United States: No. 2, the product of Indian corn in bushels; No. 3, bush- els of same to each acre of improved land ; No. 4, popula- tion of United States; No. 5, bushels of same to each inhabitant. The figures for Nos. i, 2 and 4, for the census years 1850 and i860, are taken from a work issued from the Government Printing Office in 1864, on the Agriculture of the United States, as shown in the Census of i860, by Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent of same. The figures for 1870, of Nos. i, 2 and 4, are from the large work containing that year's census : 40 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. VIII. YEARS. NO I. NO. 2. NO. 3. NO. 4„ No. 5. 1850. i860. 1870. 113,032,614 163,110,720 188921,099 592,071,104 838,792,742 760,944,54V 5-25 514 403 23,191.876 31443-321 38.558,371 25K 19 H The last census returns would make it appear that the ratio of the maize product to the acres of improved land, which remained nearly the same in '50 and '60, fell off nearly 22 per cent, in '70, and that the number of bushels to each inhabitant, which had increased from 22 i 9 in '40 to 26f in '60, fell off 27 per cent, in '70, and that the maize product was diminished 9 per cent, from that of i860. But it is well here to consider the effect of the census, as ex- plained in the introduction to the agricultural returns of the last one. By improved land is meant that which is cleared and in use for grazing, grass, or tillage, or which lies fallow. Although the census professes to include all crops on the farm for the year, whether consumed at home or sold off, it claims a high degree of accuracy only as to crops of consid- erable importance. It does not appear to include the minor products of pop-corn, and varieties grown for roasting or boiling green, the sale of which is large in the chief towns and cities ; nor the small crops of common corn raised in gardens, or fractional acres not considered as farms. Of these there is a great number in and about country towns not densely populated. The schedule for filling up through the officers of the census was found to be inapplicable to the State of Texas, some of the Territories, and some paits of California and Nebraska. It was formed "wholly with reference to the agricultural requirements of the older States, where land is divided up into well defined farms," and agriculture has become a system. It is often stated that the census being nominally for IXDIAN' CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 41 the crops of the decennial year ending June i, represents, actually, the preceding year's crop ; but the authority above quoted asserts that it is made up " without any determinable proportion, indifferently of the production of two years ; " in the census of 1870, for instance, being thus made up of the products of that year and 1869. In view of all this, the whole maize crop for any one year, outside of that grown only for fodder, green or dry, would seem to be more satisfactorily stated by the estimates of die Agricultural De- partment of the United States. The manner of making this will be hereinafter described. These foot up, for 1870, 1,094,255,000 bushels, giving 5 4-5 as the number of bush- els to each acre of improved land; and 2^}^ bushels to each inhabitant ; showing that the maize product keeps up with the population and with the improvement of farms. {d) The following table of census returns of maize pro- duced in the several States, including Utah and New Mexico, and leaving out West Virginia, for the four last census years, is made up of figures taken from the three au- thorities last above referred to, including the yield per acre, ill bushels, returned by the Marshals in 1850, given in De- Bow's Compendium. These returns, as well as those of the Agricultural De- partment given in the succeeding pages, deserve careful study. Underneath these dry matters of statistics may be found thv, workings of some of the greatest events of our Nation's history. Among the earliest of these were the wide extension of our territory after the Mexican war ; the discovery of gold in California; the rapid settlement of the grand prairies, and the more general introduction of labor- saving agricultural machinery so well suited to their cultiva- tion. Their usefulness was more fully demonstrated during the later years of the civil war, when so large a proportion of the bone and muscle, as well as the brain, of the country 42 IXDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. was withdrawn from the labors of the plow to those of the sword. When confidence is fully restored, the census re- turns will doubtless be more complete : IX. 1840. 1850. 1 1S60. 1S70. 1850. STATES. Yiehi Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 1,546,071 Bushels. per acre Maine . . 950,528 I 750,056 1,089,888 27 N. Hampshire 1.162,572 I 573,670 1,414.628 I 277,768 30 Vermont 1,119 678 2,032,396 1,525411 1,699,882 32 Massachusetts 1,809,192 2.345.490 2,157,063 1,397.807 31 Rhode Island 450,498 539.201 461 497 311,957 Connecticut 1 . 500 44 1 1,935,043 2,059.835 1.570364 40 New York . 10972,286 17,858,400 20061.049 16 462,825 27 New Jersey . 4.361.975 8 759 704 9723,336 8,745-384 33 Pennsylvania 14 240022 19,835,214 28 196 821 34,702,006 20 Delaware . 2,099,359 3 145,542 3 892,337 3010390 20 Maryland . 8,233,086 10,749,858 13,444,922 11,701,817 23 Dist Columbia 39485 65,230 80,840 28,020 Virginia 34577,591 35.254319 38 319 999 17649304 18 N. Carolina . 23,893763 27,941.051 30078564 1S454215 17 S Carolina . 14,722,805 16,271454 15,065,606 7,614,207 II Georgia . . 20.905.122 30 oSo 099 30,776293 17,646,459 16 Florida . . 898.974 1,996809 2,834391 2,725050 Alabama . 20 947,004 28 754 048 33,226.282 16,977.948 15 Mississippi . 13 161,237 22446552 29,057 6S2 15637.316 iS Louisiana . 5i952,9i2 10.266373 16 853 745 7,596,62s 16 'J'exas . . 6,02s 876 8,893,939 16 500,702 17823.58S 20,554,538 13,382,145 Arkansas . 4 846 632 22 'I'ennessee , 44986,188 52,276,223 52 089 926 41,343614 21 Kentucky , 39,847.120 58,672,591 64 043,633 50.091,000 24 Ohio . . . 33668,144 59078,695 73 543 190 67,501.144 36 Oregon . . 2,918 76 122 72 138 Michigan . 2277039 5,641,420 12.444676 1408623S 32 Indiana . . 28,155 887 52 964.363 71 588919 5109453!^ 33 Illinois . . 22,634,211 57,646 9S4 115,174,777 129921395 33 Wisconsin . 379.359 I 988,979 7.517300 15033.99^' 30 Minnesota . 16,725 8,656,799 2.941952 42 410 686 4743,117 68935065 Iowa . . 1,406 241 32 Missouri 17332,524 36,214,537 72892157 66.034 075 34 Kansas , . 6 150.727 17025525 __ California . 12 236 510 708 90482 1.221 222 Utah . . 9899 9555; Nebraska . 1 482 080 4 736 710 Nevada . . 460 9,660 II New Mexico 36^.4 IT 7m ^04 61082^ -_ IN'DIAM CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. 42 The crop of West Virginia, which was cut off from Old Virginia, after the completion of the census of i860, was re- turned as 8,197,865 bushels; Washington Territory, 4,712 in i860, and 21,781 in 1870; Dakota 20,269 ^^ i860, and 133,140 in 1870; Colorado 231,903, Idaho 5,750, Mon- tana 320, and Arizona, 32,041 bushels in 1870. The cen- sus totals for the four last decennial years are given in table VIII , and the statement introducing it (^). (e) The New England States seem to have reached their highest product of maize in 1850, or shortly before, and afterwards fluctuated to much lower figures. This was probably due to an increased investment of capital and labor in manufactures, or crops on the whole better suited to their climate and soil ; and to the competition of cheap West- ern corn, reaching their markets by improved lake and canal navigation and a widely extended net-work of railroads. The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, gave a new impetus to inland trade. When the Ohio, Miami, Wabash and Illinois Canals were opened, with their respective branches, the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and the shores of the Great Lakes were ready for the vast movements Eastward and Westward, and the aid and competition of the railroads fol- lowed hard after, to make them more effective and rapid. In 1863, Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, in his mes- sage, estimated the supplies furnished New England by the West, of flour, grain and animal food, for human sustenance and forage for cattle, horses and swine, at $50,000,000, $20,- 000,000 of which went to Massachusetts. (/) The civil war occasioned, for a time, a rapid diminu- tion of the maize product in the States south and south-west of Maryland, except in Florida, Texas and Arkansas. They are gradually recovering from its effects, but cotton and su- gar culture are gaining on maize in portions of the Gulf Suites. The Ohio and Upper Mississippi Valleys have shown 44 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. a wonderful development of maize culture. Tennessee was highest in 1840; Ohio in 1850, with Kentucky following close behind. Illinois came to the front in i860, leaving Ohio, Missouri and Indiana nearly equal, but far behind. Illinois was still first in 1870, Iowa, Ohio and Missouri being next by the census, and Indiana, Missouri and Iowa by Agricultural Department's estimate. (g) Closely connected with the statistics of Indian corn are those of swine. The following table, made up from the census authorities above named, gives the number of swine on farms for the four last decennial years. The fifth column, headed i860 (Z'), shows the number of swine which the Assistant Marshals of the census of i860 believed to have been omitted from their schedules, as not being con- nected with the agriculture of this country, but scattered through the cities and large towns. — (See Kennedy's Agri- culture of that census). West Virginia had 268,031 swine in 1870 ; Dakota 287 in 1S60, and 2,033 i'"^ ^§70; Arizona 720, Colorado 5,509, Idaho 2,316, Montana 2,599, and Wyoming 146, respect- ively, in 1870. The totals for the States and Territories of the above lists of swine, were — for 1840, 26,301,293; for 1850, 30,354,213; for i860 {a., official), 33,512,867; for i860 (/'., additional), 3,467,905 ; for 1870, 25,134,569. The estimates of swine in large towns and cities, for i860, as above, were made at the express direction of the Superin- tendent of that census, and were omitted in the previous one, and probably, also, in that of 1870. To obtain the fullest returns for i860, they may be very safely added to the official returns headed i860 (a), in annexed table. The ratio of estimates in the fifth column, to the official returns of i860, is largest (17}^ to 11) in the District of Columbia, which has in it very little of the rural element. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CtTLTCRE. X. 45 STATES, ETC. Maine . . New Hampshire Vermont . . Massachusetts Rhode Island Connecticut . New York New Jersey . Pennsylvania . Delaware . Maryland . Dist. Columbia Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia I'lorida Alabama . Mississippi Louisiana . . Texas . Arkansas . . Tennessee Kentucky . . Ohio . . . Michigan . . Indiana . . Illinois Wisconsin . . Minnesota . . Iowa . . . Missouri . . Kansas Nebraska . . California . . Oregon New Mexico . Utah . . . Nevada Washington . 1840. I 117.386 121,671 203 800 143 221 30,659 131,961 1,900,065 261,443 1,503.964 74 228 416,943 1850. 1992,155 1,649 716 878.5 1,457 755 92 6S0 I 423 873 1,001,209 323,220 393.058 2,926 607 2310,533 2,099 746 295 890 1,623 608 1,495.254 51,383 104,899 1,271,161 4673 54598 63,4« 66,296 81. 119 19.509 76,472 1,018,252 250,370 1^040,366 56,261 352911 ',635 1,829 843 1,812,813 1.065.503 2,168,617 209,453 1.904 540 1,582.734 597.301 692,022 836,727 3 104 800 2 891,163 1.964.770 205,847 2,263 776 1,915907 159,276 734 323 247 1,702625 2 776 30,235 7,3H 914 i860, [a) 54783 51935 52,912 73,948 17,478 75 120 910 178 236,0 1,031,266 47,848 387,756, 1,099 1. 599.919 1,883 214 965,779 2036,116 271.742 1 748321 1,532768 634,525 1.371,532 1. 171.630 2,347321 2.330 595 2,251,653 372386 3 099 1 10 2 502.308 334055 loi 371 934,820 2,354,425 138 224 25,369 456396 81,615 10313 6 707 3 571 6383 1870. 45,760 33127 46345 49,178 14,607 51-983 518 251 142,563 867.548 39818 257,893 577 674670 1,075 215 395999 988,566 158908 719757 814 381 338326 1,202,445 841,129 1,828,690 1,8382 1,728 968 417 811 1,872,230 2,703343 512778 148473 1,353 908 2 306 430 206,587 59 449 444617 119,455 II 267 3 150 329s 17 491 i860. [A). 21,196 17423 18.526 43,146 7,242 26,031 100,791 71.516 200,236 7969 15,113 I 744 198 121 206,976 375350 26092 63,528 3,175 50,755 198,261 18,919 108,577 234,255 317,116 573'6 146 034 254 380 70866 19,718 130891 412 36S 16 500 1,376 3 762 10,728 7,624 3625 656 The ratio of additional to official list in i860 is next (3 to 4), in New Mexico, where the farms are not always well defined. Next (2 to 3), in Massachusetts, a State of many industries and abounding in cities and large 46 INDIAN' CORN AND IT3 CULTURE, towns. Next, more than i to 2 in Utah's gardens. After these, 2 to 5 in Maine, and about i to 3 in the other New England States and New Jersey, where a large class of fami- lies, devoted to various callings, find the time and the means to feed their own pork. The ratio is i to 27 in Alabama. It seems probable that^ in the Eastern States generally, what there is of swine raising is gradually getting out of the line of professional farmers into that of these domestic growers, and others who contrive to eke out the subsistence of this kind of stock by other methods than corn-feeding ; and with good reason ; for it has been asserted by good authority that, in New England and the Middle States, pork, up to the win ter of '64-5, rarely bore a price at which marketable grain could be profitably fed to swine. But it is to be remembered that the mere number of swine does not tell the whole story. The probable improvement of their quality* in the Eastern States since 1840 is, in some degree, indicated by the high prices of live hogs as compared with those of the South. In proportion to the population for the same year, the list of swine was larger in 1840 than it has been in either of the subsequent census returns. Tlie result of a comparison of these in i860 was that the Pacific States then formed the only one, of five or six leading sections of the Union, where the number of swine kept pace with the advance of popula- tion. But, out of forty- one States and Territories of which the official census returned the number of swine in i860, thirty returned less in 1870, and eleven more. Of these eleven all, except Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, were west of the Mississippi. Iowa shows the largest increase; but this did not keep pace with its advance of population — ■ Wisconsin's smaller increase did. The newly settled Dako- tah increased its population 131 per cent , and its swine 60S per cent.; Washington, its population 100 and its swine 174 per cent. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 47 In the above table (X.), Tennessee heads the list for 1840, with Kentucky next, and gaining on it in 1850, but leaving it a little in advance. Indiana is first in i860, with Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio not far behind. Illinois is foremost in 1870; Missouri next. So that the great Indian corn region appears, from these returns, to abound most in swine. XI. (/i) Estitnates of maize product, by the Agricultural Division of the United States Patent Office, for the following years : STATES, &C. 1842. 1,188,728 1843. 1844. I 738 000 1847. 1848. Maine . 1,390 799 2,8gc,ooo 3 000 000 N. Ham p. 220,183 330925 1.662 000 2,280000 2,600 000 Vermont . ?,39i,595 1,252,853 I 440 000 2 100009 2 500 000 Mass. . 2,202,113 2,347,45' 2,816000 3.410,000 3,800,000 Rhode I. 542 S96 578,720 636 000 800 000 900,000 Conn. 1,827,771 1.926 45S 2.408 oco 3 180,000 3,400 000 New York 13 311. 616 15,574570 19,468,000 1 6, coo 000 17,500000 New Jersey 5 000,105 5 805,121 6 966 000 8 000,000 9,000 000 Penn. . 13553360 15-857,431 19,029 000 20,200,000 2 1 ,000 OCO Delaware 2.381,766 2 739 982 3,014,000 3 620. OgO 3 850 000 Maryland 5 615,640 6.205,282 4,653,000 8 300,000 fii 800 000 Virginia 38,101,657 45 836 788 38,960,000 36,500,000 38 000 000 N.Carolina 25,332,194 27,916077 22.330,000 25,000,000 26 000 000 S. Carolina 16,492,216 18,190913 13,640,000 12,600000 13 500000 Georgia . 24,072 04:3 26,960 687 22 200000 25,000000 27,000000 Florida . 769,420 838,667 1,100,000 1 ,000,000 1,250,000 Alabama 26,345,105 24,817,089 22 200,000 26,000,000 28,000.000 Mississippi 7,693,771 9,386,399 2,709,000 16,000,000 17,000,000 Louisiana 7,857,362 8,957,392 7,600,000 9,000,000 10,600,000 Texas 1,500,000 7,000,000 I 800 000 Arkansas 7,816,255 8,754,204 7,500,000 8,00c, OCO Tennessee 55,742,384 67,838,477 61 100,000 74,000,000 76,600,000 Kentucky 49,053 849 59,355,156 47,500,000 62,000 000 65,000.000 Ohio . 39,424,221 38,651,128 48,000,00c 66,000,000 70,000,000 Michigan 3,703,589 3,592,482 4,300,000 6,500,000 10,000,000 Indiana . 38,838,275 36,677,171 24,500,000 38,000,000 45,000 OcO Illinois . 25,546,728 32,760,434 19,680,000 33,000,000; 40,000,000 Wisconsin 630,904 750,775 560,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 Iowa 1,788,580 2,128,416 1,690,000 2,900,000 3,500,000 Missouri 25,338,922 27,148,608 12,500,000 25,000,000 28,000,000 Dist. Col. 45,998 47,837 44,000 45,000 50,0 .0 California Oregon 525,000 1,000,000 Total . 441,829,246 494,618,306 421,953,000 539,350,000 588,150,000 48 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The above estimates for 1842-3-4 seem to have been made up from the reported per centage of increase or decrease of the maize crop in the different States. The summing up of the reports of correspondents, as to the crops for the re- spective years, are found in U. S. P. O. '42, page 17 ; in '43, page 52, and in '44, page 67. In 1842 gains were stated in about two thirds of the States. Early cold, dry weather injured the crop in some parts of New Hampshire, and a cold, wet, early summer that of Western New York, and also that of Maryland, eastern shore. Here the army worm, left alive by a warm winter, made matters worse. A wet planting season shortened the crop in Pennsylvania ; heavy rains injured it in some parts of Virginia, and drought in others. Great floods swept away whole fields on the sea- board of North Carolina; wet and cold diminished the crop of Ohio ; but the other States made the general crop an im- provement. The season of 1843 was not so favorable. Early wet caused late planting in New Hampshire; there was drought in Rhode Island ; Alabama was discounted ten per cent.; Ohio suffered from a wet spring and dry summer ; Indiana, Illinois and Michigan also, from similar causes; but much new land was planted in Illinois, and the other States raised the total one-sixth above that of the previous year. In 1844 wet weather and floods on the Wabash and Upper Missis- sippi Valleys so cut down the Western maize crop that the total fell off one seventh. The tabular estimates for 1845-6 have not been found, but the crop of 1845 "^^'^^ pronounced a short one * In estimating the same crop for 1847, 22 per *It is stated in the Report for 1845 that the estimate of the maize crop for that year, for the whole country, was 417.900,000 bushels. The crop was an average in Maine; fine in Vermont ; an increase of ten per cent, in Pennsylvania; fair in Tennessee. Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois ; fell off in New York, from crop of 1844, ten per cent.; twenty in Maryland, and thirty in Viri^jiuia. There was drought in South Carolina, and a very .small crop in Florida INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE^ 49 cent, was added to the census returns for 1840, being the rate of increase of population during the seven intervening years, and also, according to the political economists, of their productive power. In 1847, after a cold and backward spring, came a most favorable summer, followed by a crop thought to be unexampled in previous years. In 1848 there was a severe drought, especially along the Atlantic coast, which caused great fears for the maize fields ; but, just as they were about to wither, came the rains that saved them. The census returns for 1850, coming so soon after, supplied the Agricultural Reports with tables of maize production for a few years, and the annual tabular estimates were discon- tinued till 1862; by which time, the Agricultural Department of the United States was fairly established. In speaking of the maize crop as the natural one for the United States, the report of the Statistician for 1862 remarks that its money value is double that of hay, three-fold that of wheat, and four-fold that of cotton. In the seceding States the increase of the maize crop was much below that of the ratio of population from 1850 to 1 860, The former increased 16 4-5 per cent.; the latter 2Sj4- This difference was due mainly to the great increase of the cotton product. The increase of the maize crop in these States was chiefly in Ar- kansas and Texas, which abounded in growers of farm stock. The tobacco crop was also widely extended during that inter- val in Tennessee and Kentucky. Some of the States made annual returns or estimates of the maize crop before agriculture became a separate depart- ment, for the supervision of the United States Government. Indiana reported in 1854, as raised in that State, 34,811,902 bushels; in 1855, 58,126,259 bushels; in 1856, 39,833,366 bushels; in 1857, 59,793,657 bushels; in 1858, 37,261,622 bushels, and in 1859, 54,045,217 — the crop being alter- nately small and large. 50 INDU.M CORN AND ITS CULTURE. XII. STATES, ETC. 1862. Bushels. 1863. Bushels. 1864. Bushels 1605. Bushels. Maine 1,855.285 1,855,285 1,410,017 1,692,020 New Hampshire 1,668,285 1,835,113 1,334,628 1,468,090 Vermont 1,585,020 1,743-522 1,585,020 1,796,356 Massachusetts . . 2,465,215 2,465,215 2,280,324 ^,363, 245 Rhode Island 458,912 413,021 474.208 497,918 Connecticut . . 2,059,835 2,059,835 2,059,835 2,265,818 New York . . 24^0731^57 24,073,257 22,628,862 25,344,3*5 New Jersey 10,023,336 11,025,669 8,464,262 9-73393I Pennsylvania 30,721,821 30,721,821 28,381,685 35,477,106 Delaware . 3.892-337 3,892,337 3,892,337 3,892,337 Maryland . . 14,444,922 14,444,922 10,509,243 14308,739 Kentucky . Ohio . 52,836,997 57,433.802 42,828,706 68,202,641 57,512.833 94,119,644 71,792,523 Michigan 15,190,137 10,633,097 11,088,801 17-520,305 Indiana 92,855,454 54,602.27; 74,284,363 116,069,316 Illinois . . • 138.356,135 83 013.68. '38,356,135 177,095,852 Wisconsin . . 10,087,05- 8,069,64; 10,087,053 1 3,449,405 Minnesota 3,983,42^ 2,756 89^ 4,647,329 5.577795 Iowa . . • 49,340,393 34,538,27' 55,261,240 62,997 813 Missouri , 82,483,232 43,743,29^ 36,635,011 52,021,715 Kansas . 6,814,601 8,518,25) 4,673,081 6,729.236 1,366,622 2,494,084 478,169 478,169 451,153,37^ 530,451,403 Total . 586,704,474 704,427,853 States not included in the above went out of the Union as Confederate States. In 1866 they were reckoned in again, when the estimated maize product in bushels (the States, &c., designated by their usual abbreviations) was as follows : Me., . . 1,624,239 Va., . . 24,369,908 Ky., . • 65,564,630 N. H,, . , 1,321 281 N.C., . . 21,656,566 Ohio, • . 99,766,822 Vt., . • 1,490,975 S. C, . . 6,026,242 Mich., . . 16,118,680 Mass., . . 2,363,245 Ga., . . . 15,695,909 Ind., . . 127,676,247 R. I., 408,293 Fla., . . 1,984,073 111., . • »55 844,350 Conn., . . 2,220,50* Ala., . , 21,597,083 Wis. • • 9,414,583 N. Y., . 22,809,893 Miss'pi., . 11,913,650 Iowa, . 52,288,184 N.J., • 9,539,223 La., . , 6,910,035 Mo., . . 46,819,543 Pa., . . 35,831,877 Texas, . . 20,295,863 Ks., . • 6,517.358 Del., . . 4,281,570 Ark., . . ",585-33- Neb., . . 2,095,030 Md., , . 15,024,176'Tenn., . . 46,^80,93., l^ot.nl . 867,946,295 INDIAN COEN AND ITS CULTURE. 61 The method of the Department, in making these and other estimates, is explained in U. S. A. R., 1863. Monthly in summer and bi-monthly in winter, the Department issued circulars to its correspondents (recommended by members of Congress and others, and paid for their services only in copies of the annual and monthly reports, seeds, &c.) ; their number intended to be not exceeding one for an ordinary sized county of four hundred square miles, and five assist^ ants. It was found that their information was best given as a tenth or more of the crop in question, greater or less than the preceding one. Their returns, on a day named in the circular, were sent to the Department by mail, and as fast as received entered on the rolls of each State; when all en- tered, added up, and the sum divided by the number of counties returned for each crop. This gave the general average of each State in tenths and fractions of a tenth. From this, the average product of the crop in bushels, or pounds, was calculated, chiefly on the basis of the census returns of 1840, '50 and '60, and taking into view the gen- eral progress of agriculture in each State for a series of years, and ascertaining the per cent, of increase "of the progress made by each State, in each crop, at different pe- riods of this progress; " also examining the special causes acting on production, as railways or other improvements in transportation, or on prices, as an unusual commercial de- mand ; or in the change of products by the growth of manu- factures. The duration, extent and intensity of their action were considered. At that time the Government supplies were taken into account. How far each section of the country would be influenced was to be judged of "from personal knowledge of the general agricultural condition of the country, and of much of its local peculiarities." The National and State census were to be compared, "and from every source of information " were to be derived the means 52 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. of correcting the returns of correspondents. It was claimecl that, "when once the plan was fairly in operation, the an-. nually published estimates of the production of the counties '* would be a sufiicient guide for the correspondents, especially when made skillful by longer experience. It was also claimed thac, in spite of the troubles of the time, the returns of correspondents were " far more reliable than most of those made by township and county assessors, who collect agricultural statistics for the several States;" and that most of the statements made of the amounts of crops and of farm stock had been tested by time and commercial transactions, and " sustained in a most gratifying manner." It is further stated, in the 1S62 report, that, as no circulars were sent to California, on account of its remoteness, estimates of its products were based on its State statistics of crops for 1861 and their prices in San Francisco ; and, as Ohio had a much more perfect system of taking its agricultural statistics, its returns had been chiefly relied on, but not entirely. When the amount of the crop was determined, the acreage and total value were deduced from that by a simple arithmetical calculation ; the prices and yield per acre being familiar to all farmers, having been obtained through the circulars. The report of the statistician in 1864 illustrates the method of returns in tenths somewhat more fully, and adds that each year's crop would be estimated from such returns, " on the basis of the amount of the crop of the preceding year." The crop for 1862 was characterized in the report for that year as the "best ever grown." That of 1863 was short- ened more than one hundred and thirty-five million bushels by destructive frosts. The crop of 1864 was much better, but that of 1865 gained on this 33 per cent; Illinois siill in front; next, successively, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa. That of 1866 was abundant, except in some of the Southern States — there was more than an average in Texas. K, *— -! -1 (LC 00 ; c*: to . . 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'^'^ ic oj -^r '^ cc o ix . ■ ^ . . . ■. — -. ,^ -. ■-C , CO coco t-H r-'co"co'of co'i-To -t* to r^'ci o cft-^'o r* co -r c:- o^ :c o Tjf -^ ;D i-( o ini^ ^ CO -f" CO CO -jO -T< X en 1^ 01 '^ 'r- *•* ■ '^ , - ^ . - . . 7^3 -T '. .' C' -iJ -T ^_ 03 I ' Ci 'H^ '^ — (C- w o r-H Tf o y:" 05 »-H ^^» 00 o t'- 00 o^ ■ - i4rH ci cjVj f4ci c^ji . - O — 'X O O' '^ 01 O Oi i^ I - I- T I a; -r '-::^ " o CO ^ tj^ ;C' Ci CO C-i I-' O^CO r-l poO:iaooaiOii:^r^r-(^^csoir-^'n'-rxcct--cr)Oiroo».OLO--t'c;iC--oo3^'-*cocO'^ lO o CO ai '^I CO -n* lO CO iQ '-' X CO -T* o CO u't' CO ^ o o-i tr^ »to T-* o to l':^ «o Oi o cri o 1-- «j < ^^ --H CO C^i-H CS 0_TTH Oi l'-;_OJl 04 ^^ O O 00 ^O Oi cu S>!;>S« .S3 O OJ n .^■A a)^fc('';(=: ?: I- INDIAN COEN AND 1T9 CULTURE. In 1867, only Maine, New Hampshire and twenty other States planted fewer acres in corn. The large crop provided for was cut down by a spring unfavorable for rapid and healthy growth, and by summer drought in the Ohio Valley; in many places one-half; Illinois yielding but 23.8 bushels per acre. The large yield per acre in New England is due to careful culture and skillful manuring. Fertilizers of various kinds are used liberally there in this crop. The wet spring of 1867 kept back seasonable plowing, and farm help was scarce ; cold rains were the cause of slow growth. In 1868 the acreage increased more than two millions; a large part of the advance being in the Southern States. "The high temperature of July was favorable to the growth of corn, and the prospect was good for a thousand millions until August, when unseasonably cool and, in some localities, wet weather, set in, followed by early frosts. The result was a sudden and injurious check at the critical period of earing, resulting in late ripening, smut, and other evidences of abnormal conditions." Southern Indiana and Ohio, "West Virginia and Pennsylvania suffered from heavy rains, and Iowa and North Indiana and Illinois from early frosts. In 1869 the area of maize culture was very much extend- ed, which the frequent spring showers made it difficult planting. Mid-summer was more propitious, but cold nights retarded its growth in the Northern States, and a severe drought pinched it in the Atlantic States of the South, and, though it escaped material injury from late frosts, the crop was thought to be one hundred and fifty millions short of a good return — which was reckoned at one thousand million bushels. In 1870 the early conditions of growth were favorable. Wet weather in the Carolinas made it difficult to kill the weeds. Notwithstanding some injuries from drought, wet weather, worms and early frosts, almost every State, by CO INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. September, made returns of high condition, and October made it clear that the crop would be larger than those of the two preceding years, and probably the best for a decade. L ripened unusually early; some was injured by drought and cut up for fodder, and some, in the valleys of Virginia, ruined by floods, and small portions in the South damaged by excessive rains ; but the bulk of the crop was remarkably sound. In 1 87 1 the central corn region of the West had an early planting and the growth was rapid, except where the cut- worm was rooted in the sod land, or local drought prevailed, or cold rains fell on low-lying lands of dense clay, undrained, or otherwise unameliorated. Cut-worms were more destruc- tive in the Eastern and Middle States than in the West. Southern corn had a good start, but soon felt the cold rains. Tlie nights in June were " too cool for corn in New England and through the Alleghany elevations as far south as Vir- ginia." Imperfect cultivation was the result of heavy rains in the South. In some places, where the crop was in good condition till mid July, a severe drought set in. The crops were lighter in the South-west, although the acreage was diminished there, except in Tennessee and Texas. In the latter State, especially, there was much loss from drought. In 1872 the acreage was increased about three per cent. The season was not very propitious during May and June, and the returns of ist July showed the condition of corn planted in 413 counties below average ; in 263 above aver- age, and in 313 average. But the showers and sunshine of July greatly advanced the crop in all the States, except some of those on the Atlantic, south of the Potomac, and a few in high latitudes. The growth in August was rapid, and the result was one of the largest crops ever grown. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 61 XVI. ESTlMiTES OF MAIZR FOR U. S., BY Ag'i, DEP't, POR THB FOLLOWING YKAPS t > C^J O C OC I-^ ; 01 -.s o CO -r -1 P "M ; I; l01(»=troCna>l.-«SOLC.C.0005uOr-il-OOaOTI.l-^^OTS^?5c55TOSxc3Sr-(Sr-,.5oS uO X5 ^ 1^ iC CO CO -.^00 01 O) CO -r CO r-l 01 lO ^ ~ '•'^ r^ -/i — CJCOO) C-lr-lrti-Gi ifi ^O-<1^Tj.iCtOCOiO(0-^C003aO -r-l |i2 X CO -# 01 lO 110 ^™^^'^;'^Cl°.0lt-tiC0'=;rH"'!lDTHu0ClC0roi0t-Ot001C<5roft-I^050i'^. rHrlrHrli— i-(Cii-iOC/CCl-l.^i-IO>>-ICO«>l.-~tDtC-*l--'^COl^iO-*iOtOCOuoSiOiH CS^OICO'^OOICOI^OIOV ~T uj w.^ wJ ^ 1^ 'o>co>-Ocav.ocooi.MOO^Or.;.^co^OrH^^^^^„,^^^y^o ior^^-<"^oi=£'y3co ;^;cooort;co-»'(NrHO^f^„„rH.o,ra.ouT./^oi^^^ :OTT(C iCira »iO »0 10 r^ i.O lO r-l O JO ' -I^I^r-liCCCOrHOi-OO^r-Clrjl^oiO-tiOOOCOoicsaiiOrHiiOrHOr^O^COailfOr-tOOXjIco OlCOCOMCJCOCOCOCOrHOlr-^rH T-lr-lr-li-.r-lrHC-l(MOJ(MCOC001MCOCO(N01COCo5l--^l-^«i.0.C0"c0»rH05oC0C»»iri0-;t~00t^l0j0C0-0lO COCOCOCOCOCOCOCOCOOlCIOlr-lr-lr-l r-lrHr-l0101C)01COCOCOCOCOCOCO«.COCOCOCOCJCOCo|N C- 27.2 35 7 .3.16 34 3 27.3 31.4 33 36 35.5 22 23.0 22.6 14 10 10.3 10.7 14.5 14 14.4 19 20 7 23 27.0 27.3 38.5 32.4 35.7 38.3 37.7 37 3 42 5 38 40 41.5 38 20.6 32 30 4 29.1 g 33 30.5 39.6 33 26 26.4 34 33 35.8 25 22.5 20 8.9 13.5 10.8 17.5 10.6 26.'5 318 25 8 30.4 32.1 39 37 39,5 35.2 38 33 32 31.4 28 29.9 35.6 29,7 35 35,9 283 '69 "24.3 30 34 34.2 25 2 31.2 27.] 30 8 31.4 18 20.2 15 5 14.8 116 11 11.2 15 17.5 25 29 28 20 27.8 25 30.1 28.9 28.2 23.2 26.4 29 1 33 2 30.6 48.4 42.2 41.4 35 28 "2375 CCiO uO l^?0COOll-;iO(Xr^ KOCOr- OliOCOOS 0" ?S oji/otao t^i>Tt* w r^ lOiO r^ c> -^o* o^'o t--'oi\Co ioicci-<}*cOTj<-t< cocoi^ X oi »c : : : lira .r|o)cococooicocococooioi-^-JrHrHrHr-'— lOioicooicocococococococococowciTJi : ■ :oJ( '67 35.5 30 2 36.7 25.7 33 30.4 33.1 32 10.3 28.4 20.9 11.0 9.0 13 1 11.8 16.2 15.7 15.0 28.2 26.5 23.7 29 7 24.7 287 31.4 29.2 23.8 33.6 30 33.8 27.2 38 36 29'.'4 23 ? CO 00 OO'^ OiC^C^iO 00 iOtOOOlOGCC-ICO i" co'Mco'^t^oot^co-^cooO!Mir6<£>coOi'^i:^cD"^iM : r^ :x) c^ ^ y^ ao :r-HOTjio> : : : :iO cococococ^co'M'^c^i-HCOfNiH rH ,^.-ic^c^c^ :cococococooS : cocoMCi ; : ' :|cn gii;;^SrtUK5;z;(iHflSt-Sj;.£oK.<;S^^H<^cH;?MoS«M!^S 62 INDIA\ CORN AND ITS CULTUHE. XVII. ESTIMATED VALUB OP MAIZB CROPS IN THE UNITED STATKH, AS BEPORTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, IN DOLLAKS, FOR THE FOLLOWING YEARS : \l^ 'y. o :^ c I Cft -H -r — C: -- |i-i ■-£ O 1-. -M t~ i_0 I.O 05 1 O O O O O O O o c: 'C: o ■; — ■'■ -ri o cC'CO -ri-ooo , ^ ^. , CJ O 'T OC O i.'t O O X O C^J 1-- l^ X/ CI c o o ,o a; cc o c3 r-i ■--: ot X r^ ^ ooooooooooooooocoooooooo in — o -T< --r* o o -f* o o :^> »c o o X CI -r i'" o o o CI ^— -r jCC -.O X O C^ 05 -3* o tT Xi -JD Cl Cl C" 'T CC iO 'C CO — ' — "* — ^ -^ 50001 ■iOCC Oc ;2ggS C» -VD -rf 00 O i-H -rj* O i-h' O ■ I-- O O iC '^ CO 1— I '^ -f 1-- C» -VD -TJ 00 O i-H -rf O t— ' O -f'>0 O n DC' W ■-O t X 1-- O X •— l-^ Tji QC' l^ lO "C O l^ C--) Ci CI Tj* l^ "^ O O -^ ^ O '-' CO C-l C r-. ,l^CJ-f CJ(N-^C0rJH^i-liCr-i_C0iO:C'-O TO CI L-; C) Cl 3^ l"^ -T C- ^ '^ r rH r-1 i-H rH ci ^O C-J r4 1> i-H CO 30 oi cJ GO i-*:* CC GC CI -^ iC iC t^^ CO 1 .-H(N r-irHr-lrHrHTHrH(MClCCC Op 0( '>o o n cC' w ■.o o ci ic t-' c-f i-H o o -r -x' '"io ir: lc o r-cfci co'co -^"cfo ic^ c^'i--^ tji t-^ lO t-0»o 'Cn -r -r o td'i-^to ir: oc o-i lio" ooooooo— ■oooooooooc;ooooooooooooc;:oo cn-o'C'0?i^i'C'-/:QOOo*--:;ciooooc;xQooioooococ;oo , ^ -, -, __ . .- ,. =5 o O O tT '-0 O O -T< O O <£): O '^ CI O CO TfH-~ i-i '-C CO ^ f^op Ct CI O -S 0"=' -^ T. T-I 0*-^0 O p CO CI ^ 3 c- '-^ — -r -r "1 CTi cc u-. ■: I o co rO' " TC 'X Ci 1— I T—i >— ' CO lO lO I'^ C5 o 1-^ CO CO ofci ad cJ 1— cfi-^ CO croi oi lo c:5 co co o QOOOOOO O X O O 1-^ O CO o -T'o'rH o 0)0 >oo oi r-'ci f"ai ,-h ijo"i--^cc ao x co '"--^ o CO ci o r-( o 1-- ci o ci CO o cc Ci CO --0 Ci r^ irr. f-H cc "-f i-H c- X w CC rH O Oi Cl -^ ■—• -^ Cj Tf CO a> l-^ f- CO X CO -(— c» , a i-H C^ -t i-H ^ C^ " CO CI I— I C-l CI c5 " .-iOir^r-i' W, C 1 l-^ 't* '^ r'o'o lO ^■i CO -r cj -- •-I I-H M O l^ C4CJC1 00 ooop 000000 . Oi o o -rp o o o -^ j: CO ir: o ,^_ ^ _-^ _„ , -^-iX O '^ C0_0_ *> C^> 00 T-1 T-1 CO o rr^co ciccT-^r-'-^cc-xi^tr:ciC5.c^ 'l O l^ CT! -T* f-^ ail--l--i-'ClXGC r-^CCCJ_0_C^Tr G01--^C0-^^C^^C^t--'^ClCli--JI>^^ ■•\c6 Ci CO O 1-^OX O^ CO ci rp Tf cOco"cO CO O to »0 t^ "^ -7p tr^ r-^ t^ lO ■^ -^ CO ci i-H 000000000000 ■" 'TiOOOO'^''^' — '' — ' CO o o o ■^ -^ o I - r^ CO o !■ 00000000000000000000 O'Ot CO O CI O O CO' O O r-< O O O O X O X O O i.O CI i-C O' : CTJT-HUT'OOr-HL'^Or-tlCOkrOOCIOX'— tOi-HTp-:T'0< OOOC^CP^^Of—"^— '■_J<-J'-J' 1.0 C^ O Ol O O O O Ol 'X o ' ,-,1 ^1 _J< rv-, -^ J-— 1 ,— ^ .-^ fO t— if^ l^ ( od CO CI Oi uc o lO CO X r^ r- 1> ift' i-~ o co ci i-* i-h ic co X' i^ o o O'-'OOt^O'^ClXCOiCCOGOOOpt-IO^XOr-iCOCOCCCliO . „. cDt-COOQO-^O "^"^ »0 CO CO l^ CI -rfi lO -:t< CI uC X CO CI Tt< l^ -Tli "in'^ir^ ood'OCOOit-^cdcoi-'Oioco t-^icocf-^cf-^ Cli— 5 ,52 356 20,12 1.053,664 New York . 823. 5US 699 983^11.90 20.82 9,890,762 671 U8i 14.33 9,632,S90 New Jersey '21 U 759 183.4.5912.58 23r00 2,7«5,82S 192.630 15.64 3,014,653 I'l'iiiisylvania y/5,150 829,728 9 2r20.81 10,048.006 8y2o;>2 11.94 10,658,2;)9 Delaware . 40,24,s 32,199 10.50 27.50 474,8.54 32,09:- 9.37 300 915 Maryland 3Sl,7H,s 328,927 7.5017.66 3,302,429 368,396 9.17 3.380.033 Kentucky . 1,"J22,74U 1,602,2,84 5.34 11,52' 11 ,031, 72.^1 1,794. 5.56 7.37 13,234,8.50 Ohio 2,:i20,664 1,779,176 6.94 16.24, 16,484. 06'i 1,.>^38,4S1 9 62 17,695,377 Jliciiisan . ;;'j'.t,i;-i2 339,696 5 2') 13 23 2 463.64.=. .351 017 8.66 3,139,815 Indiana 2,6G5,UUli 2.025,474 5.44 12.031 14,355,544 2 261, 7S0 6.8;j 15.4,55 393 li uiois 2,421.703 2,034,231 6.85 14.18! 17,662,212 1. 976. 20-- X.73 17.257,236 Wisconsin 400.749 340,6.3.s 6 00 13.65 2695,294 357.6(i8 9 25 3.30,s,429 V> iiinesota . 114,7 8 109,016 6.23 15.00 918. 1S7 127.701 9.71 ] ,2(.5 o;n Iowa 1,581,741 1,423 567 56s 12.00 10,335,09^ l,423,56.s 7.71 10 982 827 M issouri . 1,412,653 98,s,S57 3,40 8.61 4,650,098 988,857 5 8,s 5,816,9.50 Kansas. . 160,386 102,246 3.63 10 16 538.036 95,429 8.42 803 749 Noljraska . 3t,620 32.8.S9 .5.18 1220 228,063 35,280 13.616.876 8.20 8.86 2.s8,Sr.5 Tiiial ^<- . III, 148 712 13 070.887 5.08 111.796.318 120 673,1.53 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, XIX. 69 ESTIMATED NUMBER OF SWINE IN THE STATES, WITH AVERAGE PRICE AND VALUE, FROM U, S. AG'l REPORTS. OiCi-'CCi-^accioc^i-^r-' ■«T Xj O i^ ;_^ t_j :^ Ti ';^ !7--i c;:? •— I cx", 1"^ i^ irrjc ■: T--.X'COrfitCl^«3iCC^iCQCu:3'rfTT"iOOC^10lTj'COCOl-^OCiOCOtDiOOCCi--iCOi-»- x' X i-o CI 'x' x'rJ X '^ ci o 1-H lO -q< oi--- ai X 1-3 o ; ' irt« ^ ^ Qf- .^^ (-ft — 1 /■,-, ^n -*i , — 1 .(-■ -w __i -- /*.! '^ 1-^ '"■I or-, ' ■ p O O C-i O (TJ O --I X 1 r o 1-- -r X CN a> o o o o - <^ I'xxr-iX'raioi-Hio-^oi-^aiXi-iocit^Xf-'i-CiOiooco'Mccc^iocrix ^-raii-HCocc-roi^'i-irHi— •'Nioi'^C'iGcc^c^ixiCTr^cOr-ioxrHxc^-r.— i-j:: li T-i L"^ X l^ CO X OI^X* rHCCi-*^'X'i-li:N':OrH'MaaX-^C4rri-Hr-( l-^Ol tP CC ) Ira o I l-COC^' ^ CO o i^TrR"x^^H'3r?i3"ci~3" T-iCCOi^Ci-tCJi— l-TC^OOiOrfCOCOi-Ht-XCO ic T3* uo GC i>^ o :c t-^ t->^ CC CO CC o iC I •iaiT*'i-H'NTt<»^c^cooiiC-^CicooiC'x;i>-'*f O lOl lO CO CO t-- l^ O Oi >-t -M -^ CO CO O I ' '"-^ '^ <; *"^ico X -1^ lo 'I- --d oi 1- o ^ 00 "^ "^ Tji c OJ OJ 'J' O C-1 u^"C' Ci O Ci >-- 04 i" 'T :^ J, :;j J. ^,j i^ -.^ ai 1— « a^ i-r; T^ -^ n "A ' o ix; o X CO uo CO i.t CO X X i~- 1-^ I ^ — , -^ ^ ,_ .„ ^ . -^ .^ -^ ^ ^ ^ J xo : o X o o io oi ; CO -ri ?5 1— lO X Ci 01 i/T' '-0 '^ Ci t o4^C0 OC^ ■jS^'-^O^COCD X;0 ox -T XO TJ^CO O^CO O '-'O tC ----^.-«Oil-^X)OiX .1 1^ ■>:^:r;o i-^o o cri c-Jr-TicTcc o oJco i-^ct o -r x'lC oo o i— ' -^t^ «d o x oj t-^ OC--J!NCO TTr— C*i-'' IQ »0 I ^XCOCOCOt-OlOaiOi^GCC "jDCOXOO'-T—OOXOOC^iOOCOaOUO^C^COOOr-il '-H|^tH[if:;O^OOOiOCOrCQ'N^LOC^iCt-f:OCOi(Oif:)QOT-(I>-r-tCOO^'^COaiXr-'as>-iO « *; pi O C^ 1-- O O Ir^ I> 1-- O Ol O O O l^ ^ X Oi I-^ ^O T-H t-^ X CO Oi 0-1 X CO lT: O O I l-^ Ol 1-1 ^. • !►-, "^'l r. o t--^ oi o o '^' *-D oi o4 o r^ '^* t^ t^ i-^ 1--^ ':c CO CO t^ o -^ to X ci --0 1--^ oi ■ Ol O CO Oi uO o o -T ^-^ -- -— . ■ J _■ X O i-H l^ -M O 1(0 01 f-f iC O CO r^ l^ C^l l^ C- .-( — M Oi -^ lO O) CO -rf C-J X '^1 O^ CI O l^ Oi t-H 'Xi I— > O X O X OS »0 OO X) T-» O TT ^ X O "^^ Oi -^ '^ CO lO 00 lO lO tC 05 1-* V"' I— I -^J in i-H 71 CJ O CO ;0 -n* O tC O !>• CO -^ I> lO Tj* O? O iO Ci CO CO 1-^ »C I."- X 1— I CO (i5 SXt-«COi— •Oi'^O^OOl-n*'— •'COM'OiOXCOOJi— liCOCOCiXi— (i— 'CCXXi— tO' i04cOTlii--liCXOuO^COl-'l'0005UOCOCOO:^r;;-OCOCO'— 'XXl^iC'^O'^i •'-^'••^^ tC^O COOiOiOJ-^ COiOi-1 ^'O "^CO 1-; »-< ^t uO --h CO i-h I- 1-- rH rH rH ^ ^ rH oT CS| C^ i-TrH ^ . - , .. _ , ,^ -f QdlO O ^ r-i OJ M CO Ol O^ I -i--coxo-rO'^r-ci5ii^^xoiX'-''-*i^cit--w -, X!ioc>04xcoi^'-co-)^i/r— 'T-<-jw^^_= 05 13 5> O "^ AH \ ■3 ^ G M o d && =!- !i £f j; a o g-^a m 3 «^ a S?,-s ^^-o-^.a == ^ ^ S-^k ^ i> a)^J3 o <^ o -i a>ie-H o ^ a^ ° "s o (U <- (B^.^^-Cg g — S^S oSk> ^ = r 70 INDIAN CORN AXD ITS CVLTURE. XX. NUMBER OF SWINE IN THE UNITED STATES, WITH THEIR AVER- AGE PRICES AND VALUE, FROM THE U. S. AG'L DEP't. > ic c-i to in uo CO o eg CO o y .= o o X -^ o = o o ;-: -.c .c X -.; CO 1- o c^ o o o o t£ g «; o o 2? X c4 614 506 583 953 194 7.57 980 657 336 230 311 901 625 120 075 480 590 167 298 421 958 248 210 059 324 488 275 912 874 056 116 099 588 225 600 SO 635 i X •*f TJirtt' iHOUr-im COCOi-lCOCOlOTHt~rt(MC-4 0Nl,-ll~X!M (N 3 05 X c-i lO 05 CO .-f o 1^ o ^ X o g ji OT o in .-< 05 ;>} oj lO ;* ; - CO 3 T-H C2 ..O iC »-^ 01 i-O 05 O 1 SJ S K X Tf< O CO O ^O O rH O O CO CO O cS -:f O -.O X CO O CO O) -O O^ 1"=; 1" ^ I- 04 uC I- O l-_ O r-H ! oi,-ioii--'0.-4t-^oJ«3ibjcocoiO'3''^.^-^iri'«'coib,b^ oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooocooooooooooooooooooooooooooo S -^l CO S ira Jh m o » o_o in ^ -r oi '3<_^o o^o o co x_i-^i^o en c> tt en o_o o_o cc o -r" co co r-rcOi-tOx'in'cOrH oi--C. COO''inOX"inr-i x''x'''M'o'o''r-rco"co''M01x'T- 05 CO X o -f o ) uc in CO i-H 4< 1-1 CO oi i 6 >• 8667,212 839,216 1,133.900 1,318.640 298.248 1.299.375 7,306,092 2.410,200 11,230,272 2.87,500 2,011.392 4.'242,000 3,492,225 1,4.87.668 6,630 096 495 000 3,870.000 8,740,000 1.290 000 3,312,000 2,8:52,608 6 824,.800 1,531,200 9,591,621 16.040.;570 3,813 238 14,187.960 25,289760 5,1()9..567 1,169970 22.1<;5 000 9. .548,000 2,706.621 653,79' 2,7'26.460 375.2).'i 32. '207 582 890 182,602,352 Price 9 87 17.78 17.00 15.55 14.62 18.75 11.09 1.5.45 10.72 6.25 7.76 5.60 4.15 4.69 4.64 2.75 AM 4.40 276 4.49 4.80 4.81 7.89 7.37 6.04 7.. 52 7.93 6.61 7.15 4.:i4 8. .88 8. .58 5.94 2.. 51 7.49 7.57 1 ■^ §Si2x?«xooo°ininoicnooS = = - = H_,-' 3 -r o =^r.0 3 5 7^oi3i.ocoo o i~i^"cD -f o'o>'x''.c'i^!DOii^^'i^cc d ^ - - - -.-. ~ ~ — -.-. \ ~ -. : *— 1- c 3 — c 5 ori-t i~ r-f -■°^^*^--°§S.3-^Sl2SSa2a':22?,'7.,:o;ss.BEH'^'3-^r4c=S'-^;5 ^^,i? rt r^ ,-4 r4 ,-i oT oioo' co'oi 'o o o-i oi lO ^ lO cC' r- 1-H oi o oi X' to —' oi o 01 -f r- oi f- o — o cr- •-' uc Oi o i^ oi lo lO' i-~ o 'O '^ l^ O CO O to C>:' O O ^ X' -r:^ l-- 04 'X' i-H -r O O O CO 00 OI C^ '^ I— ' a> i-» CO CO o 1-- o O "^ o uO 'vs* X ci; oi i-O i--^ oj yf oi ^ cc ic Tj' '^ CO CO ur:J lO CO* o4 u:d Tj^ lO irf <^ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOwOO OOOOO'OOOOOOOOO'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'OO O i^O^ O O i-O- Ci O O i-O CI O "^.O O ^Lt lO O OI O -^O^O O O O O O O CO p o o o o o o *o CO ic -^':o coo^-^'o lO r^ irr o of ijOic 1-- rH o o'o iC O o o , . . _j i.T O CO O 1—t "^ l~- O CO O i-O i.O O '-C 01 ■:!: OI CO <~^ ■ — - • COOaOOOQCOrHl-^tOr-tOOOiOCOClI-TfOO'Ttt.-ii t o i^ o c^ ci T-- Tj^ CO o ir: o CO o r-t ^ i^ o 00 o i^ o o >^ o oa;':::.S : .^ ce.; .2^'-' 03 tag's cs "i2>o 5 -c .^3 5,'H ~ .s 'S 5S 2 S "^ ^ 0) S^.a o a^ i> S i'.^.^ o S Sj: -=;•-; o oj >- S-''' '^.■^■^'^ — 'r'S ~-" =? i»'3 , Pi ' '^'^ oj cS ,„ "S P „.M a INDIAN CORN AND ITis CUI.TURE. 71 XXI, (a) ESTIMATES FOR JANUARY, 1876, FROM U. S. AG'l DEP'T. STATES, ETC. Number. -^v. Piice $11 66 Vain p. Maine .... 58,800 $685 608 New Hampshire 37300 16 20 604 260 Vermont .... 51 800 12 19 631 4,12 Massachusetts 75 600 18 03 1,363 068 Rhode Island 16.300 17 05 277915 Connectic.it .... 57,900 16 73 968 667 New Yoric .... 568,700 II 39 6 477-493 New Jersey .... 153 occ 13 83 2 115,990 .Pennsylvania 875 000 II 50 10,062,500 ' Delaware .... 46 700 10 61 4954S7 Maryland .... 233.5"o 7 IC 1,657 850 Virginia ..... 589,800 4 45 2 624 610 North Carolina 758 300 4 Oi 3 040 783 South Carolina 275900 4 II 1,133949 Georgia .... 1,360,700 3 91 5-320,337 Florida 175.400 2 26 396,404 Alabama . . , . ' 755.900 3 99 3,016,041 Mississippi .... 792,900 4 31 3 4' 7,399 Louisiana .... 222 600 3 98 885,948 Texas ..... 1,090.000 4 09 4,458 100 Arkansas .... 901 200 3 91 3 523 692 Tennessee .... 1,026,400 5 22 5357808 West Virginia 248,400 5 38 I 336392 Kentucky ... . . . 1,604,300 5 51 8,839,693 Ohio 1,596,100 8 06 12 864 566 Michigan .... 459,700 7 93 3,645421 Indiana .... 2,136,000 7 70 16,447 200 Illinois ..... 2,640,100 8 63 22,784 063 Wisconsin .... 540,700 7 58 4 09S 506 Minnesota .... 213,400 6 99 1.49 1 666 Iowa ..... 3 296,200 8 08 20. 6,^3.296 Missouri .... 1,874,300 5 94 11,133342 Kansas .... 246 500 8 91 2 196 315 Nebraska .... 80,900 7 58 613,222 California .... 3^3 300 7 17 2 604 86 1 Oregon ..... 181 500 4 41 800 4 1 5 Nevada .... 5.200 9 00 46 800 Territories .... 1 1 6 500 8 75 I 019 375 Total .... 25 72b 8o( 175070484 Grand average of prices 6 80 72 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. XXI. (i) (y) STATISTICS OF OHIO, FROM REPORTS OF STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, &C, INDIAN CORN. Counties. Acres Bushels Acres Bushels Avy'ld per acre planted. produced planted. 18 produced 72. '47-\5fi. 18G2. 1872. Ailaius 28.287 477,225 33.330 669 auy 35 26.68 Allen . 21,9:^3 761,017 29.774 1,1.53.393 33 38.74 Ashland 190rr)M 507,328 21,366 911,069 52 44.04 Ashtabula 11.048 292 271 12,280 579.. 835 39,4 47.30 Athens 18.038 610,160 19,968 670,379 39 33.57 Auglaize 23,?.00 510,111 28,865 1,122.519 38.88 Belmont . 2.->,9i\9 786,481 26.917 ],18S,142 45'^ 44 09 Brown 38,1^>0 930 469 42,57r^ 1,408.680 38.llj 33 08 Butler 58.353 2,21.5,510 57 690 2,738.309 47^2 47.46 Carroll , 10,880 251 868 12,. 572 517.912 36!ij 41.19 Champaign 35.779 1.369,222 41.863 1.. 599 281 36H 38.20 Clark . 30 53034 1,088.186 39 965 1,794,483 37^4 44.90 Clermont 38 f,17 901 77:'. 38,308 1,460.138 UVs 33 11 Clinton 47.190 1.729.244 57,677 2.449,689 ii'A 42.47 Columbiana 14,918 466,074 17 602 680,360 39><, 38 65 Coshocton 29. (-,34 663.172 30,905 1,2.59,625 48 40 75 Crawford 21.915 607,617 24.. 596 991,294 37>^ 40.42 Cnvahoga 9,5G8 306,103 9 918 463,994 35 46.78 Darke 36,0G7 1,245, 1 6S 49,437 2,166 965 39V3 40.46 Fairfield 39.515 1,195,407 50,272 2,160,383 3634 42.97 Fayette 52.277 2,065,739 06,762 3 093.695 46>3 46.34 Fianklia 53,846 1.749,253 65,952 2,6S0.820 50 40.64 Fulton 9.305 296,769 17,342 098 874 40 40.29 Gallia 18,768 422.650 22,569 076 920 36% 30 00 Geauga 5,800 182 598 5,691 292.308 47>i 51. 36 Gieene 39,868 1,477,753 51.770 2 388 519 39 46.13 Guernsey 19,226 4(53.723 20 239 767 380 41K 37.91 Hamilton 29.961 1,066,294 23 404 877.947 38 37 51 Hancock 28.107 665.298 37 005 1,.587 935 35,4 42.91 Hardin 25,149 511.229 21,928 963,400 35 43.93 Harrison 14,320 4 19 419 14,406 627 32t 41 43.54 Henry- 7,501 191.8:;.s 15,404 096,090 41% 45.18 Highland 57,276 1,471.425 57 230 2,097.653 42^2 36.65 Hocking 15,177 4no.l.s-j 17 622 556,462 36 3157 Holmes 16 856 398 095 19 624 715,819 40 36.47 Hmon 28,836 669 646 26), 283 1,033,180 47K 39 31 Jackson 16,481 321,100 17,965 495.595 32 27 58 Jetfersou 13..507 363,262 14.195 597,209 38 42.07 Knox 31 ,085 762,691 30 639 1,315 785 38 42 94 I,:lko •56,660 181,208 5,375 244 040 45 --i 45 40 Liwronce 16 340 257,147 16.177 4.56.441 40>i 28 21 Lirking 41,637 l,303,Ols 48 911 2.260,797 45 46.34 J.ogan 27.743 963, .557 32,677 1,348 496 32 41.27 Lo ain 13,928 399 031 15.205 648 212 3.SV4 42.-46 Jjucas 6.07:; 223 051 9,663 608,926 30 63.01 Madison .35,129 l,l:;3.327 54,29i; 2,446,336 40 45 05 Mahoning 11,308 247.970 11 932 590,741 41% 49,50 Mai-ion 27,811 810,115 31 412 1,455 997 o^/s 42 31 Medina 14,197 456, 9i' 9 13 .505 650,336 37 40.75 Meigs 15,370 393,570 17,2.59 547 676 35 31.73 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. OHIO STATISTICS (CONTINUED). 73 INDIAN CORN. Counties) Mercer Miami Monroe Montgomery Morgan Morrow Jliiskingum Noble 'Utawa Piinldiug I'eiry IMckaway Pike Portage Preble . Putnam Richland Ross Sandusky Scioto Seneca Shelby Stark Summit Trumbull Tuscarawas Union Van \A'ert Vinton Warren Washington Wayne Williams Wood Wyandott Acres Busliel planted, produced 1H,096 40,580 lf.,8:56 34,752 17,096 20,117 31,286 21,577 4,188 4,438 19.197 (U977 25,594 9,642 38.9.58 17,0.57 23 516 67.094 13,566 33,077 22,923 26,786 18,073 11,074K 9,SS8 " 19,908 28,818 11,770 11,443 42,924 23,575 22.77834 11,407 14,99114 21,610 506,171 ,451.9.57 .383.178 ,282,322 431,646 625.931 854,339 519.760 89,019 137.093 513,300 ,991.861 849.860 303,927 549,223 461,768 618,781 267,721 323.021 441,740 633.878 604,403 567,170 369,131 318,609 493.185 862,567 306,295 274,37; ,631, 97> 609,932 676,364 369 699 394 .504 557,591 Acres planted. Bushels produced 28275 43,918 18.864 44.528 17,548 21,261 34.369 21,993 7.717 9,291 18,297 83,289 26,590 10,051 41,048 26,051 25,176 71,673 24,835 23 859 30,067 28,793 24,198 13 623 11719 21,746 38,917 21,196 14,116 47,9.54 24.885 27,751 18,455 36,343 44,163 1,175.560 1.753,554 632,270 1,630,941 637,771 882,37 1,410,034 8,S3.565 365,080 368,998 760 921 3,375 648 849,171 627.202 1,, 597,695 1,077.445 905,198 3,102 757 979,040 820 528 1,168.732 995,341 1,707,601 8,51,802 674,391 849,318 1,649,271 903,491 455.000 2 252 572 806,744 1,268,801 784,270 1,457,862 1,071,875 Av y'ldp'racre '47-,56 34 4i;-^ 46 37 30 44 h 39 39 433-3 803^2 33 37 36 33 46 4'-2V2 443/2 28 35 35 1872. 41.57 .39.93 33.51 36 62 36.34 41.50 41.02 40.17 47.30 39.00 41.58 40.. 53 31.93 62.40 38.91 41.35 35.95 43.29 39.42 34.39 38.87 34.56 70.57 62.,52 57.54 39.06 42.37 42.62 32.23 46.97 32.41 45.72 42.49 40.11 24.27 (k) Prices in Special Markets of U. S. Republic— The ap- plication of the great law of prices, that of demand and supply, to the maize product, must be guided by the political, as well as meteorological and industrial facts of the time. There was much exported in the early years of the Republic, in proportion to the population, and this, doubdess, stimu- lated prices. Quotations of market prices, even in our greatest cities, were not as full and frequent as they are now. The follow- ing fragmentary quotations are taken from the Price Current, 7 71 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. of New York City, in old copies of the New York Spectator, for the years 1799 and 1800-1, 2 and 3, including those of hog products : Corn, per Hams per Fork, per Prime per Mess, per 1799, J"iy 17 bushel 68c lb. lo-llc. bbl $1214 bbl. $i3'4 bbl. $16 •' " 24 68 cts. 14 cts. $i2;^-k ^sH-H " " '■ 31 68-72 " " K " August 7 68-75 " i< K .< (( '• 28 78-81 " a « $r3>2-i4 (( " Sept. 4 " '11 1800, November North, do 11 Carg I2>< 13/2 .i $1 to $1 6 14-16 Cl "i3-i3>^ " i5;5^-i6 $19-20 '• December " 13 (1 "13-14 Same. .1 1801, January (( 12-13 " 15-16 " i7><-i8 " 21-22 " Feb. 11, lb $1 to $1 9 12-13 1( u a (1 (; " " 25, 28 " I 6 14 (1 " iey2 " 18 "22 *' Mar 7 to 18 (( 14 (1 " 1 ,( 1802, Nov, 8 « 14-16 U " 12;^ 13 " i5><-i6 " 19-20 " Nov. 24 69-70 cts. 16 (1 " i3-i3>^ "14 " i7>^ " Dec. I u 15 11 " i2>4-i3 " I3>^-I4 " 15-16 " " 8 68-71 " 12 (I " 12 "13 " 15 " " 15 i( 9 il "12K " 13K-14 " i5-i5>^ " " 25 (( u "13 "14 " 15 1803, Feb. 9 I (1 12-13 ^ "15 " i6-i6>^ '• " 16 <( lO-II It "13;^ •'15 i( " Mar. 2 (( Same. "13 '•14K K It will be observed that the rise in prices was very rapid in the last months of 1799, the year in which General Washington died; the troubles with the French Government having been settled in September, and in the following year the seat of the American Government being transferred to "Washington City. The exports of Indian corn were 41 per cent., and of corn-meal 45 per cent, in 1800, over those of 1799, and the increase of prices of these articles was in nearly the same proportion. Peace at last came to Europe, il 1802, and the rapid settlement and admission as a State of Ohio greatly increased the area for corn planting, and, doubtless, the product. Our territory was greatly enlarged, in 1803, by the purchase of Louisiana. The prices fell to their former rates in the same year, although the expoi ts INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. were as yet undiminished. A few items from an old account book, kept at Marietta, the oldest town in Ohio, from 1802 to 1 8 18, will give some idea of the retail prices of corn and pork in that State during that interval. In 1802 fresh pork was sold at 4 cents per lb.; in 1803 pork by the quantity at 5 cents, and some at 3)^ cents per lb., and corn bought at 46^ cents per bushel; in 1804 a customer was credited with eight bushels at 50 cents each; bacon sold at 12}^ cents per lb. In 1805 fresh pork brought 5 cents; this was in September; in the winter previous clear pork sold for 17 cents; in 1807 corn sold in May at 60, in July at 75 cents. In January, 1808, pork was sold at 10 cents per lb , and in November, corn at 67 ^^ cents per bushel; in 1809 corn at 33^ cents; also in 1810, when wheat brought 75 cents, and pork by the quantity 3 and 4 cents; in 181 1 pork was charged at 8 cents, and in October of same year corn at 33 cents; in 1812, corn at 25 cents; in 1813, pork at 10 cents; fresh at 6 cents; in 1815, pork at 12^3 and 16 cents; in 1816, lard at 12^^ cents; in 1817, pork, at 12^ cents; in 18 18, October, corn sold at 24, and in November at 40 cents. Business was said to be more lively in the earlier than the later years of the above interval; ship-building being carried on there awhile to some extent. Corn seemed to have at- tained its highest price about the time Congress laid the em- bargo in 1807, inconsequence of the "decrees" of France and " orders in council" of Great Britain, which bore so hard on American commerce. The United States exports fell to a very low figure in the year following. After that, it is seen that in this Ohio town the price of corn fell more and more, till it reached 24 cents in 1818. The great'exten- sion of acreage from the rapid settlement of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, had greatly enlarged the supply before proper faciHties for transport had extended the demand. At 76 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, the same time, the prices of pork were maintained ; fresh pork having been lower in 1802 than in 1813, and bacon, in 1804, selling for the same that pork did in 18 17. This shows that cured meats were at a premium, and that pack- ing, which is now so scientifically and economically done, was then in its infancy in the West. The following quota- tions of prices for Indian corn and provisions, so called, at Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, for the years 1806 and 1 807, and 1809 to 181 2, are taken from old volumes of the Philadelphia Aurora, New York Spectator and Baltimore Whig, issued tri-weekly or otherwise, for the country in those years ; and first, at Philadelphia : In 1806, from August 19 to December 24, mixed corn sold from 52 to 60 cents per bushel. It was the same on Janu- ary 14, 1807. On the 2 2d of April it was 60 to 68 cents. Indian meal, from August 19 to Nov. 18, i8c6, sold at $15 per hhd , or S3. 25 per bbl. On August 26 the bbl. price was S3. 25 to S3. 50, and so continued till the 25th of No- vember, when the hhd, fell off Si ; the last quotation, on April 2 2d, being S14 per hhd. An imperfect cask would endanger more meal for being a large one. Late quota- tions have less to say about the hhd. Bacon began with 1 1 cents in this interval, but on the 24th of December lost 1 cent, and so continued till the 22d of April, 1807, proba- bly coming into sharp competition with fresh meat, or newly cured during the cold weather. Hams, on August 26, brought 14 to 15 cents per lb., and on the nth of Novem- ber gained one more cent, which was lost on January 14, 1807, and in April was quoted at 12 to 15 cents. Lard be- f:an in August with 19 to 20 cents per lb ; probably it was the new rendering that reduced it to 16-17 on November 11, to 15.17 on December 24, to 15 on January 14, and to 14 on April 2 2d following. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 77 Philadelphia pork was of two kinds, common, in August S23-24 per bbl , and mess ^26-2"]. November 11 reduced the first to Si 9 20 and the second to 23-24, which, in Janu- ary, became S22, and in April $20. Probably one or more of these cities supplied San Do- mingo, in part, with grain; but this Island, in 1809, was under siege, a condition carrying the law of prices to great extremes, and in this case bringing corn up to 50 cents per lb. ; fresh pork and ham to $2, and lard to $3 per lb., and salt pork to $700 per bbl. The monthly New York prices are thus averaged from the quotations of the Spectator from April 12 to December 12, 1809; after that, those of Baltimore, from the Whig, are compared with them, as far as they go, up to May 5, 181 2. As the quotations do not appear in every number, and the Spectator was a tri weekly and the Whig a weekly, the number of quotations averaged is stated in parenthesis, just after the name of the month, for New York, and in the first Baltimore column : Ind corn Corn m'ljLard per Hamsp'r Pork " Xnrth. per hhd. Cargo. Prime. Me~spiT Bushels. snoihs. lb. etc. lb. Cts. Dollars. DoLs. Cts. bl)l.Dols 1809 Ap(3)l 62.3c. $18 I0M-12 10-13 10 50 |i2 t;o i(j " My (8) 71H 18/, II-I2 1 1-14 II 62 1350 16-17 " Tun (7) 73 3 18 II-I2 11-14 12 1328 ■' " .ny(7) 77 18 II 10-14 II',<-I2 12.^0-13 i6'.<-i7 " Alt (9'i 81.5 iS II 14-15 II i<-12 '• " Sep (7) S2.8 18 II-I2 " io;4-ii II. 50-12 i6-i6;i " Oct (S) N87 S.806 191^-22 bl4-4^< (( i( 10 II 50 11 " N'v(7) X 1. 00 25IUI. li i( 10 11 u ^•9+ t, hhl The hyphen placed between two numbers in the.^e tables stands for the preposition /o, and indicates the relation be- tween the extremes of price of the given article at the given time ; for instance^ in April, 1S09, lard was lojto 12c. per lb. 78 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. < .- t^ . ; : -^ -^ : -— -o : i^ : t^ r^ r^ r^ -o t^ t^ -^ r^ • ,- ..^ . : i a: r; o o : i tr. ~- ! x x ci j uo l- o o o o : r-i .-i cj j ci --i -h ■ : 5 3 "a • : : o ;oo :o :oooooo ; OO ;o o'o : . ; : : : o ■ i-: ^ ; '•'^ ; ^ '^ ^c ^-c .-c uo : ir; lO • u-; u-c i.-o ; ; . 3 CIO • • •■■-co • o'o • O - iCO CO iC CO ■ uO> o - OC O 'O ■ ■ X X : : i-^ I- 1 cc X) i^ . x x) i~ i^ x . i-- =0 t^ x i-;- ; : ,- CO : '. o i~ iuoco : lo ;cii.oo-r o o :oico : ic o o : i CICO • 1 |C1-H jrHOl icl • -C -? ^ -(< r-( -. j ^ rH -)< j CI CI CI \ 1 >. 5 tr 5 M 5 -3 5 X s 16 17 17-18 18 20 19 20 20-22 21 22 21 22 21 22 22 20-22 19 20 20 20 18 20 18 17 IS 17-18 17-18 18 19 19 20 i9 22 14 15-16 16 161/ '^''^'lix^s ^''J" J'^ -^-"^ ^ ^"'-"^ :.''"„'' t"'?~ "„''"_?;!;"■*■ 1 -^ MX p 1 CO M 00 ^ 2 =^ JB ZJ i?3 2 S :;l JJ ':fiiR ^^ici ^-^ ^-^ r-^ r^ ^ T ^ . ?i' , . ■ ^i* *t1 CI CI ■_; ]0 c-1 CI -CI c' CI c; CI OI CI CI CJ o 1^ c^ CI |— |- ^ ^ r- cc -r CI CI CJ CI o; x p. 5 £ •* o ci ci ci ci ci C-; ci CJ ci N c-i ci •1' ■-' 31 o o o o o o o o o CI o> en ? coco ^0 CO CJ CJ CI CI CI CI -T -f -r CI .^ >., ^,^^ -•l* CO ICJ C1 5" ?1 id(0 ic iTO i-O: uo o ^^-^ ^'; i^ u'3 c 1^ ci o uc m •.o J0.1C ic .o i-o lio u-. o u-o iio .^' .--0 uo o lo "'T -^ -? •* . '. u-0 lo I.-; -t -!- _! C) r)i -f Tl< -t< ;:^'^??^?\^N?'^CI CMCJC1'MN« C-l : ; ''-c to « cc TC ^: JC-- ci"?! CI CI cico-T'-*:^";?'^' cici CI C! ci^-ci -i; • It § -r o.-rir-L-oin -r o o o uoo : :o cox <» o o --c x x 0-. — . I-. 1-;- 1- i~ X C-. o ^^^ X X • : I-;- I- i~ '^ ^ >- -^ •-: '- O i-C X X O CI .-0 O uC >-C 1- 6 O O " . O O O -i X O O .rjl^ t^ S CI CI CI X o --C 1 - 1 ^ i^ /: ■/- -/- -/ ^ X X i^ 1-- I - --C t^ i^ c; X X X r- -,0 -— -y O O O O O o o o O OOOO OO O Ortr- — OOCO o 1-^ ^0. T-H i-XXX C-. — 1 .— _,^x-xx^^o_j,-i X o-c £t=£Sr£SS';Srr5:s~S2;-il2;JU;:Sx233i^';?? 5 3 a ~ i 3 >•€_,*_ "--.^^ "^b*^ ■„ '"-^_ T-r--. ■ ;• = S &■■? >.^ >.rrtr-§ >• -J 2 != 't-: >.2 > bit^ o >• -^ 5ir >. ::3 ^iis -^, ?=".;;< -^ o ».=. ►^ ^S <;S =■- --^-ZQ.q 5:, <;s J^l ^ J,_ . X S ' " ' ' X X For December, 1809, and January, 1810, hog's lard r. iltimore was quoted at 14 cents per lb ; prime pork at per bbl ; cargo at Sio to Sii; Baltimore navy at % Southern second at S14, and Souihern third at S12. for $15 16; INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 7"J The porker has long been recognized in agricultural prac- tice as the best carrier of the maize product to market. His feet, compared with those of other farm animals of the same average weight, are small; but when half-grown, es])ecially when escaping from confinement, he makes use of them to great advantage. And vvhen ripe for his final con- version into pork, bacon and lard, the ten bushels of corn with which he is loaded do not prevent him from taking long walks in company with his kind. But since the rail- road has presented such facilities for the transport of live- stock, this fat producer often enjoys a long ride before giv> ing up his life to increase his master's comforts. But before the railroad, or any other fast conveyance, had cheapened inland live freights, the prices of Indian corn made a show- ing of such a proportion to those of pork, lard and bacon, as to prove that this grain was the main reliance of those Avho produced these articles. This will be seen if the above tables are carefully examined. Among the earliest records of the American prices for maize after the establishment of our present government are those contained in the letters of General Washington to his brother agriculturalists at home and abroad, and in his pub- lished diaries and plans for farm management. Mr. Sparks, the editor of these, and other relics of the great patriot's literary labors, has introduced one of his schemes for rota- tion which extended over some years subsequent to his death. He estimated, for instance, the probable yield for 1800 of some seventy-five acres of his farm, according to a contemplated rotation, at 12^ bushels per acre, which would bring 2s. 6d. jjer bushel, being 6d. less than the price was stated to be in 1789. It does not appear whether this was according to the old South Carolina currency of 4s. 6d. to the dollar, or according to that of New Jersey, which required 7s. 6d. for a dollar. 80 IXniAN CORN AND ITS CXrLTUKE. In July, 1799, the price of corn at New York to tliat of mess pork was nearly as one to twenty three and one -half ; in November, 1800, it was about as one to twenty ; in De- cember, 1802, as one to twenty-one and one half; on De- cember 2,1809, as one to seventeen and one-third. The ex- ports of Indian corn had greatly diminished after 1804, and also of hogs and pork, in consequence of the oppressive measures of the European belligerent powers; one hundred and sixteen American vessels having been captured by the British in 1805, under their Orders in Council, and one hun- dred and ninety- four in 1807; and there being a greater supply for home consumption, the price would necessarily fall, as it appears by the Philadelphia prices, above quoted, to have done. Pork, occupying a much smaller space in the vessel, in proportion to its value, would have a better chance of being profitably exported, especially to places which the cruisers would be less likely to visit. It was probably the excess of the pork over the maize exports that made the lat- ter, at Philadelphia, in 1806, stand to the former as one to forty-seven. The ratio of the Baltimore prices of these articles was about the same as at New York in 1802. The high prices of maize in November, 1800, were repeated in New York in November, 1809, and in the latter part of 18 16 rose to $1.80 per bushel. Corn was so scarce for feed- ing purposes that flax-seed, which had been largely exported to Ireland, was recommended as a substitute. Mr. Ewell, in the same year, wrote for the National Intelligencer, (pub- lished at Washington City, and mainly devoted to reports of Congressional debates, and probably having a very wide circulation through the Union), in favor of grinding and cooking Indian corn, in view of its great scarcity, for feed- ing domestic animals, as though that was then a new thing to American farmers. INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. 81 The country papers in the West, during the early years of this century, were more in the habit of quoting prices at New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore than in the young towns they represented. The Western Spy stated that lard in New Orleans, on the 26th of July, 1817, of prime quality, sold for 22 cts. per lb., which was copied into the American Friend of August 29, 1817. Occasionally, how- ever, they ventured on a price current of their own. For instance, the American Friend, issued at Marietta, Ohio, contained the following prices at that place, at the following dates : 1820. Corn per bu. Corn-meal per bu. Bacon per lb. June 30 40 cents 37 to 40 cents 7 to 8 cents July 28 40 " 37 to 44 " 7 to 8 " August II 40 " 37 to 44 « 7 to 8 " If a barrel of mess pork contained 200 lbs. and sold for $16, each pound would be 8 cts., and the ratio of corn at 40 cents to mess pork at the above price would be as i to 40, showing that bacon was more valuable, in proportion to maize, at Marietta in 1820 than at New York in 1809. The The Ohio Monitor (Columbus, O.,) for Novembers, 1821, gives the Philadelphia price current, with the items of Pennsylvania corn at 50 cts. and Southern at 47 cts. per bushel, and bacon at 6 cts. per lb. If bacon bore the same price as mess pork at that city, the ratio of a barrel of 200 pounds to a bushel of the Pennsylvania corn would be about 24 to I. The difference in the prices at Marietta and Phila- delphia, at nearly the same times would not begin to pay for the transport to the latter place in 1820. Most probably the Southern maize came by sea, and that very little Western reached the Eastern cities in those days. The same Colum- bus journal, however, on the 25th of January, 1822, only two months after its former date, quotes the Philadelphia prices of maize at 80 cts. for Pennsylvania, and 75 cts. for Southern. The fluctuations in these quotations were proba- 82 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. bly much greater and more rapid than they are now, when freights are comparatively fast and cheap. The Scioto Ga- zette of November 19, 1823, quotes corn at ChiUicothe, O., at 20 to 25 cts , and cornmeal at 25 to 37^2 cts. per bushel, and bacon 6 to 10 cts per lb. The quotations for Dec. 23 were the same. Some idea of the standard price of Indian corn and swine products at the exporting cities, in the early part of this cen- tury, may be obtained by dividing the values of the same ar- ticles exported, as set forth in U. S, documents, by the re- spective quantities — bushels or pounds. This would give for the export price of Indian corn, for the year ending September 30, 1827, 54 cts. per bushel, and ^3 27 per bbl. for cornmeal. We have chosen as the representative quan- tities those exported in that year to the Swedish West Indies. In the Government statement of exports the quantities of pork, hams, bacon and lard are lumped together in barrels and pounds and then valued. Allowing 200 pounds for each barrel "the above process would give about 5A- cts. as the average of these products for a pound, which would be lower than the last named quotation for bacon at Philadelphia. For the year ending September 30, 1836, the export price of corn was 97 cts., and that of cornmeal 1^. 21 (to the Swedish West Indies), and the average of pork, lard, hams and ba- con about g'^ cts. Supposing the barrel of mess pork was reckoned at Si 8, the ratio of the prices of maize and mess pork, by the bushel and barrel respectively, would be as i to 18. The Erie Canal had already been opened then, in- creasing the value of Indian corn. Returning to the old newspapers, which are probably our best guide : The American Watchman, issued from Wilming- ton, Delav/are, gives a summary of the prices at different points and dates in 1815, viz.: July 14, at Norfolk, Va, where the authorities did '-not recollect ever to have seen TXDTAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 83 the market so badly supplied, nor such exorbitant prices demanded for every article of food," bacon sold for 20 cts., and meal at the moderate price of %\. — per bushel. [The blank for cents is left to be filled by the reader's imagination, as a sharp tooth has eaten off the number from the original document.] The New York price for cornmeal was quoted at S5 to 5 50 per bbl., and ^23 to $24 per hhd. of Soo lbs; white and yellow corn at ^i to $1 03 ; hams at 16 to 17 cts. On August 5 it gives quotations as of July 28: At Rich- mond, Va. — Corn S4.50 to $5 per bbl ; cornmeal, $1.17^ to $1.25 per bushel ; bacon, 16 to 18 cts. At Baltimore as of July3t — Corn, Si. 05 to $1.10 per bushel; at Charleston, Si to Si. 12^; bacon 14 to 15 cts. The same journal for August 19th complains of drought as prevalent in the sec- tion it represents, and notices destructive hail-storms in Canada. Some imperfect files of the Cincinnati Gazette, printed for the country, were found to contain no prices current from August 5th, 1S15, to June i, 1822 — probably some of the missing numbers did. At the last date there were quota- tions for New Orleans of May 4 -Corn per bbl., in the ear, 75 cts ; cornmeal, $2 to S2 50 per bbl ; bacon hams, 9 to 10 cts. per lb.; lard, 7 cts. per lb., and mess pork, Sii to $11.50 per bbl. The number for November 23, 1824, contains a detailed price current, with the title torn off, which gives the prices of pork from S7 to S8 per bbl.; lard, 6 to 7 cts j.er lb , and ham-s baconed, at 5 to 6^ cts. A full review of the Cincinnati market for July 16, 1828, appears in the issue of the previous day (the weekly, Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette), but does not include grain. Mess pork was Sio per bbl, and prime S8 ; lard, in bbls , 4 cfs., in kegs, 4^ to 5 cts ; bacon, hog round, 4 to 4^ cts.; hams, 6 to 8 cts. The ]irobable reason why so little notice is taken of Indian corn in ihese early Western city prices is because the facilities for 84 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTPRE. carrying it to great markets were so few. This grain could be shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi, but it was a long distance to New Orleans, and the omission of it in this re- view shows that there was no great demand for it at Cincin- nati. About this time, the author of this work, then a small boy, was employed for some nine months in a store at Coshocton, Ohio, which, like other country stores, dealt in dry goods, groceries, hardware, &c., and received, to some extent, pro- duce and farm manufactures in exchange. At that time, Zanesville, some thirty miles below, on the Muskingum River, containing some large water-mills, was the grain em- porium for that section. It was generally wagoned there, the river improvement not having then been made. One afternoon a team laden with wheat destined for Zanesville, stopped at the store and stated that they had come a con- siderable distance from an adjoining county, and were tired of the journey, and if fair terms could be made, they would take the price of their load in goods. Twenty-five cents a bushel was offered them for their wheat, and accepted and exchanged for goods at a heavy profit. At that time the price of wheat at Zanesville was 28 cts. The price of In- dian corn is not recollected, as the merchants preferred wheat, tow-linen and home-made linsey. Some ten years later, when residing in Southern Illinois, where the soil was an fertile as the climate was sickly, the audaor was told of fields of corn sold standing at 6 cts. per bushel. The great Illinois railroads were then all on paper. Flat boats were then the great resource for shippers of maize, and New Or- leans and the intervening river ports furnished the leading markets. On the 9th of October, 1S28, the Liberty Hall, &c , contained a more complete review of the market. Corn was 25 cts. per bushel; bacon hams, 6 to 8 cts.; country do, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 63^; Lird, 5 to 5^; hog round, 4^ to 5; middlings, 5 to 55^, and shoulders, 3 to 4. This review was now corrected weekly for the daily Gazette by Thomas Clark. Live hogs sold for 2Y2 to 3 cts. per lb. Barrel pork, in due time, ap- peared on the list; clear at Sio to ^11 ; mess at i 8 to ^8 50. These prices continued, with very little change, the re- mainder of the year. Mast-fed hogs brought about 30 cts. less per 100 lbs. than corn-fed. A review of the New York market, from the Journal of Commerce of October 13, appears in the daily Gazette of October 24, quoting Northern yellow at 55 to 56 cts.; Long Island white, 50 to 52, and Southern 40 to 42 cts. Southern corn, which, so far, has generally brought less than Northern \.\ New York and Philadelphia, has gained on its rival in more modern quotations. This may be caused by the great increase in the demand for this grain in the cities as horse feed, and, perhaps, by its growing use for making cakes or bread, the large, soft white variety being more produced at the South. The average New York prices of maize for October 13, 1828, were about double those of Cincinnati. The maize and mess pork ratio for Cincinnati in December, 1828, was about I to 12 in price. The review of the Boston market for the week ending August 3, 1821, shows very nearly the same prices for maize as at New York, Northern being held at 51 to 52, and Southern at 43 to 45 cts. Wheeling, Va., was a growing place in 1825; its Gazette of July 23, in that year, quoted corn at Baltimore, on the nth, 45 to 46 cts. for white, and 44 to 45 cts. for yellow. Its issue for Septem- ber 29 quotes corn meal at Baltimore, on the 12th, at S2 75 per bbl. and §12 per hhd. The same journal, for May 31, 1828, quotes New Orleans prices for May 3 — Bacon hams at 7J2 to 8 cts, and sides at 5 to 6 cts.; and on June 7, quotes the New Orleans prices the same for these articles, with the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. addition of lard at 6 to 7 cts ; mess pork at ?i 1.50 to Si 2 ; ].riine at Sio, and cargo at 88. The subscriber to the \Vh el- ing Gazette, residing in that city would then read the Balti- more quotations when they were from twelve to seventt en days old, and of New O. leans prices Avhen they weiefour werks old. Compare this with the journalism of half a century later, and it will be seen what the telegraph has done for commerce. The Wheeling Gazette for the 12th and 26th of November, 1S28, and 7th and 14th of January, 1829, quotes cornmeal in its own market, at 37 15 cts. per busliel, and pork at 3 and 4 cts per lb , and on the 8th of July, the former at 37 to 50 cts., and the latter at 4 and 5 cts. On the 31st of January, 1829, corn is quoted at 25 els; mess pork, ?9 to V 10 ; making the bushel and barrel price of corn and pork as I to 40; prmie at $7.50 to S8, and fresh pork in hhds 2^ to.3 cts. per lb ; lard at 5 to 6 cts. Nearly the same quotations appear in the weekly issues for February and March, 1829. Bacon was once or twice quoted at 6^^ cts. In the previous year, operations were begun on the Avork of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it being stated, in August, 1828, that the work had been put under contract as far as Endicott's IMills. There was considerable speculation, in those days, as to where it would terminate on the Ohio. Wheeling had influence enough to secure a branch of it to that place before tlie natural terminus for this great Western road, on that ri\er, was fixed at Parkersburg. In the spring of 1828, an act of Congress made the United States a stock-holder in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal for one million dollars. These movements, and other contemplated facilities for transportation, gave a new impetus to business in the West. Previous to this, the National Turnpike Road, passing through Wheeling, Zanesville, &c., was tlie great Western land route. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 87 The lengtii of time required for bringing Eastern quota- tions to ihe knowledge of the readers of Western journals is further shown by the New York prices for April 22, 1829, quoted in the Cincinnati Gazette for May 2. These were — For Indian meal, $3.50 to $^.62}^ per bbl, and Si 4. to $14.50 per hhd ; for corn^ yellow Northern, 54 to 56 ; white Long Island and Jersey, 5410 58, and Southern, 70 to 71 cts. This decided preference for Southern maize seems a ' new feature in New York prices. But in the issue of the same journal for September 5, 1830, Boston prices for Sep- t^-mber 4, for corn, are quoted at 55 to 61 cts for Southern < white and yellow flat, and Northern at 66 cts. per bushel ; and New Orleans prices of August 28 at 7 to 7^^ cts. for bacon. This, however, was an exceptional case. In the interval between December 31, 1829, and January 9, 1833, an imperfect file of thirty Gazettes for the Country shows some eleven quotations of Cincinnati prices, viz : Of corn, beginning with 25 cts. per bushel, and ending with 31 cts — the lowest being 20 and the highest 40 ; three quota- tions of cornmeal, for the year ending December 30, showed a range of 28 to 37^ cts. per bushel; nine of pork by the barrel, from December 9, 1830, to January 9, 1833, placed mess at S9 to Sio; prime at $8 to ^9; cargo at S5 50 to $6 50; clear pork being once quoted at ^11. In eleven quotations, city bacon hams, by the pound, ranged from 6 to 8 cts., and hog round fell from 6^4 to 4I3 cts , and lard rose, i.i nine months, from 4}4 to 8 cts, and gradually de- clined to 6. In three quotations for the year ending De- cember 9, 1830, country hams were 5 to 6 cts., shoulders 3 to 6, and middlings 6 to 6^2 cts. per lb. The lowest rati ) in the above interval of the value of the maize bushel to th t of mess pork barrel was i to 50, and the highest i to 2^, Live hogs sold, in December '29, at Si. 75 to 62.50, and in January ';^;^, at $3 to S3 37 per 100 lbs. 88 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The Saturday Evening Post quotes Philadelphia prices for July 8, 1836 — Cornmeal, S4.00 per bbl., 818 to $19 in lihds. Corn, L. C. white at 73 to 75 cts ; L. C. yellow at 78 to 80 cts., and U. C. round at 83 to 85 cts. Does L. C. and U. C. mean Upper and Lower Canada? The Cincinnati Gazette, in April, 1837, had a quotation for the Queen City of 40 cts. for corn; 7 1.2 to 8 cts for lard; 818 to S19 per bbl. for clear pork; 616 to Si 7 for mess; S14 to $15 for prime, and bacon hams 10 to 12^-^ cts. per lb. The maize and mess pork ratio here would be as i to 41. Boston quotations, as compared with those of other great Eastern cities, have less interest in the Western maize grow- ing regions. A few from 1839 to 1850 may suffice here: 1839, June 5, (Mercantile Journal) — Corn, Southern flat yellow, 95 to 96 cts. per bushel; Soudiern flat white, 90 to 91. Cornmeal, kiln dried §4.25 to $4.37^ per bbl. Pork, extra clear, ^27 to S28 ; clear, $26 to $27; prime, $18 to §19 per bbl. Lard, 13 to i^)4 cts. per lb. 1840, September 30, (Boston Journal) — Corn, Southern, 61 to 62 ; Southern white, 57 cts. Kiln dried meal, $3.12 10^3.25 per bbl. Mess pork, (bbl), §15 to $15.25; extra clear, $16.50 to $17; clear, $16 to $16.50; prime, $13.50. Lard, 12 j4 cts. per lb. ; hams, ii^/^ to 12. 1840, October 12, (Journal) — Corn, Southern yellow, 61 cts; do. white, 55 cts. per bushel. Cornmeal, same as on Sept. 30th. Pork, lard and hams, same. 1844, November 13, (American Republican) ^Corn, Southern white, 47 to 48 cts. Meal, (bbl), $2.62 to $2.75, ]\.)rk, clear, $10 to $10 50 per bbl.; mess, $9 to S9 50. Lnrd, Southern and Western, 5^^ to 6}4 cts. per lb. Hams, Boston, 7 cts.; Southern and Western, 5 to 6)4 cts 1850, August 15, (Evening Traveler) — Corn, Northern, 71 to 72 cti,; Southern yellow flat, 68 cts.; do. white, 65. In- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 89 dian meal, S3. 12 to $3.25. Pork, extra clear, S13; clear, $12. 50.; mess, $10 75 to $11.25; prime, $9 to $9.25 per bbl. I.ard, 7 to 714 cts. Hams, Boston, 9^ cts.; Southern and Western, 8^ to pets, per lb. In contrast with these, we will add New Orleans quota- tion : 1839, May 21. New Orleans (from Missouri Republican). — Corn in the ear, 90 cts. per bbl.; shelled, in sacks, 65 to 68 cts. per bushel. Pork, clear, S23 to S24 per bbl; mess $22. M. O, $19 50 to $20.; prime, $18.; P. O., $16.50 to $17; bulk pork, 7 to 714 cts. on levee. Bacon hams, 10^ toii^ cts. per lb; canvassed, 11^ to 12 cts. Shoulders, 7^ cts. Middlings, 9)^ to 10 cts. Lard, 10 to 12 cts. The. following tables are, in part, averaged from the quota- tions in the leading journals of the great cities. Different cities have different styles of quotation, which have changed from time to time. It will be seen that, in the North-eastern cities, the leading classes of maize quoted are Northern and Southern white and yellow. After the great facilities for transportation were attained. Western came in for a large share, and the qualities were often distinguished by numbers. The differences between ear and shelled were pointed out, and mixed was a more common designation for the color. In New York quotations the mode of conveyance was often made a part of the description, as by sail, by steamer, &c. In cities where speculation in grain is largely entered into, as Chicago, the difference between the cash down and the prices on time are indicated as seller, March, &c ; for win- ter quotations, &c , September, &c, , for the early dates in August. The condition in which the grain is brought to market is often noted, as damaged, sound and unsound, and the place where it is on sale, as on track, in elevator, at up- per or lower depot, &c. 90 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The Cincinnati prices of corn in 1839 show the favorable results of canal navigation. Special notice was given in the Liberty Hall and Gazette to the movements on the Miami Canal, and reference was made to the Canadian Welland Canal, which completed the chain of lake navigation to Os- wego. In the interval between May i6th and Oct. 3d, 1839, corn, at Cincinnati declined from 60 to 50 cts. per bushel, and mess pork from $21 to $13.75 per bbl. Corn- meal, in September, was 75 to 80 cts per bushel Bacon fluctuated less. Hams ranged from 9 to 11 cts., except sugar- cured (14 cts). The Gazette of September 19 quotes corn at Cincinnati, 59 to 60 cts. for September 17; at New Orleans, 52 to 62}^ cts. for September 4; at New York, 78 cts. for September 12, and at Boston, 80 to 86 cts. for September 11. The prices of mess pork in New York City, for the five years, respectively, ending 1827, were $13.31; $13.78; $13.83; $ii.55,and$i3.2i per bbl. Five years ending 1832, $i3.7ij $12.79; ^13-64; $14.30, andSi3.77. Five years end- ing 1837, $14.97 ; §14.29; $16.96; $23.13, and $21.66. For the five years ending 1842, $21.97 ; $19.32; $15.07 ; $11.36, and $9.27. Five years ending 1847, $10.32; $9.28; $12 13; $10.50, and $15.00. PRICES CURRENT OF AMERICAN MAIZE AND PROVISIONS IN ENGLAND. (SEE U. S. P. O. REPORT, 1 844. Indian corn, duty paid, per 480 lbs £ i los to £ i 12s Pork, U. S., prime mess, in bond, per bbl £ 2 6s to £ 2 los " " '• in bond. " £ 1 17s to £ 2 " Canadian prime mess, in bond, " £ 2 los to £ 2 14s " " " in bond, " £ 2 4s to £ 2 6s " " middles, tierces, duty p'd per 336 lbs £ 5 los to £ 5 i6s Hams, dry in bond, per cwt £ I 8s to £ 2 Lard, fine leaf, in kegs, duty paid, per cwt £ 2 2s to £ 2 6s " Secondary, in bbls " " £1 i6s to £ i i8s " Inferior " " £ i 12s to £ i I4.<5 Lard oil, duty paid, per ton £42 to £43 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 91 The following statement of comparative prices in New York and Liverpool is from U. S. P. O. Report, 1847 • Indian corn with 7 per cent, exchange, and sterling freight, 5 per cent, primage, gives the estimate below. To cover cost and charges of purchase in New York and sales in Liverpool, prices in New York for 56 lbs., at 45 cts., require sales in Liverpool at 30s 2d per 480 lbs 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 (( C( " 32s id " 34s i}4d - 36s 3d " 38s 4d ** 40s 6d " 42s 8d " 45s " 47s 3d " 49s 6d " 5IS 9d " 54s If freights ranged from lod., with 5 per cent, primage, to 2 s. for imperial bushel, from p^^d. to 12s. added per 480 lbs., to above. PRICES CURRENT OF AMERICAN PRODUCE AT LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 3, 1845, (from U. S. P. O, REPORT, 1844). ; Hams in canvass, per cwt £1 los to £2 6s Indian corn, duty paid, 480 lbs £l us to £1 13s Lard, fine leaf, in kegs, duty paid, per cwt £2 4s to £2 6s " " in barrels, " " £1 17s to £1 i8s " inferior " " " £1 13s to £1 i6s Pork, thin mess, per bbl £2 los to £3 " mess, " £2 2s to £2 4s " prime " £l i6s to £1 i8s Aggregate average price of foreign grain for six weeks, to December 21, 1844, Indian corn 32s Compare this with the following prices in New York for the years 1864-5, ^"d in England July, '64. 92 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. i860 1861. $ 3-15 1862. 1863. Jan. '64. July, '64. En 64 Cornm'l bl $3.80 $ 3-00 $ 4.00 $ 5-65 $ 8.00 Corn, bu. 95 72 64 82 1.30 1.68 «5 Pork, mess 16.25 16.00 12.00 14.50 19-50 42.50 " prime 11.75 10.50 8.50 12.50 1450 35.00 Hams, lb 9 8 6 8 II 17^ 19 Should, lb. .Si 4^ 5^ 8J 15 Lard, lb. 10 I0| 8| 10 13 I9i 13 Mr. Cist, in his article in U. S. P. O., 1847, on tlie hog crop of the United States, says of the different classes of cured pork, packed in barrels, that they are made up of the different sizes and conditions of hogs — the finest and fattest making clear and mess pork, while the residue is put up into prime pork or bacon. ".The inspection laws require that clear poi k shall be put up of the sides, with the ribs out. It takes the largest class of hogs to receive this brand. Mess pork — all sides, with two rumps to the barrel. Prime — for this, pork of lighter weight will suffice ; two shoulders, two jowls, and sides enough to fill the barrel make the contents. Two hun- dred pounds of meat is required by the inspector, but 196 lbs. packed here, it is ascertained, will weigh out more than the former quantity in the Eastern or Southern markets. The mess pork is used for the commercial marine and the United States Navy." "The prime is packed for ship use and the Southern markets. The clear pork goes out to the cod and mackerel fisheries." Bulk pork, for immediate use, was sent off in flat-boats for the lower Mississippi, but the great mass was sent into the smoke-houses, each of which cured from 175.000 to 500,000 lbs. at a time. There the bacon was kept till wanted for shipment, and then packed in hhds. containing 800 or 900 lbs, "the hams, sides and shoulders put up each by themselves." INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. XXIII. 93 MONTHLY PRICES OF INDIAN CORN AT NEW ORLEANS, FOR THE FOLLOWING YEARS: January . I'ebruary March April . May June July August Sepiember October November December. 1843. Cts. 42 to 43 1844. Cts. 36 to sS 32 to 33 35 40 to 42 40 to 41 33 to 35 40 to 43 40 to 45 43 to 44 37 to 40 40 34 to 35 43 to 45 43 to 45 31 to 37 1845. Cts. 1038 to 40 to 41 to 36 to 38 to 32 to 34 to 36 to 42 to 38 to 50 to 82 1846. Cts. to 6 to 50 to 52 to 50 to 50 to 40 to 32 to 35 to 40 to 65 to 75 to 70 1847. Cts. 55 to 80 to 75 to 80 to 55 to 65 to 65 to 40 to 50 to so to 41 to 45 to Ct> 10 00 to 55 to 42 to 38 to 28 to 36 to 39 to 42 The above was taken from U S. P. O. Report, 1848. The prices are for corn in sacks. This is frequently the character of the St. Louis quotations, which are so intimately con- nected with the Southern Mississippi trade. The monthly prices at New Orleans of mess pork and other hog products, for a portion of the interval covered by the above table, will be found in the same volume. Mess pork, in September, 1846, was $8.75 to $8.87 ^^ per bbl., and in January, 1847, was a little higher, ($g.i2}4 to $9.5,0. It rose suddenly to 814 and $14 50 in February, and then gradually to $16.25 and S16.50 in July; after which, it gradually declined to $8.16 4-6 and $8,371^ in May, 1848 ; rising again to $10 in August following. Texas was annexed in 1845, and the Mexican War came off in 1847. For many years New Orleans received a large portion of the Western trade. The following will give some idea of the earlier move- ments of Indian corn Eastward : 94 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. p < C N 1 O 1) 1 J3 O 1 O .22 «r ji 6 ^ - 4_» *-t -*-' i« ^ ^ O < fa CO 5! O 0^ "^ /DM ^ o .ti I-I +-> 00 ^ o m %, o o o < g (J O P< ^ M t^ J-^ Ul 02 u y M fO N Tl-vO o 15 a M N^ g 6 1) "5 3 ^ •S ^ § 8 U p^ 1 o ^ "O M . •» ^ - CJ \A ID t; 1 N "^ ^ ^ g -S Si) i5 • ^ U Pi -S 1 o o 1 a (4 ;3 O — ^ 1 r^»r> C\vO fa ~ . \r, , 1 . ^ g -ix 1 1 ; o .g < fa o w H I, u-> 1 1 1 0) N 1 1 ' O 1 2 i i i^ >, ^ rt Ml fa 2 (U 3 ■>-■ ■5 w u £ 1 CO 1 t- S j N IVO J= 1 O 1 o t; 1 - 1 *- 2 o • ►5 1 '^S" ' ^ •^ 5 ^ < ?■ — pi: :z; «7 *^ 'C u < H 3 o u , (72 J5 .S to INDIAN CORN ANB ITS CULTURE. 93 ^i^iocoOcctootocOi— (r :5 O -^ tc I^ -^ o o o -J2 -o 1- CO Tf -rff lO c:? lO lg)i®'S)(3)(§)(g)(g).®@(g)(glig) !0^a>ain^oo Ji CO ^M y? o ;o CO CD CO (^ bs !? ?? ?2 ?> ^ '^» "2 ic ^CO ro '^■*- -^ hCI^CCI^ CO CO 1^ t"^ I-- =i.«"53'>2 3 s 5 1 " c c !5 2 ? 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CS 1-* Tp i-H 1-- i^^'^'^CC co*^ o o ^ to •-P :0 ^ lC lO lO lO iC uO O lO -^ S 2 ^5 '5 o .o O O O O O lO . - • "^ '- • — — -J — > uO O I—I lO to ■o 1^5 '-■ ' ■ —'•'"-■* o -^ r^ i^ o ^ 'o 1 11,^1^ ^'l^f'f ® J'^— '-''^coc^iBiiOaOc^cbr-* [^•^^lOcOtOiCi^iOcOcOcO |o o o .-. o .r^ ,.o. o o m ic o I f ££S = 2g.®®®®® Ol O X CO O CO l^ lO lO O O 1-^ '^■^COCO-^^-g'Tji^i/^tOiC' O O tC lO iC iC ift O O iC »o CT--lt~COC-J3CI<. 0030--OCOiCu0iCi^iC'^-^ @@®@®®®®®@@ t; O O iC u'D O iC lC O O O 1-* -OCO 25 O u^ C^ iT? iH) H D®® @©®@©1) ii ^oooooooooiro 5 CO CO CO O 0> O O O O C-4 iC ^iCiClOCOtOCOOOOOOCt' cs 3^_H 2 8 $ E P -J i, S -»; «=i p-j 1-9 <; (g o !z Q 96 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. MONTHLY PRICES OF HOG PRODUCTS AT NEW YORK CITY, FROM U. S. REPORT ON COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. XXVII. MESS POKK PER BBL- (DOLLARS). 1864. 1 1865. 1866. 1867. 1868. Jan. «19 75 @20 OU «36 00(0)36 50 $27 75 (§28 25 820 00@20 75 $20 90(§21 15 Feb. 19 V2y2(G 00 23 25foi,23 75 20 75(o;21 25 May 20 00 ©28 75 25 50^1(26 00 28 62 @29 00 23 Wm:\ 25 23 00(o2o 75 June 29 75 ©30 00 21 00(iSj21 50 30 25 @30 50 23 0(l(o;23 25 23 75(o:24 00 July 34 00 @37 00 2:5 50(ai24 75 31 50 (§32 OC 22 00(>i;2-l 50 27 65@27 75 Aug. 35 00 @36 00 29 00(y 13 25 @13 30 16 20(§;10 50 Aug. SO 00 30 50 29 00@30 13 50((i:13 62J^ 12 25 @12 50 15 00(§15 25 Sept. 30 50 30 00@32 00 13 50(^;'3 75 13 50 @14 00 17 75 Oct. 33 00 23 50 13 50(gil3 &214 14 00 (§14 25 17 00(517 12% Nov. 24 50 25 50 24 00@24 25 13 25 14 50 (§14 75 18 00ff.l9 00 Dec. 23 75 24 00 22 00@22 50 13 '^@n 50 14 00 (§15 00 17 00^17 50 XXVIII. PICKLED HAMS PER LB. (CTS). 1864 1865. 1866. 181)7. 1868. Jan. 12 @12% 11 @i2;| 19 (§21 13>^@16 10 (§12 11%@13 Feb. 18 @22 16 (§18 10 (§11M 12 (§13 Mar. 18V,(@21 17 @\?>]4 11 @13 12 @13>^ April 13 (§14'^ 1 }.;(«:16^ 16io(ol8 I3i„(a!i4>^ 14^@15% May 15!^(<«il6 17 ([v.\9% 13 @\iy^ 16>2(§t7-J-i 12 mXZYi i-y^&isii June uy.,®u% 17 (a.\9 12'.,(o'14i'2 16?4@17»^ July 17 ^(§18 17 (§19 11J4@20 12 ^;14 15H(§17 Aug. 17 21 @24V^ 18 (§2014 12 c«;i5 17 (§19 Sept. 18 (§1S>^ 19 (§23 195^ (§,21 14 15 @16>^ 16>^@lSi^ Oct. 18 (o:20 19'/^ (§23 17>2@1.S54 16 (§18 17 @lSi| Nov. 17>i@-^l 20 (§23^ 17 (g;19 15 (§17 17 m9 Dec. 18 ®21 16>'a(§19^ 12i^(§13 11^@13 16 @17 1869. Jan. 13 @16 Feb. 18 (oiWA Mar. 19 @20'^ April 18 @20 Mav 18 (§19 June 15 (a!l9i4 July 16Vc(§20 Aug. 17 @,19 Sept. 17 (§19 Oct. 17 (§19 Nov. 17 (§19 Dec. 17 1870. 1871. 16 10 (Oil 3 14' i@Wi 13V,(o;15 14 (a.U% 14 (-il5V:', 141 .i(o),16 13 (§14 16' ..(§17 11^(§13 16 (§17 10 (§12 16' 10 (ci>VA 24 12y„(o:133^' 19 (§21 10 t'<-12'.^ 19 @20 12 (§12' 17 (§19 12 @12)^ 19 @20 10 @11 1872. 1873. 9 (§ 9% 9 ® 9% Wi@ 94 «'/2((a 9% 9 (§10-^^ 10 @\4 13 (§131^ 13 i3;^(5!i4 13 (§14 14 @143^ \Qy^®\\y, 8^@ 9% ny,®\\v^ 8';;(§ 9'-;', INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 97 lO "X! t^ I-* l>- 1-* CO O 00 l> l> CO ^ iO ir3 lO '^ lO iO ?D ©®®@®®®@ u^iCiCiCiCiOOcOOOI>t*iO ©®©©@@®@® ®® C^ M C-1 C^ C^ 30 Ol CS OJ Ol (M ^ ^3 iD '-0 '-0 iC lO u"^ iC (N 5^ ^ X' ■ O Tf lO uO C^I % l©®@®®®®®®®®© OD X O O CO -M 'N CO CO rH r^ O |0 0>000»00>-lCJ-IOO ■^ ®®i)®@®®®®@@©' ©@@@®®@ @@® t*COOid^HT-(rJ*i/5yDt^!Ct^ " rT ^ -»• •r ®®®®®®(i):a)@tg(i)® t^»VQfiGcaiaoisCiwOjogoi>«; ©®®®@®@@ (g)®(3) ai050»30aoccxi05»aoi- ^^^©® oieococj-joooenoocn . X l^ iCiO ^5 '-0 * Oi l-^ 'to iC CO 5 i)®©®®®®®®®®® !i^ !r ~ ^ ^^~^p p p rs X o -' i^ i~ i^ T- f-'i^ p. -i -3 3D cc CO t.o ■-:3 !ri i^ L^ X a> o i^ lO ®®®@®®®@@®®® »0 rin> :0 30 Ci Oi OO x'o'- ' I^ " I** ^ "-'^ '-'^ * I^ I^ *' ?^' iJ^ C' X' O O iC iC I M .-I 01 r-l . - ^ - ^' -I* t>0 ? 1 CO Tt< CO -^ -^ CO O CO ^ *M ,— I rt ^ rH ,— I 1-H r-l CI C^J IM -M ®®®©®®®®® @@ "r» o 13 3 3 SJ" il ^O 0) Corn rose rapidly from January to October, in 1864 and as rapidly declined in 1865 and 1870. Cornmeal rose from January to October in '64 and '66, and fell from January to December, in '65. The meats took the same course as corn in 1S64, but their changes were more varied in the other years of the above table. 98 INDIAN coax AND ITS CULTURE. The prices of gold during the years 1862-5, inclusive, had much influence on the prices of maize and hog products. At Cincinnati, on the 2d of January, 1862, the rise to 2 per cent, on gold is said to have "checked sales materially." On the I St of July it had advanced to 7|@8c. premium, buying; on 2d of October, to 20 buying; on 2d of January, 1863, to 35 ; on April ist, it was 50 to 53; July ist, 43 to 44; October 2, 40 to 42; January 4th, 1864, 50 to 51; April ist, 1864, 66 to 67; on July ist, 1864, 260 to 270 were the quotations. October ist gold was quoted at 190 buy- ing; April 3d, 1865, at 145 ; July 3d, at 138 to 139^. After July ist, 1864, when gold attained such an extraordinary height, the quotations above were not stated in the journals from which they are taken, as a premium, but as the price of gold. These prices were nearly the same throughout the States that had not seceded. Similar inflations of the cur- rency had occurred several times before in the history of the Republic. During the dark times of the Revolutionary War, when the credit of the United States was at its lowest, the enormous prices for coffee and sugar, in the Continental currency, are well known. Relief came when Congress took away the legal tender character of its paper and al- lowed it to pass for what it was worth. In 1837 there was a general crash, after several years of over-trading and ex- travagant expenditure. In 1857, in May, money was said to be plenty. Prices of corn, on June 13, were high at New York, ranging from 92 cts. to $1.00. Cornmeal sold from 84.10 to ^4.50 per bbl.; mess pork from ^2365 to ^23.70. Corn declined somewhat in July and August, when an ex- pansion of railroad stocks was noted, and on the 29111 of the last month, there was said to be trouble in Wall Street, and many failures. A panic followed soon after, and about the 13th of October the suspension of banks was said to be general. On the 17th of October corn was quoted at 67 to INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 99 76 cts., and cornmeal $3.50 to $4. Mess pork held its own for a short time, as it does not generally keep up with the fluctuations of maize; but in falling from high prices, lags behind its neighbor product. The foreign imports be- came very small. The New York Chronicle, from which these quotations are taken, charged the New York banks with loaning ^120,000,000 against $10,000,000 of specie in their safes, and stated that the expansion of paper swelled the prices. Mess pork reached its lowest ($14-75) i^^ Decem- ber, at which time there was said to be a panic in Europe. In the meantime exporting had commenced with vigor, and brought back specie from Europe. This exportation had been made possible by the lowering of prices. Confidence was gradually restored, and stocks, in which the panic com- menced, became alive again, but in a more healthy trade. In January, 1859, there was another rush of speculative prices ; the American prices rising above those in Europe. On the 24th of February it was noticed that bread-stuffs were going West instead of East. Exports were diminished and importations largely increased. Wars, both at home and abroad, have had a great effect on the price of maize. Before the civil war, our merchants had invested very largely in shipping for the foreign trade. Their enterprise in this line about the commencement of the century, during the general European War, has already been referred to. Our commerce for a time rode on a great wave of prosperity; we were fast becoming the common carriers for the belligerent nations. The great powers soon took measures to humble us. The ill feeling towards Great Britain especially, in consequence of her insults, did not, however, prevent us from exporting so largely as to swell the prices of maize and other products, only a few months before the War of 1812 was declared. The very imminence of that war probably caused the owners of our shipping to 100 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTDRE. work fast before the night came. But prices fell with the opening of the war. About the time of the Mexican War, there was an extraordinary exportation of Indian corn and cornmeal; the fertile West then being in a state of rapid development, and fair prices being maintained, yet admitting of competition with foreign producers. Tiie war of the allies against Austria would necessarily raise pi ices in Europe, and make it profitable to compete with her grain growers. The prices of maize and cornmeal especi- ally were maintained in New York after peace was restored. In November, 1859, the former rose to $1 per bushel, and the latter to ^4.50 per bbl. Examples might be multiplied indefinitely of the disturbing influences of war on prices-, r.ut the commerce of peace is much more favorable to the prosperity of a Republic, than that of war. The public mind is less liable to agitation ; it is less easy to get up a panic, the recourse of unprincipled speculators. And the commerce between nations at peace with others, is undoubt- edly safer, and in the end, more profitable. Freights, in so large a territory as that of the United States, have a most important bearing on prices. In the central portion of the State of Ohio, for instance, before canals and railroads made the way easy for the transport of produce, the country merchants frequently had their goods wagoned from the place of purchase. The carriers, like the arrieros of Spain, were generally honest men, but the trans- port was often tedious and expensive, and the exchange, directly or indirectly, of an article so bulky for its price, as Indian corn, was often out of the question. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers, however, being navigable when in a toler- able stage, gave ample opportunities for cheap transport, which were open to all ; although the danger of collision made them unsafe for small crafts heavily loaded, after steamboating on a large scale became general. The prices INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 101 of freights on these rivers was fluctuating, just as it is now on tlie great lakes, depending on the season and stage of water, as well as on the amount of business. During the ear- lier years of Western progress, it was much more common than it is now, for farmers living on or near the banks of the Ohio, to combine and send down their produce in flat boats, for sale. A few examples of published freight prices may suffice to show what the common carriers could do to bring the supply and demand nearer together. In March, 1855, pound freight was carried from Cincinnati to Pittsburg for 20 cts. per 100 lbs , and to St. Louis for 35 cts. On April 9th, freights to Wheeling were said to be 15 cts.; to Pittsburg, 20 cts., and to New Orleans, 20 cts. In 1865, when prices of all kinds were high, on April 6th freight to the lower Mississippi declined on account of hig-li water, which enabled the largest class of boats to load to their utmost ca- pacity. To New Orleans, on pork the freight was $1.30, and on other heavy freight 45 cts. per 100 lbs. Pork was higher to Memphis, ($150 per bbl.) although other freight was 40 cts. per 100 lbs. It was stated that from Buffalo, in 1853, on June 7th, freight on the Erie Canal, &c. to New York, was 12 cts. per bushel; to Albany, 10 cts. On July 23d, the freight to New York rose to 13 cts. At this date the lake freight on corn, &c. from Cleveland to Buffalo and Dunkirk was 2^^ cts , to Oswego 5^ cts.; but on Octo- ber 1 2th, that to Buffalo and Dunkirk rose to 4 cts. On 18th of November corn Avas taken to New York City for 18 cts., and wheat from thence to Europe for 25 to 30 cts. - Cornmeal is generally quoted in the Eastern cities, in the leading journals. The price is more constant than that of corn. In 1842 it was, for the latter half year, between $2.8-j}4 and $3.12}^ per bbl., at New York; corn ranging between 48 and 60 cts. and mess pork (by the bbl.) from ^7 50 to $9.50. In the third quarter of the same year, corn 102 INDIAN CORN AND 1X3 CULTURE. at St. Louis was i8 and 20 cts., and mess pork $4.75. In February, 1843, corn at Cincinnati was 16 cts. per bushel, and mess pork $6.62 per bbl.; in November, corn was 18 to 20 cts. Near the beginnings of January, April, July and October, 1843, corn ranged, in New York, between 48 and 58 cts , and mess pork between C-8 and ^10/^. Corn was rather lower next year, and mess pork higher; New Orleans quarterly prices being about one-fifth lower still. In 1845, August 28th, corn was 62 cts. at Boston, 57 at New York, and on 30th, 43 cts. at Cleveland; and on September 4th, 35 to 37 cents at Cincinnati, where mess pork was §13.50 to S14. On September 2d, from Cincinnati to the mouth of the Ohio, by boats, freight was $1 per bbl. for pork, and 50 cts. per 100 lbs. for pound freiglits. Also, 50 cts. to St. Louis, and from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, 25 cts., being about 14 cents on a bushel of corn. In 1849 (early in Jan- uary) corn was 30 to 32 at New Orleans, and 45 to 50 at Baltimore, and early in April 23 to 24 at the former, and 46 to 50 at the latter place. In 1S50 corn gained from 30 to 91 per cent, in New Orleans, over 1849. In 1853, early in April, July and October, corn v/as respectively 52 to 54 cts., 50 cts., and 60 to 65 cts at Cleveland ; and 62)2 to 65, 57)3 to 6g}4, and 84 to 89 at New York. On 9th of April, 1855, the freights from Cincinnati to New Orleans were said to be 20 cts. per 100 lbs., or eleven and one fifth cts. per bushel of corn. Quotations early in April (I) and July (II) in 1855, from Cincinnati Columbian, &c. for corn (per bush.) and mess pork (per bbl.) were, for NEW ORLEANS. CINCINNATI. NEW YORK. Corn. Mess Pork. Corn. Mess Pork. Cora. -Moss Po 1-. I — 9.3 c. 11— 8.5@95c. $15 00 C5(§70a. 70@7.')(\ $14 .50 18 00@18 50 81 00@1 10 8,S@ 92 $15 50@1;) Hi. 19 ».^@i9 r.a INDIAN COa\ AND IT3 CULTURE. 103 Not long before this the allies and Russians had been fighting before Sebastopol, and a conference was in progress looking towards peace. Prices early in January, April, July and October for 1S64, for a bushel of maize, and barrel of mess pork, ranging as follows, were quoted in Cincinnati daily papers of the respective times. ' sr. LOUIS. Mnize. I - II-8 92@1 07 ni-1 30@1 36 IV- Mess Pork. »'22 50 CHICAGO. __Maize. I Mes s Pork . f 81® 92 bl7"75@18 25 83@ S9%\ 1 28@1 3:J S40 00 1 23@1 24 I CINCINNATI. Maize. i Mess Pori. . S 90@1 08 95@1 07 1 00@1 10 1 20@1 25 518 75@22 00 22 00@22 50 40 00@44 25 40 00@42 00 XXXI. Quarterly prices in the following cities, selected from the monthly prices in the U. S. Agricultural Reports (intended to show the state of the market at the opening of the months) for the following years. The quarters begin re- spectively with January (I), April (II), July (III), and October (IV). Maize. bush. cts. .=2 f I g J n -^ i III & Uv..... ir I. II.. III.. IV.., I . II.., III.. IV.. @73 @78 @10S @100 76 62 64J4@66 68 @74 70 @77>^ 65 @66 ©73 @9l Mess Porii, per bbl . ?. 00@32 50(c^31 50@34 50@32 00@25 90@26 75@28 50(0(29 50 50@32 25@31 JMaize. busli. ots Mess Pork, per bbl. 8. 75 83 50 66 @85 @87 @97 @69 @,84 |28 @63Hi25 |27 26 @S5 29 @67 |24 50 00@27 00 ((^30 50@25 50@27 75@26 00@29 00 50 50@27 75@30 50@24 Maize, bush. ets. 44 25 50 50 50 51 45 @47 @61 6 @52 3 @5334 li4@53H @47,!4 @54 @.59 @54 Mess PorK. per bbl. 8 19 00@19 50 20 00@20 50 13 50Cu;16 00 13 00@13 25 18 00@18 25 20 15@20 50 15 00@15 25 13 00@13 I2}i 19 00 21 00 i 5 00@15 25 12 50@13 00 St. Louis corn above quoted in 1869, was mixed, and white in sacks; in 1870 was white, yellow and mixed, all in sacks; in 1871, was mixed and yellow. Chicago quotations of corn for 1869 of No. i, and 1870 No. 2, and for 1871 104 INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. included another kind. Cincinnati corn No. i, for 1S69; Nos. I and 2 for 1870, and No. i and new ear for 187 1. Quarterly prices in 1871, selected from the monthly prices in U. S. Agricultural Report, and intended to show the state of the market at the opening of January, April, July and October, in the following cities : (corn, cts. per bushel ; pork, dollars per barrel). BOSTON. NEW ORLEANS. SAN FRANCISCO. Corn. Mess Pork. Corn. Mess Pork. Corn. 1 Mess Pork. I— 82@86c. II— SGa^Olc. HI— 79@82c. lV-84@88c. $20 50@21 50 21 50@22 00 16 00@16 50 14 50@14 75 69 @70c. 65 (0(700. 70 @75c. 82>^@85c. S21 00 (5)21 50 21 00 (0(23 00 10 V2%@i6 75 14 25 @15 00 tl 50@1 60 S24 00@26 00 1 60(ii;l 70 25 00(g!29 00 2 00(g2 25 25 00(a/27 00 2 35 20 00(5124 00 The kinds here quoted are yellow, white and mixed. The following quotations for January 30, 1875, were taken from newspapers on file in the Public Library of Cincinnati. Boston New York Philadelphia.. Albany Providence...., Detroit Llontreal Cleveland Indianapolis . • hieago Milwaukee.... St. Paul I)es Moines ... Leavenworth. Corn, bush, cts 85^^ 83 @Ri)4 77 («(78 83 (0(85 92 (oJlOS 67 68 (a.70 60 C'(,65 61 (am70 Nashville 72)^(0,85 St. Louis 60 ^64^2 do in sacks 64 @72 Memphis 83>^@85 New Orleans |85 Mobile |95 @\ OS Gal veston , Texas 80 (oil 05 Jacksonville.Fla.jl 20(a!l 30 Atiajita, Ga Wilmington, N. CI 20(^1 25 Richmond, Va....i76 Corn. Mess Pork, bush. cts. ner bbl. S. 1 00 19 00 19 50 18 00(§jl8 75 21 00@21 50 20 00 20 00@21 00 19 621/^ 20 00 19 00@19 50 San Francisco, (January 29th) Lard, per lb 15 to V7% cts. Cornmeal is quoted, January 30th, 1875, at Detroit, 827 to S30 per ton ; at New Orleans, $4 per bbl.; at Memphis, $3.85 to S4. 10 perbbl.; at Nashville, 85 to 90 cts. per bushel; at Richmond, Va., 85 ; at Wilmington, N. C, Si. 25 to §1.30;. at Leavenworth, Kansas, $1.80 per 100 lbs., and Louisville at Si. 55 to Si. 65 per same; at Portland, Oregon, 4 to 5 cts. per lb.; at Galveston, S5 to $5-25 per bbl, and at Jackson- ville, Florida, S5 to S6.50 per bbl. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 105 u < o < Hi P i fa O fe O H ^ « O o z p, ►-, w z H < O H P^ ^ fa a VO 13 00 M fa ^ O en ^ o ^ O iC o o i^c :? o lo o o> 4.- 1 ,», Icoi OlO'OCO o jCOOC^ iCOCN o l-lC 00 00 t~ to t^ : t^ to e^) o .- o o @® ©®@© @ : ©©i)®©:© qo OOiCO o ; O ic O O lO o JiJ Cl TJI O OC4 00 o ; O C-) O O i^ O •S t^iC o o t»ir5 to J <:0 iC --' O CI 00 ^ (/> ; f-1 r-( M ^ ^Ss i^t-ix ^•.*;^"\?'V*'^"j.*~-." •'^'^ '"' « M iC lO ^ ^""cc 1^ ~: ^ ^ o: V; r 1 V: ^ -« cc rS i)®®®®!;; 1 ;i1I~ i'i si' c3 ^ii\ i;^ ^"s'^T n' -t c^^' rn'^'-T-"' 1-! rH r-« CO CO CO CO C^J O CO O^-^ CO c^ o c^ ^ ?o c-i :::::: :?oo::o o »co o a O CO Ol 'u, @@ © Ph oo oo coco o o OiO 03 t^ OOil^O lOOCMO CO c^ ^-*a> 3 ^ tSO>t-C^l^iOO S r/i COCO-^"^C^C-10t^^aiC-li-HrH M m CI -N C-I ! IM C-1 rt r-l rt IM Ol - f-i iOTiirti-i«;t--rj >n lO t^ CO lo -r o o c-i rt iC 00 o 1^ co co -*COOOiC<0-*-»tOTf«30-;) iHt-l >.2 !>,2 >.2 ^.S >>S wS >.2 >.2 >.2 5 553^555^5=355^355 (a>-:»^'T5>-»'='-jfe>-5«^'-3«5'-5«=l'-5'=il-5 C _ ^ P cj ,M ■^ ^ £ .2i cj t; 6 o rt 7-, o g ^ ° If ^ g 5 I a ^ H ^ 3 ^ ^ a S 5 ^- 3 o ^ o o .=; ^ cj rr a: ;^ w z' c: c C- c: 1 106 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. At Liverpool, England, on January 30th, 1875, Indian corn was quoted at 36s to 39s per quarter {480 lbs), and pork at 82s. Freights on same date, on corn from Detroit to Al- bany, 25 cts.; to New York and Philadelphia, 30 cts , and to Boston and Portland, 35 cts. From Milwaukee, same date, freights to Liverpool, 92^ cts.; to Cincinnati, all rail, 30 cts.; to Cleveland, all rail 22^ cts.; to New York, all rail, 40 cts., and to Philadelphia and Baltimore 35 cts. The discussion of the principles which lie back of maize prices, in connection with a wider range of facts, will be less difficult, when the varieties, uses and modes of culture of this grain have been considered. The supply depends on the fertility of the ground planted, whether natural, or artificially produced; on the number of acres; the conditions of the season, as, favorable or other- wise for planting, after cultivation, ripening and harvesting; on the force used, by hand or machinery, and its timely ap- plication; on the skillfulness of the general farm management; on the care taken and the efficiency of the means used for the preservation of the crop; and on the absence of disturb- ing and destructive forces during cultivation; and on other conditions. The demand depends on the facilities for cheap and rapid transportation; on the numbers, habits and tastes of the popu- lation among whom it is distributed, and the increase of that population, by immigration or otherwise; on the diver- sity of uses, old and new, to which the product is applied; on the abundance or shortness of this or other crops, at home or in foreign lands; on the variety of industries and their changes, the widening fields of labor, and especially on successful movements in new and great enterprises. The demand is also seriously affected by political movements, panics, impending dangers, and excessive speculation, developing "corners" and other similar attempts to grasp extraordinary profits. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 107 In looking back to the early years of the Republic, we see how rapidly the cause of the industries has made its way to prominence in the great channels that bring the old and new to the eyes of the masses ; how the leading journals, which were once filled with matters of war and politics, are now so largely devoted to the interests of private workers, organized or independent. And here is the hope of our country; for. although Avar is still enthroned, peace is the power behind it. i It was contempt for the private industries, and the filling up of the capital with the spoils of war, that ate out t'le heart of Roman freedom. The Roman Republic gained the world, and lost its souL EXPORTS OF MAIZE AND SWINE PRODUCTS. In the early times of the West, it was not uncommon for the hill farmer, who lived ten or twelve miles from town, not only to provide sustenance for his family off of the farm, but with their co operation, to manufacture their clothing, and put up the buildings. Hence the hatchelling machine, the spinning wheel, and the loom — and sometimes the carpen- ter's bench — were nearly as important at the homestead as the plow or wagon. For the making or mending of these he could pay in trade ; and for most of his other implements, if he only found the iron and steel. He could, being his own but( her, supply the tanner with the raw material for the leather, which, in the hands of the saddler, harness and shoe- maker, who needed his flour and meat, became trappings for the horses, and clothing for the little feet, when they did not go bare. Other arrangements in the way of trade made die circulating medium a very small part of his financial affairs. Still he had his taxes to pay, and sometime his iron and nails, his buttons, queensware, and knives and forks to buy; and his dear ones were generally fond of tea and coffee, which 108 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. could not always be obtained in exchange for butter and eggs. Then there was the remainder of the debt for the farm, or the land out of which it was made, which was gen- erally paid in cash. Now, that noted farmer, U. S. (who, for a considerable length of time, went under a nick name with these initials) when he became of age and assumed his freedom, was placed • in such circumstances, with reference to his neighbors across the water, that he did not see fit to follow out this programme exactly. He became a trader, and was a very bold and skillful one ; and though the main part of his capital was real estate, yet such was the extent of the business he acquired, that the want of floating capital was not immediately felt. He had considerable farm stuff to dispose of, and among the rest, Indian corn, pork, bacon and lard, packed by himself; he shipped them to islands and coasts where they were most wanted, and exchanged for foreign produce and manufac- tures. Part of these he carried round and sold to neighbors too intent on a great quarrel to do this carrying with advantage for themselves. The business for a time was a great success; but the quarrel growing hot, measures were taken to starve each other out, by stopping the operations of the common carrier. This bore hard on the sale of farm products, as well as on the trading business, and in time involved the operator in the quarrel, and it cost him a heavy sum to get out of it. t It was soon found necessary to fall back somewhat into the line of the Western farmer, who manufactured his own lin- sey and tow linen, and made his own axe handles. This brief narrative is illustrated by the following state- ment of U. S. exports of Indian corn, and swine products, since the birth of the nation which has now acquired the title of the "Great Republic." Previous to 1790, and after the declaration of independence, the exports of a few lead- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 100 ing cities are given (in U. S. P. O., 1853): from Portsmouth, N. H. 2.510 bushels in 1776 ; 1,915 bushels in 1777 ; 5,306 in 1778; 3,097 in 1779; 6,711 in 1780; and 5,587 in 1781. The following table of Domestic Exports of the United Ftates is made up of extracts from U. S. Documents, and Seybert's Statistical Annals, (published in 1818) commencing on the ist of October, 1789, and ending on September 30th, 1S20. XXXIII. Year Cora. Corumeal bushels. bushels. 1790 2,102,137 1 713.241 17!U 351,695 17'.)2 I 9r>4,973 263,405 179 J 1,233,768 189,715 1794 1.472.700 241,570 179.-) 1,935,345 512.445 I79tj 1,173,552 540 286 1797 804,922 254,799 179S 1,218.23). 211,694 1799 1,200,492 231,226 ISOO 1.6!)4,327 338,108 1801 1,768, 1C2 919,355 1802 1,633,283 266,816 1803 2.097,608 133,606 1804 1,944 873 111,327 1805 S6 1.501 116,131 isoi; 1,064,263 108,342 1807 612,421 136,460 7808 249,532 30,818 1809 522.074 57.260 1810 325,924 86,744 1811 2.790.850 147,426 1812 2.039,999 90,810 1813 1,486,970 58,521 1814 61 284 26,438 1815 830,516 72 364 J.816 1,077,614 89.119 1817 387,454 106,763 1818 1,079.190 120,021 1819 1,086,762 135,271 1820 533,741 146,318 Haiii.s & Bacon. pounds 2oo,oao 295 647 585,353 521,483 995,593 1,778.. 564 2,096,177 1,081,008 l,ia5 584 1,412,005 1,173,244 2.031,630 1,588,267 1,686,546 1,904.284 903,924 1,347,018 1,311.246 258,418 1,082,610 1,218,855 1,286,809 7'29,398 607,196 138.556 695,3.57 5.30,129 341,419 Lard, pounds. fi.355 522.715 515,245 597 297 1,028,410 1,490 ,554 1,124,971 731 511 876.773 1,451,6.57 1,633,562 2 376,500 1.958,400 2,0.52,302 2,.515,719 1,308,287 1,. 542,500 1,815,998 585,173 1,371,089 1,.365,3.33 1,927,451 1,616,417 1,084 565 513 928 1,045.633 1,088,318 926,018 Pork, barrels. 24,462 26,635 38,098 38 563 47,242 88,193 73,881 40,125 33,115 52,268 55.467 70,779 78 239 96,602 111.532 57,925 36,277 39 274 15,478 46,652 .37,209 37,270 22,746 17.337 4.040 9,073 19 280 14,462 Hogs. No. 5,.304 16,803 21,291 9,934 5,413 4,922 6.753 3,484 4,237 8,786 14,294 7,312 6.501 6,859 5 599 2,808 1,747 1,831 1.9.56 537 4,613 4,454 2 380 485 160 757 1,988 1,103 Value of Hogs, I'oik, (to. $ 212..308 381 910 ■ Kentucky a State. f Tennessee (admitted. ( French iu- i suits. I French 1 treaty. j Ohio a t State. 1,800,000 1,990 000 1,190,000 1.096,000 1,157,000 398 000 1,001,000 907,000 1,002,000 604.000 457,000 176,000 498,000 719.000 537,000 754000 1,009 000 1,179,000 The first number in the lard column is in firkins, the re^^t pounds. Mr. Seybert's figures in the column for corn, for the years 1794, 1803^ 1807, 1809, and in the cornmeal column for 18 13 and 1815, differ somewhat from those derived from other sources; also, very slightly in a few other cases. When they differ, his is preferred, except in the quotations for corn- meal, in the year 1 791-5 inclusive, which he gives in barrels, 110 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. as follows: 70,339; 52,681 ; 37,943; 48,834, and 102,529. These multiplied by 5 (the old Southern number of bushels for a barrel) will produce the first three figures in the corn- meal column exactly, the next two nearly. The rest of his figures for cornmeal, which extend to 181 7, are given in bush- els. The quantities of hams and bacon, lard, pork and hogs are his. A retrospect of U. S. imports and exports from 1790 to 1838, containing many interesting particulars, but not the above, (except the values of hogs, pork, &c. in the last column) will be found in the documents annexed to a Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the state of the finances, dated December 3d, 1839. It is there stated, that "not till 1803 were exports regularly distinguished in the returns, as to the quantity and value of the different articles." The total exports from the United States in 1790 were over $20,000,000, and gradually increased from 1791, to $78,665,522 in 1799; after which they fluctuated, but rose to §108,343,150 in 1807, the year of the Embargo, which shut out the nations injuring our commerce, from the advan- tages of our trade. In 1808 the total exports were less than ?22, 500,000. In 1814, the third year of our war with the British, the whole exports were less than 87,000.000. "The largest exports from most of the Northern States, formerly consisted of foreign goods, lumber, fish, &c." The total imports in 1790 were $23,000,000, and rose to $138,500,000 in 1807 ; the next year falling off to less than $57,000,000, and in i8i4to less than $13,000,000; but after ])eace, in 1815, they rose to ^113,041,274, and in 1S16 to ^147,103,000 — nearly double our exports of that year. These changes are observable on a miniature scale in the above table. The first material falling off in the maize ex- port was in 1796-7, during the French unpleasantness. It recovered, and went on swimmingly till 1805—6. The counter decrees of Napoleon and Great Britain, to break IK'DIAX CORN AXD ITS CULTURE. Ill down the trade of neutrals with the adverse power, reduced the corn export more than one-half, and still more in 1807, and subsequent years till 181 1, when it was greatly swelled ; but it became a very small item in 1814. The scarcity in the fall of 1816 reduced it, after its partial recovery when the war was over, to a low figure in 181 7. Measures had been taken to protect the manufacture of cotton goods in Rhode Island and elsewhere, which had greatly flourished during the war, from the heavy English importations after iis close. A home market was provided for corn and swine products, which partly accounts for the falling off of maize exports subsequent to 181 9, which, in spite of greatly in- creased production, did not again reach one million bushels till 1846. The corn meal export was seldom large, but more uniform, the places of destination being nearer home. The export of pork went on increasing, and that of lard more rapidly and uniformly, as will be seen from the subsequent table. A few facts in regard to the tonnage of the United States may be of interest here. Its total in 1789 was 201,562, • which includes registered and enrolled sail tonnage. Of this amount, over 9,000 were in the cod fisheries; more than 68,000 in the coastwise, and nearly 124,000 in the foreign trade. The latter increased to nearly a million in 1810; the others less rapidly. In the four years ending with 1814, the foreign tonnage had lost nearly a third, and the coastwise gained more than a seventh ; the fisheries losing more than half. The foreign gained more than one- fourth in 181 5 ; the coastwise a small fraction; the fisheries tonnage more than doubled. By 1819 the foreign tonnage had lost nearly a third, the coastwise gained one-fifth, and the fisheries (cod and whale) were nearly trebled. The coastwise was now only about 10,000 tons behind the foreign tonnage, and each of them amounted to nearly 600,000. _ 112 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The domestic exports of 1819, in all, were nearly $23 000,- 000 less than those of 18 18, and the imports for same, not exported again, were about $34,364 000 less than those of previous year. The values of these exports are stated to have been estimated "agreeably to the prices current, re- turned by collectors of the customs in their quarterly abstracts of exports for each year." But regular reports of the value and quantity of each article imported did not commence till 1 82 1. The balance of trade had been very heavily against the United States in 1815 and 1816, but our industries, en- couraged as they now were, gained rapidly, and this balance against us was fast diminishing. Very considerable exporta- tions of foreign goods had been made. In 1820 we retained, for consumption, of our imports only $56,441,971, and our entire domestic exports for that year were $51,683,640. In 182 1 the balance was in our favor. This was during Monroe's administration, which was emi- nently a peaceful and prosperous one. By the discoveries and explorations of Grey, Lewis and Clark, our claim to the Pacific ocean was made clear. In 1817 the Wyandots and six other tribes of Indians ceded all lands to which they had title in the State of Ohio. Mississippi was admitted as a State. Canals connecting Lakes Erie and Champlain with the Hudson river were in progress, and were finished in 1823. In 1818 the Chickasaws ceded all their lands west of the Tennessee river, in Kentucky and Tennessee. Alabama was admitted in 1819, and Spain in the same year, by treaty, ceded both of the Floridas to the United States. The Mis- souri question came up in 1820, as to the extension of slavery, and that State was admitted in 1821, with a prohibition of that institution in the territories north of 36° 30'. It is observable that the export of maize, which had been so small daring the war with Britain, and recovered some- what after its close, dwindled one-half in 1820. The value tn b. 2S5 c£ a. INDIAN CORN AKD ITS CtJLTURE, XXXIV. 118 ,_, ,r; ^ _^ -, o -1 CO 'i- -i- 1-: — I c-i -1" r^ o o f- tr o X p ic o J^ jc X o ro g;^ o jO [O o co'r^'.n doT'/T x'x c-i " -j= CO -H ;,• 00 .- p p 00 dgi |g r- ^ |C i^ SVo'S^ S cS SS?i?<\-SoM^S§oo5i5S?;rfO«SSco'c-ioo«==w^)i--^_ooS S c: i- ] '-I c^'iM'cic-i c^(N c-<>oiC2co^«3ir:x E-O ' . c2 to T— I c? ^1 ir^ 1-- c-i o CO C) TJ* -^ 05 lO o r^ l^t" 9* rt ^■-- ?? oc o <:■ O Cr» -f *r 'M "M iC I' ^'^ O -f ro'^i'ri<-j"OiiOC3r^" .-^ o c^4 lo oi L^ CO as T-; 1^ q? C4 rj c^i CO ^ cc CO o ^ ic ^ -£ o CO CO -^J ^ GO 00 '^ ^ 'T- CO lO Ci ^ I- l-^CO C^1_C0 t-._>X O O rH lM_ O^ CO C;_ O C-UC CO l^ c^ i-HrHrHrHi-^rHrHrHrHi-irHr-lC-i i-i rH r-T r-T i-i f-CrHC^cTc^COCMCOCCCiOSi.^'^COfC - l-^ L- C it^-t*r-l> O CC^r-tCli— tCDC^i— "^ 1— irfi-KNCCCO-n^OlC-l Ifl- OC' O rH O "^C O CO 1-- -V U^ l"^ »— CO -^ 2C •-« O I- I^CO' CO ^ t--'c0'^ rH CO' ^ •'O O f:;' CO CC O 00 CO 1^ C;? ;3; O C 00 £ lO CC Ci ^ 'sO iO 00 CO CI 03 to o o in lO to CO o CO o c^i ^ CT) w.' CO 7** 32 ^ 1-^ cy 2; S^' iS S i^ O^OO^ctoi^-^OOll-OO 0-^COCai^^»0-^^LOl^O ceo «D^^Oi^_CM'«J' CO tt" ^ ir: o !>' to i-^ i> ^ o i- 1- o o (6 «= t^ <> i- o g' Jj J^ fj ^' S* 5 S^' S £ - ^ 1 C^ C^l gciiSSS^Sci^O^^XoSo-Jci OG lb cc 3 x_o oi JO B ^_ o x o cc x_^o i^ ^j (-* 05 '-0 o -^ 1^ "^ '^ t^ o o o c^) X ir^ "^ L r-t^'^XXXXCOTH-^Xl^iO'^tOCi'— '"• f Oi ^ C-) X !-■ O C-l iC O — CI -* 05 „ rt T-Ti-H r-l'i-i r-i i-Tc^ ClrH r-ir5 rH I-Tl-l i-H rHiHCf C4 cTcO CI 00 I^ Co'cd'-j< X iS" X Z =C XClOr^OtOOCOl^OCOCTO.-XCCi-OOClXO^-^OCl.CXCOOOl-; t-^ cj X o T^ S o o o ci -^" o CO o CO i-o ^ « -a; ■-; -^ CO i-H o_ic o CO to x-HCOi';(Ni--ioin--i-i£x CO 'M CJ ^I X lO) -1* '• I-^ O CO T— I l^ O X r-* CO -f 1^ to X 05 i-O X CO O^ t^ CO t_ *r CI O r-^ O CI § 1-- CI O O ■= 1- CO O r= O ^ is 05 Tf X to O CI ^_C0 X O 1- p CO rH ^ ^.■"il ■^ 'tT'-^ r-\t~ v> ^ -i' n k6 I - -si^ ai --6 o ^. 1:^ i6'6'yi^-rt' t£^ -A^f-' ^^CS$2,'^ ^ 233:52';;:2U;;:;;-§;2;:!;;2;s;5;2SS§c5§J:;?Jc5giSSSc5c5Scl C5 t^ -1 iT^ t-' 1- ".1 -* N »— t~- O in CO to CJ Cl "1 1^ CO -^ O 0> X "-I CO Cl CO S? JJ ^- ^r, f^ §!^^i^oooc^Scii^5cSi2h:oxoo=co;2io,-:ro-rp-xtg2-^cii- O -^r to O O 3i ^ X X X to F- uO O CI l^ 02 05 O OO Ol r-1 l^ O l--_ p CI ^_M T-; .c ci_o ^/cO'5M^OTSM^ClMCNM§oS3^3OTMnCq'3-Tr^.OCXC-.XI--_uO_^CO «» t-l-TCOl^C0«i-(i-i ^„^^,^.^I^^O-. O^ClC0TlO-HCJC0-1"i!0t0t--X2O.^CJ« ^ Ai i^'i ?i *i ^ J^i ^1 "I ?^ -o '^ ^^ ^ '^ c^ "o CO CO ^ »*■ "i* "^ "^ "^ "^ "^ ^ T^ '— 1-^ "^ '9 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOCXX lU 114 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. of the export of swine products, however, increased steadily from 1817 to 1822. About this time some sister repub- lics were coming into existence. In 1823 our government acknowledged the independence of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, Colombia and Chili. In a general statement of U. S. tonnage, extending from 1789 to 1871, found in Reports on Commerce and Naviga- tion for 1 87 1-2, the figures for steam tonnage begin in 1823 with 24,879 tons, enrolled and licensed. This amount, in 1830, had increased to 63,053, when the registered steam tonnage began with 1419. In 1831 the coastwise tonnage exceeded the foreign slightly. There had been a great fall- ing off in both from 1828 to 1829, though the fisheries tonnage had increased nearly one seventh. Whether this resulted from the new tariff on wool, woolens, iron and cottons, &c. which caused so much opposition at the South, or from •European wars, in which Russia and Turkey, and the new Republic of Greece were prominent parties, does not appear. The total imports fell off nearly one-sixth ; foreign exports, one-fourth. The exports of corn, pork and lard were dimin- ished from one-half to one-seventh, in 1830, from those of 1829, but those of cotton were increased. After South Carolina's nullification ordinance in 1832, and Mr. Clay's compromise in 1833, there was a heavy increase in the cotton export. The corn and pork export became very small in 1836, the year before the financial crisis. There was an extraordinary movement in Indian corn in 1846-7, during the famine in Ireland, when the United States Government sent a ship load of provisions, gratui- tously, to the sufferers, and private individuals added largely to the public bounty. There was a radical movement in Germany in 1848, which was felt in other portions of Europe. The export of cornmeal has been far less fluctuating than that of Indian corn, because the market has been nearer home INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUKK. 115 and less likely to be disturbed by outside influences. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, and very soon the rush to its diggings provided an abundant home market, now that this region had become the property of the United States. The rapid settlement of new States and Territories also pro- duced a demand for this grain. The Indians became troub- lesome in the West, and so reduced the crops of maize. The agitation of the slavery question would naturally diminish the grain trade between the North and South; but would stimu- late the production of cotton; and its exports in 1851, when those of corn dwindled one-half, rose to $112,000,000, but fell next year to $87,000,000; yet its wave gradually went up till it reached $191,000,000 in i860, and then suddenly fell to $34,000,000. The total tonnage of the United States reached its high- est figures in 1861, being 5,539,813, of which 2,496,894 was foreign, and 2,704,724 was coastwise; 145,734 tons being in the whale fishery, 137,666 in the cod, and 54,795 in the mackerel fisheries. The next year the total fell off more than 400,000 tons ; 117,756 being sold to foreigners. The coastwise in 1863 had grown to 2,960,633, and the foreign declmed to 1.926,886; foreigners having purchased 222,199. In 1864 the foreign tonnage was still further reduced by the sale of 300,865, and in 1865 of 133,832 tons ; and by smaller sales in subsequent years. In 1873 the coastwise tonnage was 3,163.220, the foreign 1.378,533; the cod fishery 109,- 519, and the whale fishery 44,755. The reciprocity treaty with Canada opened up a new market for maize, the exports of which, in 1854. were nearly triple those of 1853, and were greatly enlarged in '56, when the Kansas slavery question produced a rush of emigration thither, and a temporary civil war, but they fell rapidly in 1857, and did not recover till the first year of the great civil war. After a heavy export in 1862, it was reduced by the 116 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ravages of the Alabama and other cruisers to less than 3,oco,- ooo bushels in 1865. Its lowest since that was in 1870. Of late years its growth has been very rapid, especially to Great Britain, where its usefulness as feed for horses has been greatly extended. In 1854 the number of hogs exported was 279; barrels of pork 220,147 ; hams and bacon, 45,953,473 pounds; pounds of lard, 44,450,154. The whole estimated value of these four products being $11,061,016. In 1855 the hogs exported were 431; hams and bacon, 38,188,989 pounds; lard, 39,- 025.492 pounds; total value $11,607,165. In 1858 the value of hogs exported was 8810,406; of pickled pork, $2,852,942 ; of hams and bacon, $1,957,423; and of lard, 83,809,5501. In 1859 the value of hogs exported, $550,875 ; of pickled pork, §3, 355, 746; of hams and bacon, $1,263,042, and of lard, $3,268,406. XXXV. The following is made out from figures taken from U. S. P. O. Reports, showing the exports of Indian corn and corn- meal, with their respective values, for the following years : Years. Corn. Corn meal. Total Value Bushels. Value. Barrels. Valup. 1854 7,708.816 56,074,277 257,403 51.002,976 87,077.253 1855 7.807,585 6, 961,, 571 267,208 1,237,122 8.198.093 18 6 10,292.280 7,622,505 293.607 1,175 688 8,798,253 1857 7,505,318 5,184.606 267,504 957 791 6 142 457 1858 4,706,115 3,259,039 237,037 877.092 4 130.731 1859 1,719,998 1.323,103 258,885 994.2(,9 2 317 372 18G0 3 314,155 2,399,808 233.709 912.075 3,311 883 18GI 10,078,244 6,890,805 203,313 092003 7,582 868 Before 1850, pork packing, as an art, had reached a high degree of improvement. Cincinnati, being the centre of a great corn and swine producing region, attained and held the pre-eminence in this line, for a considerable length of time. Louisville, its near neighbor, also had large packing estab- lishments. Gradually the business sprang up, on a smaller INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUKE, 117 scale, in many small places scattered throughout the West ; and Chicago, after distinguishing herself in a remarkable degree as a transporter of grain, took hold of the packing business with great vigor, and eventually made, in some cases, the greatest showing in the number of swine killed. We do not hear so much in this line, from St. Louis, whose receipts and exports are more varied, though very extensive; or from Pittsburg, a great coal and iron mart, or from the rapidly growing cities on the Lakes. Our leading exports of produce have been fast obtaining character throughout the world. Some such manufactures of corn as Maizena, have been shipped to the farthest islands. In 1864 the value of this export was $51,118, and in 1865, $162,801 ; and in '73, $424,552, of which England took $146,399; British Colombia, $8,427; Australasia, $41,254; British Africa, $9,370, and Japan, $2,643. xxxvi. Exports of Produce of United States to foreign countries, selected from the Reports of Commerce and Navigation, and Monthly Report for May and June, of Agricultural Depart- ment for 1876. Yrs. Corn. 1 Bushels. 18,904,909 Value 1862 S10.3S7,383 rsti3 16,119.476, 10 592,704 | 1864 4,096 091 3 353.280 1805 2.812,726 3,679.183 ISttfi 18 516, 0.')! 11 070,895 18t>7 14 889,828 14,871 092 18(;8 11,147.490; 13 094 0861 18f.9 7 047.197 6,820 719 1870 1 892,115 1 2S7..575 1871 9 826.809 7.4.58 997 1872 84.491.650 23 9.S4,365 187:5 8H..541.9::0i 23.794 694 1 1S74 34,484.606! 24,769.951 | 1873 28,858.420 24,456 937 1 ("lornmo.il. Barrels | Value. 253, 257 262, 199, 237, 284, 336. 309 187. 211. 308 403. M..551, ^^,166, 570$ 9481, 357 1 4191 2T51, 2811 50.S2 ,S67il, 098| 811 840'l, 111 1. 228il 6l6|i; 78,344 Hogs. No. 3.306 9,467 9.199 1400 951 3 577 1399 l'2"6.58 8 770 .56.110 99,720 Total Val-iTot'lValiie ue of Com I orn & Hog Value, and Meal. Produ' t $ 28 562 96,373 86 907 12.771 15 4.54 40,092 18,44' i 89 753 61.390 548,1.53 787,40: poO miU'ns $100 mill's '. to H inch.' to % inch. Uushel.s. 118 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CVLTU&E. XXXVII. EXPORTS OF SWINE PRODUCTS OF U. S., SELECTED FROM RE- PORTS ON COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. Yrs. 1802 1803 1804 1805 1800 1807 1868 1809 1870 1871 1872 1873 Hams and Bacon. 308,051 t 326,119 4,334,775 i218,243, 009 317,597 t64,147,461 Value. Pounds. « 3,980.1.551141,212,780 5,828,030 208,132 6,813,135 130,056,788 4,788,484 3,597,090 t2S,090,133| 3,267,652 3.422,928 3,253,137 124,439,8:32 1 24. 639,831 139 250,750 4.302,320 1 57,109.518 4,122, "" 5,007,035 110,886,446 45,990,71 37,568,930 43,a59,064 49,228,165 38,%8,256 71,446,854 395,381,737 Value $ 10 290,572 18,658,280 12,223,327 10.521,702 0.269,796 3 291,176 5,476,998 7,482 060 6,123,113 8.126,683 246,208,143 21.120,59i: 35,022, 13' Lard. Pounds. Value. 118,573,307 $ 10 004,521 155.336,: 96 97190,765 44,342,295 30,110,451 64,555,462 41,887,545 35,808.530 80,037,297 199,651.660 230,534,207 15,755 570 11,260 7-28 t>, 107.435 5,970,651 6,634 556 9.427,831 7,443,^ $3-40 1865 $1.30 $7-47 1862 55 3-<^7 1866 82 4.76 1863 (>SH 3-93 1867 99^ 5- 47 1864 8i}i 5-14 1868 1.17;^ 6.15 Perhaps the most interesting year connected with these reports, was that of 1864. The three great British Islands received, as our exports, of Indian corn, $1,647,265; of corn- meal, 85,095; of Pork, $798,037; of lard, $3,094,630; of lard oil, $217,962; of bacon, $10,495,231. To Canada, and other British possessions in North America, we exported in that year more than $1,000,000 of maize, and $233,603 corn- meal; nearly $2,500,000 of pork; $337,617 of bacon, and $269,189 of lard. To the British West Indies, and posses- sions in Central and South America, (including British Hon- duras and Guiana) in round numbers, $254,000 maize, $659,000 meal, $803,000 pork, $306,000 lard, $34,000 lard oil, and $178,700 bacon. To Cuba and Porto Rico, nearly $223,000 of corn and meal, over one-eighth of this being grain; nearly $2,207,000 of lard j $453>333 ofhams and ba- con, and nearly $415,000 of pork. France received nearly $2, 770,000 lard; Belgium, $311,063, and Bremen, Hamburg and the German Zollverein, over $609,000 of same. To Mex- ico, nearly $400,000 of swine products, and over $257,000 corn and meal; to South America, more than $1,000,000 of pork, lard, &c. North Americans, in corn and swine pro- ducts, were our customers for over $4 000,000. But sufficient space has already been given to the distribu- tion of the exports, in this connection. Its illustration for the subsequent years may be given more briefly in the forms of tables, or diagrams. A few facts in regard to the imports for which our products are exchanged, may not be out of place. In 1827 we imported from Cuba, cigars, sugar, INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. 123 molasses and spices. Sugar, also, from other Spanish, and the Danish West Indies ; molasses from French, British and Dutch West Indies. Iron from Great Britain, Sweden and Norway, and Russia. Hemp from Russia; cotton bagging from Scotland ; Silks from China, France, England and Italy. Wines from Netherlands, France, Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, Madeira and Teneriffe. Opium from Turkey, the Levant and Egypt. Spirits from Netherlands and Danish West Indies. Indigo from Colombia and Mexico. The former also sent us Cocoa and spices, and the latter, bullion; Brazil, hides; Spain, raisins; China, teas; and England, in addition to hers above stated, coal, salt, white lead, cotton bagging, carpeting, watches, harness, hosiery, cotton goods, woolens and copper. Peru, Colombia, Mexico and British West Indies sent us spices. Under amounts of $100,000 very many other articles were imported. In 1843 the records exhibit imports from England of greater variety than from other countries : castings, iron, cloths and cassimeres, cottons, manufactures of flax, laces, sheet tin and books. France shipped blankets, worsteds, cottons, leghorn hats and silks. Cuba added coffee to her sweets, which was also imported from Hayti, Venezuela and Brazil. Russia sent us sail duck ; China, tea and silks. Aus- tralia, Brazil and the Argentine Republic, wool; and the last two, as well as other South American States, material for leather; Manilla and Philippine Islands, sugar ; Mexico, dye- woods; and Texas, not then admitted, raw cotton. Spain, who has a mountain of salt, and Portugal, helped our sup- plies of that prime necessity. A great variety of fruits and spices, in smaller quantities, came from Southern Europe and the East Indies. Some of the imports in 1862 were madder from Holland and her Colonial possessions ; gums arabic and tragacanth, as well as benzoin and myrrh from British Islands ; 124 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. dyewoods in sticks from Central and South America. Gold in bullion, from Canada and the British North Ameri- can possessions, New Grenada, Venezuela, and from Liberia and other ports of Africa. The imports in 1873 were more varied : raw jute and other grasses from British East Indies,' Mexico and Germany — gunny cloth from the Indies; marble from England, Scot- land, Italy and Nova Scotia; old iron from Belgium, France, Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Cuba, Quebec and Ontario. Steel rails for railroads from England and Scotland. Silver bullion from Mexico chiefly ; gums from Austria and the British possessions in Australia; horse hair for weaving, from the Argentine Republic and Brazil. India rubber and gutta percha from Brazil, Central American States, British West Indies, Colombia and Mexico. Volatile oils and paintings from Italy. Cotton and linen rags from Belgium, Italy, and Turkey in Africa ; raw silk from China ; nitrate of soda from Chili and Peru ; bars of tin from British and Dutch East Indies. Cork, bark and wood, unmanu- factured, from Spain and Portugal; crude camphor from Japan ; Cocoa from Colombia and Guiana. Fruits and nuts from Honduras, Greece, Italy and Spain, and Turkey in Asia. Goat's hair, wool of alpaca and sheep, from Argentine Re- public, Chili and Brazil. This list is but a small portion of the products enumerated as imports, in the late U. S. Reports on Commerce and Navigation. In 1 791 (including the cornmeal with the grain, at about four bushels to the barrel) the quantity exported, to each 100 inhabitants, was about 52^ bushels; in 1800, about ^S}(; in 1810, about 9^; in 1820, nearly 11^; in 1830, nearly 8; in 1840, about 8|; in 1850, 32 j%; in i860, 13 J4; in 1870, 5^. The last census year showed the lowest Indian corn export for many years, and the years subsequent to 1871, the very highest. A fair estimate of the population for 1876 would INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 125 make the proportion of the export much more than 5 5^ ; but it is not considered even safe for the agricultural interests of the United States, to increase the exports of this grain rapidly. Indian corn, being a gross feeder, exhausts the soil if raised successively on the same land for a long period, with- out abundant returns, in some way, of its treasures removed. Before giving some account of the exporting districts of United States, we extract the following summary of exports of corn and meal from the Monthly Report of the Agricul- tural Department, for May and June, 1876. Corn. Cornmeal. Total; Five years ending Busliels. Bushiels. Bushels. Bushels. 1S30 3,530.710 •2.568,94G 3,133.632 3,269,532 6,664,342 6,403,164 9,778,884 14,309,880 24,284,080 28,770,504 33,935,872 38,642,300 44,062,396 44,912,960 46,148,320 47,760.764 49,311,992 50,478,608 6,099,056 ' 7J284,'629" 12,502,820 1840 6,099 656 1,184,973 6,403,164 3,375.720 17 003 513 1S45 7,284,629 3,474.109 9,778,884 4,530.996 10,768,738 25,068,618 • 1S50 10,758.738 43,822,153 54,580,891 23,905,196 14.309.880 9,974,800 54,580,891 78,865,571 24 284.680 4,486,824 , 78,486,087 107,255,591 I860 78.486,087 27,597,896 28,770.504 5,165,368 100,033,983 140,019,855 1S65 100,083,983 52,612,028 33,935 872 4.706,428 158,696,011 ""206,689,"287" ""216','515i596' ""25i','607,246 197 338 311 1870 158.696.011 47,993,276 38,642 300 5,420,096 250,751,683 For the year 1S71 206,689,287 9,826,309 44 062 39G 850,564 44,912.960 1.235,300 261,428.556 1872 216,515,596 34,491,650 297,155,566 1873 251 007.246 38.541 930 289..'U9.176 34 434,606 46,448,320 1,612,444 289,549,176 337 309 9 10 1874 47,760,764 1,551,228 323,983,782 373,295,774 1875 323,983,782 28,858,420 49,311,992 1,166,616 352,842,202 403,320,810 1 - 352,842,202 50,478,608 126 , INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, In the more recent Reports on Commerce and Navigation, the exports of the United States are stated not only with reference to the foreign countries to which they are exported, but also with respect to the districts marked out for the pur- pose of collecting the revenue. The names given them do not always indicate the chief places of export, within their boundaries. They have also changed more or less, or rather the enumeration of them in the Reports from year to year. For instance, there were twenty-eight in the list for 1864, or rather twenty-eight numbers including them, the first begin- ning with Passamaquoddy, Maine, from which was exported 5,630 bushels of corn, and only 60 barrels of cornmeal ; but pork, lard and bacon to the value of more than 1^3 1,600. Portland, Maine, exports very little corn or meal; but lard to the amount of ^123,452, and pork, about one-thirteenth that. The other ports of Maine export but a small quantity; so with the ports of New Hampshire. Two numbers are here allowed to Massachusetts. No. 5 containing Boston and Charlestown, and No. 6, the other ports of the State. Boston district exported in 1864, nearly $1,341,000 in all, pork being nearly half, lard one-third, and cornmeal nearly one- thirteenth. Boston's is about 4 per cent of the U. S. export. The prices of corn, being higher in that neighborhood, pre- vent it from exporting largely of this grain. The 7th number includes the ports of Rhode Island, that of Providence being chief. The exports from this district do not reach Si 00, 000. The 8th No. includes the ports of Connecticut, (New London, New Haven and Fairfield) with rather more of an export. The 9th, New York, is by far the largest. The bushels of corn exported in 1864 were more than two and one-half millions. No. 10 is the Champlain (N. Y.) district. No. 11, the Lake ports, returning about three-tenths of a million dollars. 12th, Vermont; 13th, Newark, and ports of New Jersey. 14th, Philadelphia ; 15th, Erie ; i6th, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 127 Delaware — cornmeal, &c.,more than $68,000. 17th, Balti- more; 1 8th Beaufort, North Carolina, and 19th, Beaufort, South Carolina. 20th, Key West, in Florida; 21st, New Orleans — the city. 22d, Brazos Santiago, Texas; 23d Cuya- hoga, and the Lake ports of Ohio, 24th, Detroit and Macki- naw, Michigan; 25th, Chicago, Illinois. 26th, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which exports some $217^000 of swine products, mostly pork. 27th, San Francisco, California. 28th, Ore- gon and Washington Territories ; swine and products, over $50,000. Reference is made only to corn and hog products. The Report for 1867 gives numbers for 72 collection districts, including, in Maine, Frenchman's Bay, Machias, Castine, Wiscasset, Bath, Portland and Falmouth, Belfast and Bangor. Portland being the only one returning a consider- able amount of exports. Portsmouth, N. H. is the loth on this list, with only $84 of cornmeal. Vermont, the nth, does better, being a border district not far from the great Canada thoroughfares. Massachusetts has Newburyport, Gloucester, Salem, Marblehead, Boston, Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Edgartown and Nantucket, all of which, leaving out Boston, amount to little more than $50,000. 2 2d to 24th, Providence, Bristol and Newport, hardly reach $2,100. New London, New Haven and Fairfield do much better, especially with cornmeal. 28th to 35th are New York ports, of which Oswego and Buffalo are the chief, out- side of the great City. Philadelphia's export of corn is, in a rough calculation, one tenth of that of NewYork ; of meal not quite, one-fifth; of lard, one-fourteenth; of lard oil, one-fortieth; and of pork, one-twentieth, Baltimore ex- ported, in 1867, less corn, more cornmeal, and very much more of hog products than Philadelphia. Delaware shipped nearly $32,000 cornmeal. Norfolk is an old exporting city, which sent off about seven times as much corn in 1791, as it did in the seventy-sixth year after. Of Nos, 45 to 58, includ- 128 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ing Edenton, Newbern, Beaufort, Wilmington, Charleston, Georgetown, Savannah, Mobile, Pensacola, Key West, St. Johns, Appalachicola, Fernandina and Pearl River, only Charleston, Key West and Savannah exported anything. No. 59, New Orleans, exported nearly $500,000 corn and swine products. Texas (60th) exported less than $600 bacon and lard. Miami, 62d, (does this include Toledo, Ohio?) exported more than 259,000 bushels of corn. Sandusky, about $1,820 corn and bacon. 64th, Cuyahoga, (Cleveland) nearly ^108,000 corn. Detroit, Port Huron and Michillim- ackinac are in Michigan, and except the latter, deal largely in exports. Chicago comes nearest New York in the maize export; Milwaukee is more of a wheat exporter. The re- maining three numbers, for Oregon, Puget's Sound and San Francisco, are the last on this list, with a small trade in this line. The lists for 1871 and '73 contain a few more numbers, but are arranged in alphabetical order. The changes in the exports of the larger cities, included in the following tables, will be best indicated therein. Bruns- wick, Georgia; Corpus Christi, in Texas; Teche, in Loui- siana; Minnesota, and Duluth in that State, and Superior, in Michigan, are new districts, and probably destined to be exporting places of considerable importance. The Portland (Maine) export of maize was much smaller, and of meats, much larger, in 1873 than in '67. Its bacon and lard export was greatly extended. But as a rule, the business in this line, in the smaller ports on the Northern Atlantic coast, seem to have fallen off in the interval. New Haven, New London and Delaware are among the exceptions. Key West, in Florida, improved greatly, exhibiting only 8255 in '67 and over $200,000 of maize and hog products in '73. Texas improved somewhat; and those of San Francisco were about doubled. Oswegatchie, in New York, gained largely. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 129 It is clear that the Northern ports bordering on Canada and Ontario, are destined to great improvement as ex- porters of these products. The estabUshment of a more permanent government, on a more liberal basis, as well as the natural advantages of these British provinces are inviting immigration, and the discovery of gold in British Colombia, will doubtless aid their agricultural and commercial progress. Important lines of communication have been established. Taking into view the whole history of the West especially. Cincinnati, Chicago and Toledo, and perhaps Louisville and Indianapolis, may be considered Indian corn cities. It is true, the iron business has done a great deal for the first ; but pork packing seems to have done more towards establishing its character, and preparing it for entering successfully on general manufacturing. The pork business draws in a large number of farmers, and dealers in farm produce. St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, have been to a considerable extent, and some of them to a great extent, transporting cities. It is probable that a city in a favorable position as a transporter of produce stands the best chance for rapid growth. Where large capital is invested in con- veniences for the reception and storage of grain, and in safe and fast lines of movement both by water and land, better prices can be given for the great staples, and sales at a reasona- ble price can be made more certain. And persons or firms forwarding their produce to such places, generally find it convenient to make their wholesale purchases there, and especially to buy their machinery. It is the policy then, for transporting cities especially, and for manufacturing cities generally, to connect themselves with as wide a circle of productive and commercial districts as possible. The suc- cess of the three great Western cities is largely due to this. New Orleans has so many natural advantages that it must, in due time, take its place again as a large exporting city. 130 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The developments in the character of the new lands acquired by the United States, since the introduction of irrigation on a large scale, make it almost certain that the grain culture will keep pace with the increase of population. But the facts show that foreign exports of maize products will not ; and, although the success of the United States in maize cul- ture, accompanied with immense immigration, past and to come, familiarizes the old world nations with its advantages as food for man and beast, it is better that the culture, rather than the product, should be successfully carried round the world. It has been a common saying with experienced farm- ers, that a good crop of Indian corn makes everything on the farm flourish. Its large leaves and widely extended roots make it eminently calculated to prepare the way for other products. Its widely extended culture is also favorable to health. In the East there seems to be a tendency more and more towards the largest cities, for the purpose of exportation, especially for exports to Europe. One reason of this may be the recent high development of steam navigation, ena- bling the largest merchant vessels to take in very heavy freights at cheaper rates ; so that even maize has been some- times sold at a less price, by the wholesale, in Liverpool than in New York. But the state of the currency came in for a share of this result. Our notices of early exports, recorded from year to year, begin with Philadelphia, as follows : (See U. S. P. O. Reports ) YEARS. CORN, BUSH. MEAL, BBLS. I83I 42,293 45,432 1832 48,589 50,323 1833 66,708 51,903 1834 3', 526 50,018 1835 25,457 50,869 1836 19,117 42,798 1837 21,486 63803 1838 17,087 64,002 rEARS. CORN, BOSH. MEAL, BBLS 1839 1840 I84I 17,117 76.749 80,266 73800 89,486 108 822 1842 1843 1844 83.772 74,613 110,068 97,884 106,484 101,356 1845 129,256 115,101 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 131 There were shipped into Buffalo by the lakes in 1843, of maize, 223,963 bushels; in '44, 137,978 bushels; in '45, 54.200. The following, made up from U. S. P. O. Reports, shows the corn exports of Philadelphia, compared with the receipts and exports of Boston ; the bushels of corn that came on all the canals (a) to Hudson river; and exports (b) from Chicago. Corn Export bn&h. Philadelphia. Boston. Canals, {a) Yrs. Corn. bushels. Meal, barrels. Corn, bushels. Cornmeal, btals. Receipts. Exports. Rec'pts. Exports 8,651 44.903 42,849 in U. S. 1846 1847 1848 1849* 1S50 1851 279,820 1,102,210 817,1.50 906,823 602.680 554,545 144.857 300 531 140,014 91.349 94.334 65,385 2,374.484 2,601,424 3,748.509 2,789 313 2,116,744 2,175,£67 191,254 568,025 518,866 325,768 8,637 25,080 41,144 Cholera 1,610.149 6,053,845 2,953,963 5,121,270 3,228,056 7,670 345 11,947 67,315 339,741 644,848 262.013 3221,317 *See U. S. P. O. Report, 1849-50, (pages 532-533) for year ending Sept. SOth, '49. For the month of January 1849, there were exported from New York City to Liverpool 109,600 bushels of corn, of United States growth; 6,063 bushels to Ireland ; 400 to the British North American Colonies, and 669 to the British "West Indies. In Baltimore the inspections of cornmeal for 1848 were 129 hogsheads, 45,451 barrels, and 1,044 half barrels; in 1849, 428 hogsheads, 51,772 barrels, and 2,051 half bar- rels. (See U. S. P. O. Report, 1849-50, page 535.) In the three following years, from the opening to the close of navigation, there were received at Buffalo, by the lake : Years. Corn, bushels. Pork, barrels. Lard, pounds. Bacon, pounds. 1847 2,862.300 2,298,100 3,321,651 63,7,50 66,000 59 954 3,436,000 5,632,112 5,311 037 1848 1849 5193,996 Bacon in 1847 and '48 is included in the pork. There were first cleared at Buffalo, (canal freight) in 1848, 2,187,562 bushels of corn, and 3,328,463 in 1849; barrels of pork, 67,076 in '48, and 41,643 in '49; bacon, 7,248,347 and 4,379.058 pounds; lard, in the same years, respectively, 6,056,470, and 4,344,725 pounds. 132 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. Toledo shipped to Oswego, during the season of 1849, 186,690 bushels of corn, 200 barrels of cornmeal, 26,227 barrels of pork; 3,212,320 pounds of bacon, and 3,991,373 pounds of lard and grease. The following are the principal places where hogs were packed in the West, in 1849-50, witl:i the numbers cut. (See U. S. P. O. for those years.) OHIO. Miami and Scioto Valleys, 122,000' Cincinnati, . , . . . 393,775 Ripley, (estimated) . . 8,000 Total, 523,775 KENTUCKY. Louisville, "^ Jeffersonville and >■ . . 184,000 New Albany, J Maysville, 14,000 Total, 198,000 INDIANA. Whitewater Canal, . . 62,000 Madison, Sb.yog^ Indianapolis, .... 14,000 Evansville, 14,500 Terre Haute, .... 59,566 LaP'ayette, 39.200 Total, with other places, . 428,575 ILLINOIS. Shawneetown, . . . , 12,000 Lacon, 11,500 Peoria, 21,000 Pekin, 26,000 Canton, 19,000 Springfield, I9,500 Beardstown, 31,000 Alton, 30,000 Chicago, winter packing, 11,500 Total, with ether places, ; 268,100 MISSISSIPPI RIVER. St. Louis, 124.000 Hannibal, 24.500 Quincy, 29,000 Keokuk, 19,000 Burlington, 29000 Total, with other places, . 252,900 Grand Total, . . . 1,871,330 Baltimore, in 1848-49, . 150,000 Baltimore, in 1849-50, . . 100,000 The tonnage of the principal ports of the U. S. for the year ending June 30th, was : TONS. 95ths.] TONS. 9;5ths. New York, . . . 796491 79 Norfolk, . . . . 23,016 26 Boston, .... 296890 04; Mobile, .... 25,067 79 New Bedford, . . 123,911 57|Buffalo 40,667 34 Bath 88820 84|Pittsburg, . . . 35,77° 63 Portland, 84,568 8olDetroit 33466 94 J'hiladelphia, . . . 188057 2i!St. Louis, . . . . 32,255 08 Baltimore, . . . 134,025 66J Cuyahoga, .... 30,047 11 New Orleans, . . 240,206 24|Oswego, . . , . 22,151 68 Charleston, S. C. . . 29.285 48iChicago 17^32 43 Wilmington, N. C. . 16,641 S7I Cincinnati, . . . 16,897 74 INDIAN CORX AND ITS CULTURE, 133 There arrived at, and cleared from, Cleveland, Ohio, by way of canal, in the years — 1848. 1849. Corn, bushels, 621,454 547,605 Pork, Barrels, . 26,111 23,031 1848. 1849 Bacon, pounds, 1,820,155 1,145,58^ Lard, pounds, 1,636,803 1,723,806 Of the exports of Indian corn to foreign countries, in 1873, reckoned in bushels: New York exported more than one- half; Baltimore, more than one-sixth; Chicago, nearly one- tenth ; Philadelphia, nearly one-thirteenth ; Miami district, nearly one-fourteenth. After these, come Boston and New Orleans, in nearly equal quantity. Of barrels of cornmeal, New York exported, in round numbers, 201,000; Boston, 72,000; Baltimore, 62,000; Philadelphia, nearly 33,000. Of the new exporting districts, Toledo, and Huron (Michigan), are remarkable for rapid increase. With regard to the general policy of exporting other pro- ducts than Indian corn, perhaps the result of Mr. Sullivant's investigations as to hog feeding and pork making, contained in the Ohio Agricultural Report, for 1869, furnish one of the best illustrations. One bushel of corn (56 pounds) fed on the ear, "returns, under ordinary circumstances, ten pounds of pork." Taking the ordinary rates of freight, from Chicago to Liverpool, on corn and pork, and making due allowances for the expense of slaughtering and packing, and the difference in the selling prices there, between a pound of Indian corn and a pound of mess pork, and it will be seen how much less is taken from the farmer's profits by the freight on corn, in pork, than on corn in grain. Then the ma- nure saved in the process of feeding, and skillfully applied, is clear gain to the farm. The difference in the value of the corn and meal, and the swine product exports in 1873, the latter being about two and a half times as much as the former, shows how well these facts are appreciated. Even in 182 1, when values were first apparent for corn and meal, 134 INDIAN CORN AXD ITS CULTURE, in the returns of export above referred to, the total value of srt'ine products exported was more than double that of corn and meal. But whether it is necessary to the progress of agriculture in the United States, to extend this rule of limitation of the t\]:)orts of Indian corn to our near neighbors as fully as to far distant, and especially trans-atlantic countries, is another question. Cuba is about as far from New Orleans as St. Louis, and it is to be presumed that the sugar culture, and that of coffee, which afford our States immense supplies of arti- cles which enter into the consumption of the great majority of households, would be nearly as wearing to the soil of that island, as maize culture is to that of the Ohio valley. But it so happens, so far, that Cuba does not need our corn as we do her sugar. But Mexico, Honduras and St. Thomas are not much more distant, and corn meal has always been in demand in the Danish West Indies, and may become so in the States south of us. Guiana and Venezuela are some- times good customers in this line, and the waste of the arti- cles we obtain from them may help to keep up the fertility of our corn lands. We could spare some maize, if needed, to obtain the guano of Peru. Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are just over the line, and they have greatly increased their facilities for transportation. In proportion to their population, they seem to have been as good custom- ers in this line as the parent country. Their rivers run into the lakes that aid so much in sending moisture to our farms, and furnishing water-way for their products. To exhibit the consumption of corn in the United States, as food, &c. , for man and beast, in various forms, it is only necessary to deduct the export, for the given year, of Indian corn and cornmeal, in bushels, and the quantity used as seed, from the entire estimated product. The Monthly Agricultural Report, for May and June, 1876, gives, as the tNDlAN CORN AND ITS CtJLTUKE. 136 quantity of seed for 1870, 12,882,325 bushels; for 1871, 11,363,712; for 1872, 11,842,278; for 1873, 13,065,716; and for 1874, 13,678,972. The bushels of corn and meal export are contained in the general summary of exports above quoted, from the same document. The whole con- sumption as thus calculated, would be 1,070,695,802 bushels for 1870; 944,807,278 for 1871 ; 1,040,722,348 for 1872; 883,222,450 for 1873, and 806,444,492 for 1874. CHAPTER VI. BOTANICAL CHARACTER AND VARIETIES OF INDIAN CORN. Before this plant is botanically described, it may be of interest to give some of the names it has borne in the differ- ent regions over which it has traveled. It has already been stated that the original of the word maize is the Haytian mats or mahiz, as differently spelled by historians. Some, how- ever, have supposed that it came from the Lettish or Livonic niayse, signifying bread. Trigo de Indias seems to be a Spanish term founded on the fact that Columbus brought samples of it to his home, in Spain, after his first voyage in search of India, which resulted in the discovery of America. The Eu- ropeans of that age had the Indies on the brain, and Colum- bus, in his first grand adventure, supposed he had found them. Another of these European names for this corn was Ble d' Indie. As it was not very long in finding a congenial soil in those magnificent farming districts which Turkey claims to rule, and is now struggling to retain, from which centre it gradually spread among the neighboring nations, it acquired the common name of Ble de Turquoise. The botanical name is Zca Mays. Zca is from the Greek zoo, to live. The ancients of the East had their bread made 136 INDIAN COBN AND ITS CULTURE. out of one or more of the grains native to their several dis- tricts, from the peninsula overlooked by the pillars of Hercu- les to the Indian Archipelago; and this they considered, as we do our bread, the staff of life. Hence Zea seems to include all bread-stuffs, although the modern systems of bot- any, being founded on more technical distinctions, have in some cases classed the bread-stuffs with the grasses. A description contained in the American Farm Book is less cumbered with scientific terms than those generally given by botanists : ''A strong, reedy, jointed stalk, provided with large alternate leaves, almost like flags, springing from every joint; the top producing a bunch of male flowers of various colors, called tassel. Each plant has one or more spikes, or earsP "These ears proceed from the stalk at various distances from the ground, and are closely enveloped by several thin leaves — a sheath — the husk. The ears are cylindrical, with a pith, called cob; the seeds are ranged all over it, in eight or more straight rows, each row with as many as thirty or more seeds. The germs of the seeds are nearly radial from the center of the cylinder ; from these eyes proceed individ- ual filaments — the silk" "These (filaments) hang in a thick bunch from the point of the husk. They are the siigmata, their business being to receive the farina, which drops from the flowers on the top, and without which the ear would'produce no seed; a fact proved by cutting off the top before flowering, the ears becoming barren. This office performed, the tassel and silk dry up and wither. The grains are of various col- ors, mostly yellow of various shades ; sometimes nearly white, and (sometimes) approaching red." Some are of deep choco- late ; others greenish or olive; and the same ear may have grains of different colors. The kernels are long, round, flat, or shriveled. There are two or more leading spstems of botany now in vogue: the Linnean, which for a long time was most promi- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 137 nent, and the Natural system, the adjustment of which has varied in the hands of different scientists. The Linnean ranges the individual plants in varieties, which are gathered into species, the species are reduced to genera, and these to orders, which are arranged in classes, one of which, called Monxcia, is founded on the fact that the same culm^ or stalk, contains the stavicn, (the tassel above described) and i\\Q pistil, (the silk projecting from the spike, or ear); the pollen fertilizing the ear. Prof. Lindley's "Natural System of Botany" (1835) has five great classes of plants, the third of which is the Endogens^ or Monocotyledonous flowering plants, characteristics of which are "leaves with parallel veins ; stem without any distinction of wood, pith, bark and medullary rays. Flowers usually appear with a ternary division. Seeds in a pericarp. Cotyledons solitary, or if two, unequal and alternate with each other." Part of this class have the flower incomplete (having no distinct floral envelopes, except leaves). Among these are plants with glumaceous flowers, which contain the Granmiaceoc , or Graminicz, (grass tribe), and among these the Gramina, or grains. In the above work the reader will find a very full description of the grain tribe in general, and maize in particular. "Lindley's Introduction to Bota- ny," published in 1835, gives a full explanation of the tech- nical terms. The "Vegetable Kingdom," published in 1853, in London, is a work worthy of this Professor of Botany, in the University of that city. He here introduces alliances among his classes, and among the alliances of £ndogens, are the Glumales, the flowers being glumaceous — (that is to say, composed of bracts not collected in true whorls, but consist- ing of imbricated colorless or herbaceous scales.) Among the natural orders of Gliimals are the aforesaid Graminacece, the characteristics of which are an ovary, one-celled, with two or more distinct (or united ) styles ; ovule ascending ; 12 138 INDIAxN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, embryo lateral, naked. Under this head, among the plants of the grass tribe, the Professor gives the substance of his comparisons of the maize with other grains and food plants; which the votary of science Avill find very important as well as interesting. It may give some idea of the vastness of Na- ture's variety, to state that this botanist assigns to the order Graminacecc 291 genera, and 3,800 species. The relation oi the varieties of maize to the subject of prices has already been referred to, and their nature as indi- cated in the course of the historical statements as to that topic, will allow of more brevity in the present discussion. The most obvious differences between these varieties are those of color, size of ear, number of rows of the kernels, and their external appearance as ranged on the cob. That of color seems to be least affected by the climatic relations of corn culture. The yellow, however, seems to be more natural to the North and the white to the South. This may be mainly due to the fact so generally acknowledged, that the Northern maize contains more oil, and the Southern more starch. The former has more firmness, and perhaps more substantial nutriment. It is thought to be more fattening to hogs; distil- lers say it is richer in material for their product; it is, perhaps, more generally of a flinty nature ; although there are white flints as well as yellow. It is said to be better for shipping, because its more oily substance makes it less liable to fermen- tation. Some prefer it even for bread, but these seem to be very much in the minority. In grinding, it breaks up into coarser particles, as a whole, although the coarse meal, when the finer particles are sifted out, makes, when thoroughly boiled, that delicacy often called samp. But this coarseness of the meal, as will its less agreeable color, makes it less fitted for bread making; the yeast or baking powder would not reach the heart of its substance so easily, and the taste of the public, in the matter of bread, generally inclines to INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 139 whiteness, even in that made of wheat; flour from white wheat being more generally popular than that from what is called red wheat. Many persons complain of the raw taste of yellow corn bread; but for cakes, sound yellow corn is excellent. The Peruvians are said to raise a white variety, coarse and unpalatable as bread material, which is fed to swine. But in the United States, white corn, when it is white, more generally brings the better price. There are, however, all shades between white and yellow, and in many cases, graiiis of both colors will be found in the same ear; and it will be observed that quotations in the great market are, of late, quite as often mixed, as of either of the prime colors. The soil, as well as the climate, seems to have some effect on the color. A correspondent, in one of the U. S. Reports, writing from Jennings County, Indiana, gives it as his expe- rience, that the hardness of the white seed in coming up greatly exceeds that of yellow ; and that yellow, if sound, may come up in wet, heavy soil, but not in cold, wet soil. This is in latitude 39°, a very favorable one for maize culture. Another correspondent from Fayette County, Indiana, about half a degree further North, says that more white than yellow is raised, that yellow yields more to the acre, and contains more nutriment. Many years ago a correspondent from Maine described several fancy colors of corn cultivated there, among which were the blood red, described as soft, damp and inferior. In the South-West, in one of the earlier Agricultural Re- ports, is described a new variety, called the Calico corn, from the resemblance of its colors to printed cottons, which excited much attention. It was said to make very white flour, resembling wheat flour in its adaptation to bread, cake and pastry making. The Indians in the far West cultivate smaller varieties with a greater number of colors. A late sojourner among the Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, 140 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. (see U. S, Agricultural Report, 1870) in describing their culture and uses of maize, says the grains vary in color, through shades of pink, blue and white, and the ears are generally small and slender. Blue varieties are preferred, and sorted from the rest for bread. The Mexicans also use them for tortillas, or cakes. Some of these, grown by the Pueblo Indians, in or near Arizona, are said to be about the same as those grown in Mexico, when conquered by Cortez. A variety of sweet corn, called the Black, and approaching very nearly to that color, was obtained by Capt. Burch, of Marietta, Ohio, from one of the Indians, during a steamboat trip along one of the South-Western rivers. Its cultivation was a success in Marietta, and as a variety for the table, was considered equal to any other of that class. The occasional red ears found in a field of common corn, which were so much prized in the old-fashioned husking bees, are probably among those accidents which cannot be easily accounted for. Returning to the North-East; among the old varieties were the red blaze and red glaze ; the latter producing, it is said, in some cases, six ears on a stalk. Some writers have ascribed the fancy shades, as red, blue and purple, to the colors of the oil contained ; others to the epidermis of the grain. The truth of the matter seems to be, that if the epidermis be transparent, the color may depend either on the oil, or on the combined particles composing the grain ; "but if the hull be opaque, the grain will present the same color. For instance, the yellow color of the Golden Sioux is derived from the yellow color of the oil, and the Rhode Island white flint corn from the colorless particles of starch and oil, which are distinctly seen through the transparent hulls ; but red, black and blue corn owe their lively hues to the color of their epidermis, and not to the oil." — (U. S. P. O. 1853.) It is said that white and yellow, placed a long distance from corn of other colors, have produced grains of the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 141 brightest red. One writer credits this as the effect of the dif- ferent portions of iron and other metals acted upon by the rays of light. A mixture of Brown corn with the common eight-rowed yellow, produced a chocolate color. The white flour variety was named from the snow-white flour with which the grains were filled, composed mostly of starch, having little or no oil or gluten. A more recent variety grown at the West, the Snow corn, is probably the perfection of the white among the maize grains, as the Golden Sioux may be of the yellow. White and yellow assist in giving names to a large number of varieties. The corn proper to the South has an ear of greater diam- eter than that which has been established in the North. This results from the long seasons of growth which give the stalk. an opportunity for growing much taller, and make it neces- sary to plant it farther apart, in order to let in the sun and air. Fewer stalks being planted in the hill, the limited num- ber of ears, where the other conditions of growth are equal to those of the Northern corn, will necessarily become much larger. Western corn, being more indebted to the South than the North, although a pretty fair compromise between them, has more specimens of mammoth varieties than the latter. The number of rows in which the grains are compacted on the ear, helps out the nomenclature of the corns, as well as the differences between Northern and Southern varieties. The eight-rowed yellow is a standard variety in New England and Northern New York ; the ears are often long and slender. The old fashioned Canada yellow was eight-rowed, with a small cob, and was said, in early times, to ripen earlier, and to be more solid than any other varieties except Rice and Pop corn. The early Canada White Flint was also eight-rowed, abounding in oil, and was used mostly for boiling and 142 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTCRE. roasting ears. These two varieties, as the name indicates, were among the kinds most cultivated in Canada. The Piscataqua, with small kernels and very small cob, and ripening early in latitude 4Sfi°, was also eight rowed. The Brighton was distributed by members of the Massachusetts Legislature, before Maine became a separate State — 1820. ' It was twelve-rowed. One farmer planted this on light land, which he cultivated well, and the result was, nearly all eight- rowed ears. A small variety of the same was put on rich clay land, and it went back again to twelve rows. The statements here made, in regard to varieties, are mostly gathered from U. S. P. O. and U. S. Agricultural De- partment Reports, beginning with the small issue of 1842. Some from agricultural journals, and journals devoting more or less of their space to agricultural subjects ; a few from other published works on general agriculture. The past, then, comes in for a considerable share of them. The testimony of experienced farmers on this subject is very general, that varieties of maize undergo great and often very rapid changes, at least until the variety has become fixed by a long course of careful and consistent selection of seed, before planting. When it becomes adapted to a certain soil and cli- mate, and care is taken to keep it distinct, and preserve its good qualities, it may not change perceptibly for twenty years. Such has been the experience of several correspond- ents of the department referred to. But varieties planted out of their proper sphere, speedily change to meet the new conditions in which they are placed. It is very common for Southern planters to use seed from the North for their late planting; or for supplying the place of the early-planted, when cut down in its infant growth by worms, or prevented from making a stand by other unfavorable influences. For the first season or two it preserves its Northern habit of ripening early. But the Southern farmer can obtain fresh INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 143 Northern seed every year if he chooses. On the other hand, if the Northerner attempts to introduce the late-ripening Southern seed into his planting, where the late frosts come so much earlier, he will be very apt to get only fodder' for his pains. Southern varieties have been made, however, to creep gradually North, so as to infuse by mixing, or otherwise, some of their good qualities into the Northern plant, giving it more bulk, and taking away some of its hardness. Per- haps some of the varieties we shall now mention may be Northern corn with a few Southern principles. The Button, with rows differently stated — from eight to eighteen — has a shorter ear and a larger growth than the Brighton ; colors, yellow, and white ; cob large ; the ear sometimes twelve to fourteen inches long; the kernels very thick on the cob; it ripens early, and when properly managed, yields one hundred to one hundred and twenty bushels to the acre. In one case, two bushels of sound ears yielded five pecks of shelled corn, weighing sixty-two pounds to the bushel. It was introduced by Solomon Button, of Cavendish, Ver- mont. One of the old varieties in Western New York, called the Early Gourd, did not bear so good a character. It was very large, and ten or twelve-rowed : was said to be longer in ripening, with inferior filling out, requiring too much space between the rows on the cob; and did not shell out. or meas- ure as much to the bushel. It may have done better in Ohio, to which it emigrated many years ago, together with the Button. As we go further South the number of rows on an ear in- creases, that is, in the case of the varieties suited to the climate. The varieties last mentioned were cultivated exten- sively some twenty or twenty-five years ago in the latitude of Rhode Island, between 41° and 42°. The same range of latitude extends through South-Eastern New York, Northern Pennsylvania, the extreme Northern parts of Ohio, Indiana, 144 INDIAN CORN A.\D ITS CULTURE, Central Iowa and Nebraska, and the extreme Southern part of Michigan. But it is well known that the climate is not determined by the latitude alone. Much depends on the mountams, which diminish the average heat, and on large bodies of water, such as the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes, which tend to equalize the temperature, softening the rigor of winter, and the intense heat of summer; and very- much depends on the direction, power and constancy of the winds. What are called the isothermal lines (lines of equal temperature) were established many yeai's ago, after thorough investigation by men of science, and some of the results are embodied in an article on Meteorology, by Prof. Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington City, in U. S. P. O. 1856. According to his description of the iso- thermal lines, that of the mean temperature of 50° passes a little south of Nantucket, (in about latitude 41^^°) almost directly West, nearly parallel to the line of the 40th degree of North latitude, to about the 95th meridian of West longi- tude, in Iowa, and then curves more rapidly to the North, meeting the coast of the Pacific in about the 48th degree of North latitude, near Puget's Sound. One of the mean temperature of summer, that of 70°, (so important to the ripening of Indian corn) is exhibited by a line com- mencing near Long Island, ascending rapidly towards the North, and descending towards the Great Lakes, passing through Lake Erie, reaches its greatest Northern declination at about the iioth meridian (in about latitude 49°) in Nor- thern Montana ; and then turns nearly parallel to the coast, and meets the Pacific in the latitude of about 34°. This curve "exhibits the great effect which the vicinity of the Lakes has on the temperature of summer." While the first named line indicating the mean temperature for the year, of 50°, is "not at all affected by the proximity of these large bodies of water, the mean temperature of the summer (70°) INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 145 is materially reduced." He draws another line in blue, (the others being black for the year's average, and red for the mean of summer) which blue line denotes a mean tempera- ture for winter, of 30°, only two degrees above the freezing point ; starting at the East end of Long Island, passes through Lake Erie, thence down to the 40th parallel — in longitude, about 91° — where Missouri and Iowa corner against Illinois, and thence rapidly rises to the North, and leaves the United States at the 11 8th meridian, on the North line of Washing- ton Territory. This winter line suddenly bends up, after passing the mountains, towards Lake Erie, "indicating an increase of temperature due to the vicinity of the same reser- voirs of water." The other isothermal lines crossing the United States will be hereafter described. This foretaste of the climatic part of our theme is here given as modifying the statements made in regard to the varieties of maize in con- nection with the latitude of the places referred to. The Brown corn seems to have been, nearly thirty years ago, one of the fixed varieties, having large kernels and small cob, varying from ten to thirteen inches long. It was highly recommended, and the Patent Office sent out samples of it to different parts of the Union, to test its qualities. It was described in the U. S. P. O. 1847, ^s growing but five feet high; could be planted in hills three feet apart; the stalks small, and ears near the ground ; useful for planting in or- chards, as being less affected by shade than other varieties. Its advantages were stated to be — 1. Greater yield from the same cultivation. 2. From its rapid growth and early maturity it was secured against the late spring and early autumn frost, and might be early brought into use or into market. 3. It was very hard, oily, and excellent for shipping. 4. The small size of the stalks made it less exhaustive to the soil ; less liable to blow down, and capable of being planted nearer together. 13 146 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CCLTUEE. In the vicinity of the Hudson river it was said to ripen early — by the middle of August. Five ears, about ten inches long, shelled, made 2,000 grains, filling a quart measure; and making 64,000 grains to the bushel. ' In New Hamp- shire, 135 bushels of shelled corn had been obtained from it, and on an average more than 90 bushels per acre. The experience of J. W. Colburn, a New Englander, for twenty-four years, was, that the best variety came from a mixture of the common eight rowed yellow with the Brown corn. The Tuscarora Indians, about the year 1853, cultiva ted at their reservation in Lewistovvn, Niagara County, New York, a singular maize grain they called the Tuscarora White. They brought it with them, in 171 2, from North Carolina, where a corn of the same name was still cultivated, a quarter of a century ago. It had from twelve to sixteen rows ; the grains were whitish on the outside. Was said to have neither gluten nor oil, being, except the grain, composed of dextrine and starch. It was softer, and in some respects, better for horses than flint ; it was capital for making starch ; the meal was apt to sour, but while sweet, made good bread. The Rhode Island corn was probably so called from its being a favorite, and yielding heavily in that State. The depth and breadth of the grains was about the same, and they were full of oil, which, as well as the hull, was trans- parent and colorless ; and its white meal was less apt to sour than some other esteemed varieties. In Connecticut, a mixture of the common Button with a very large kind of eight-rowea corn, in planting, the whole crop being planted with the two varieties in about equal proportions, resulted in very large and long ears of both kinds, many fourteen inches long; kernels on eight rowed very large, and cob small — those on the twelve-rowed much larger than those on the common Button corn. In the course of emigration, the New York corn reached INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. 147 Wisconsin, where, in Grant County, it was said to be prefer- red; but the experience of the correspondent was, that any variety would adapt itself to the climate in a few years, and his idea was that the longest cultivated was the best. It is pretty evident, however, that it must require very skillful cultivation, long continued, to produce an excellent variety out of an inferior one. One of the exceptions to the general fact that white corn has been preferred for human food, was '' that of a correspondent of the Agricultural Department, from Monroe County, New York, who stated that yellow was pre ferred for the cornmeal ingredient of brown bread. The flint varieties seem more proper to the North, although they have reached, for partial culture, almost every part of the Union. White flint was said by some to be less injured by the frost than yellow. Others have stated that yellow flint was best for rich bottom land, and was preferred in some spots in latitude 40°, as ripening two weeks earlier than any other variety, and being less liable to frosts. Some have preferred small yellow as being suited for close planting, early ripening and easy husking ; and as yielding more corn with less labor, especially in an open season ; the average produce on good bottom land, with good culture, being stated as 100 bushels of shelled corn to the acre. One kind of small yellow, however, with a short thick ear, was said to mould easily in the husk, in wet weather. In Michigan and elsewhere, Northern Dent was in use — two-thirds yellow and one-third white Dent — each kernel being dented at the top. From latitude 42° to 43° the two Dent varieties were gaining on most others above described. A correspondent from Venango County, Pennsylvania (41 ^ °) provided two varieties of seed: one, the best grown in his vicinity, planted, when it could be done, at the proper time ; the other, adapted to a cold climate, to be planted when the spring had been unfavorable, or there had been a failure of 148 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTDEK. the first planting. At Erie, Pennsylvania, (42") the red cob Gourd Seed was said to be the most esteemed variety. This is one of the Southern varieties which had been making its way Northward slowly, and Westward rapidly. The shape of the grain probably suggested its name. At a some- what lower latitude, a hybrid between the rough Gourd Seed of the South, and Northern flint was an esteemed variety. The Gourd Seed was said to accommodate itself in a few years to that climate, by becoming dented. The size and number of rows increased. It was both yellow and white ; the latter being preferred for horses, the yellow for all other stock. The Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Institute of Science (40°) reported several varieties as being cultivated there, more or less approaching to the Gourd Seed character, a tendency being observed in all varieties, after a few years domestication, to yellow flint— twelve to twenty-four rows — more or less pitted, all varieties there assuming that character eventually. We have now reached the centre of the great maize zone, the parallel of 40°. Not but what the future may develop a lower parallel; but this seems to be one established for the present by the facts of production. It is hard to say whether the Dent or the Gourd Seed is most prominent here. The flints, of course, either by themselves or mixed with others, occupy a position more or less favorable. North, West and South. The zone of which we are now speaking covers New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Southern Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, and parts of Indian Territory, Northern Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. The central line of this territory is nearer 39°, but the present centre of actual pro- duction is probably nearest 40°, In this region, the Ohio valley has done most for maize culture. Many examples INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 149 might be given of the readiness with which its corn takes on the habits of the extreme South, as well as those of the North, forming mixed varieties of wonderful productive- ness. Many years ago the Baden corn produced a great sen- sation among the farmers cultivating the Eastern parts of this zone. The method by which this variety was produced was similar to that of others who, of late, have introduced new varieties. The seed was uniformly selected from stalks bear- ing the most well formed ears. Some of the stories told of the results seemed very large to those whose practice follow- ed the old routine of farming. Probably they were exag- gerated ; but very unusual conditions may have united to produce those which were true. The method, however, of reaching these specimens of high culture has been generally recommended. Dr. Muse, of Maryland, said of the Baden, that he had tried it for many years, and found it the most productive and heavy variety — that is, the Baden white; but some kinds passing under that name were very inferior. Some of the most approved varieties for this region seem to have been natives of Virginia. Virginia White Gourd Seed had from twenty-four to thirty-six rows. The color always white unless crossed with other kinds. If crossed, it could be known by a small indenture in the grains when perfectly dried. The ears were not very long, nor so large as the Big White. In the Yellow Virginia, the kernels were very long and narrow, and of so soft and open a texture that they would not bear transportation by sea, unless kiln dried, or completely excluded from moist air. The grains at the ex- terior ends were flattened and grew so close together, that they produced greater yield than any other variety, in pro- portion to the size of the ears. Had more starch and less gluten and oil than the flint kinds. Their oily and glutinous parts always occurred on the elongated side of the grain, while the starch projected quite through to the summit, and 150 IHDIAN CORN AND ITS CtTI-TURE. by a contraction in drying, produced the pits and depressions peculiar to their ends. This variety was later in ripening, though more productive, than any other kind. It was good for stock. The Gourd Seed was sweeter and more easily masticated than flint. It worked its way, with some success, Northward to about latitude 42°, and the yellow kind was noticed as being common in New Jersey, Delaware and Penn- sylvania, together with the yellow bastard Gourd Seed. New Jersey, also, had the eight to twelve-rowed Jersey White. A variety produced from the Southern Gourd Seed by gradual acclimation was less dented, about half as long, more nutri- tious, produced sweeter meal, and had a stalk about half the length of the original. The hybrid between Southern Gourd Seed and the Northern flint, was an established corn in this section. The Dent rather predominated in the heavy corn districts, for a considerable time ; but the yellow Gourd Seed gained on it, being thought to yield best. In Indiana and Illinois, in addition to these, the Hackberry, White Gregory, Large Virginia, White Gourd and Arkansas Yellow were spoken of as popular varieties, and in Iowa, Yellow Flat. Tennessee adopted the Ohio Yellow, Dutton, large Gourd Seed and Yellow Gourd. Kentucky had a yellow named after her, which was a favorite in Miami County, Ohio, for distillation and swine feeding. There were some nondescripts under the names of Honey Creek, Keever and BuHskin. A yellow in Newport Indiana (40°) was reported as ripening two weeks earlier than any other kind. A yellow variety from Oregon, sent out by the Patent Office, was a favorite with many. Of the yellows, large was stated, by some, to be the best for horses, mules and hogs, and small for neat stock. Several were fourteen-rowed. Some planted yellow, or yel- low flint, on thin land, and reserved the while for the best land, including bottom. A correspondent from Hamilton County, Ohio, advised the Cincinnati Gazette, in November, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CnLTURE. 151 1S71, of a specimen of Mammoth Yellow, with thirty rows to the ear, averaging forty grains to a row, in all, 1200 ker- nels ; twenty eight ears weighed forty-four pounds, husk and shell. The Smooth White was said to have a stiffer stalk, less likely to break in high winds than any other variety; a quality very important in a prairie country. A long variety of that kind, ten to thirteen inches, grown on strong land, measured well in wagon or barrel, but required a long season, and was very liable to frost. The New Mexican White, from the Patent Office was reported as planted in Allegheny County, Penn- sylvania, in the spring of 1854 with a fair yield. Several correspondents speak of white as requiring the best land, making large ears, with grain broad, deep and lightly in- dented; and when ground, the meal being white, fine flour. Of later corns, Lloyd's is said to be a great success — the ear eight to thirteen inches long; cob white, one and one-half inches in diameter; covered compactly with sixteen to twenty rows of grains. Twin corn, a species of white Baden corn, similar to the old fashioned Gourd Seed ; six ears known to have been gathered from one stalk. Some ears of last crop raised upwards of 1200 grains. Among the varieties to be seen in the Museum of the Ag- ricultural Department at Washington, from Kansas, marked as received in 1869, was a dented kind for feeding, about ten inches long; a yellow from eight to eleven inches long, and two inches in diameter; and one eight-rowed, eleven to twelve inches long, with a white cob ; these three coming from the State Fair. Several late varieties noticed in the agricultural columns of the Cincinnati Weekly Gazette, were the Iowa Golden Fleece — a magnificent specimen, and White- cap Yellow, from Butler county, Ohio, cultivated at Tuscola, Illinois, in 1868; in a backward season ripened early, and yielded sixty bushels to the acre, very sound corn ; well 152 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. adapted to prairie soil. The Large Mammoth grows more than twelve feet high, the large ears hanging too high for a man to hang his hat on; hills not nearer than four to four and one-half feet apart ; two stalks to the hill ; produces sixty-four bushels to the acre. Earlier and shorter varieties admit of hills three and one-half feet apart, and three or four stalks in the hill. The mammoth ears average thirty rows, and forty grains in the row. New witnesses testify that yel- low corn is best for stock; but that the meal having a rawer taste than the white, is less used, and at the South is totally rejected for human food. A correspondent from Newtown, Indiana, writes that a neighbor sold twenty acres of corn to be "hogged down;" six acres of white, the rest yellow; the hogs scarcely touched the white till the yellow was all eaten ; both were fully ripened. Another witness from Indiana adds to the statement, that yellow is sweeter and best for fatting, the fact that it makes three pints more whisky (to the bushel) than white. Wayne County, Indiana, produced 60 pounds to the bushel of Shoe Peg corn — very "yieldy. " The Illi- nois premium large yellow yields 85 to 90 bushels to acre — very profitable for stock. J. S. Learning, of Wilmington, Ohio, advocates Clinton corn for seed, and claims that it is two weeks earlier, two feet lower, bears closer planting, has a larger heart in the grain, feeds farther, has a larger yield to the acre, and is a jiurer genuine yellow corn than any other known to its pa- trons. Campbell's sixty days corn, Delaware, Ohio, believed by some to be the earliest sweet corn, has long ears, large grain, small cob and exquisite flavor. Geauga County jRe- fuMkan reports 208 bushels, in 1872, raised on one and one- sixth acres of ground, of Sanford corn in that County, with- out extra culture. Of the varieties raised South of what has been marked out as the great corn zone, say in latitude 36 to 34°, are INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 153 mentioned as popular varieties, a mixture of Gourd Seed and Kareripe, and the Southern Big Yellow, with long, thick cob; grains rather roundish, than deep; the sides falling off to a point where the rows unite with each other, giving the out- side ends of the grains a circular form, and the ear the appearance of a fluted column ; contains less oil and more starch than Northern kinds, fed to hogs; mixed with other white Gourd Seed. The Southern Small Yellow is of like shape, but the ears are slenderer and shorter, and the grain smaller, outwardly flinty and firm; is earlier, and sooner out of reach of the frosts than Big Yellow ; less productive, but more fatting to poultry and swine, and better for shipping. Mixed with Big Yellow, produces Virginia Gourd Seed, and otl>er large varieties. Southern Big White Flint, in shape and size much like Big Yellow, was twelve-rowed, with thick, large cob; had more starch and less oil than Northern flint, was much softer and better for horses. Its meal soured easily, and required kiln drying for shipping. Was less pro- lific than white Gourd Seed. Double-eared White, between Gourd Seed and Hominy Flint, was firm and heavy. A yellow was described as the result of a mixture of White Virginia with Southern Big Yellow. Large White was highly esteemed for its abundant yield of grain, suffering less from the weevil, and making very sweet and white bread; and of fodder, the blade having more nutriment than new hay, and being the best long feed for horses ; the husks, less relished, fed to cows and young mules. These husks were formerly much used for mattresses, being cleaner and more easily moved than mosses; and mixed with coarse cotton, made mattresses little inferior to curled hair. The old fashioned Tuscarora had a large, long, white and heavy ear ; the Bear- ing was sometimes planted with it, in alternate rows; in due time frittering away its tassels, and fixing a large-grained kind on the many-grained Bearing cob. The Tuscarora was 154 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. light, large and productive, with chaffy grain ; could not, for its large size, be planted thickly ; was found cultivated on the settlement of North Carolina. Best hybridized with small flinty corn, A new Tuscarora has a red cob, large reddish and white kernels, soft and easily crushed, and much starch, and little oil. Seventy-five ears as they come to hand, have filled a barrel. The result of an experiment noticed in the Columbia (S. C.) Advocate, was said to be, corn meas- uring in some instances twelve to thirteen inches in circum- ference and twelve to fourteen inches long; from forty to forty-eight rows of grains on the ear. This was the yield of a single ear to the stalk. The ears which were from stalks bearing six ears or more, were smaller ; it was mostly of white Gourd Seed, the varieties from which the selection had been made being thus described. One was remarkable only for grain an inch deep, on a cob of the size of the finger ; another for its thick and very short cob, and a third for its long, dry and slender cob. Either of the varieties, regard- ed singly, or separately, as to its properties, was hardly worth planting; but by suitable blending, they were made to pro- duce the above described mammoth ear. Several correspondents from the Southern States agree in stating that white is best for hominy as well as bread ; has more extended roots; is more easily raised, and best estab- lished. Yellow is preferred by some planters, on account of its sound grain, being less apt to rot in the field, and less exposed to the ravages of the weevil. All kinds deteriorate when grown successively in the same soil; change itself be- ing a benefit. The time of ripening was unimportant ; every kind planted in May ripening before frost. The weight of the corn was also unimportant; twice as much of the lightest could be raised on the same ground, as of the heaviest; the probable amount of nutrition being about equal in the two cases. Some of the best hybrid varieties have been pro- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 155 duced by impregnating, wida the pollen of sweet corn, some Southern farinaceous variety as the parent stock. The kinds -cultivated at Albuquerque, in New Mexico, (34-5°) were most akin to those cultivated in the New Eng- land States. The stalk did not average over six feet hij^h; the cob was large, but unusually long The grain was roundish, and the germ of the heart larger in proportion to the rest of the grain, and more nutritious than was generally the case with varieties produced in the States. Of its colors, blue, yellow, white, red and black, blue predominated ; that alone being used for tortillas, or corn cakes — the only bread there for the table. Richard Rouse, of Tappahannock, Virginia, had experi- mented for sixty-two years, on varieties of foreign and domestic corns, and thought the following corn, as yielding more grain to the acre, and more meal to the bushel, than any varieties he had experimented on, "increased one-half over other varieties." Cob generally red, periphery of ker- nel partaking of its color. Some of Mr. Rouse's neighbors thought corn on a red cob matured more rapidly ihan one on a white one. Of the varieties grown between latitude 30° and 33°, mixed Gourd Seed and flint, and long Gourd Seed were pre- ferred in some quarters. Others thought the Gourd Seed objectionable, from its being infested with insects in the field and crib. The Spanish Creole was much hardier than com- mon Gourd Seed. The St. Antoine was considered by some superior to any other grain, growing sixteen to eighteen feet high; producing on the same soil 25 to 33 per cent, more; standing severe droughts much better; being much larger; but was two weeks longer in maturing, than the Gourd Seed. Early Ohio Flint was said to have a stalk larger than any other variety, and to produce more fodder ; was more sure oi maturity, and less injured by drought or excessive moisture. 150 Indian corx and its culture. Tlie varieties thus far described, are those commonly con- sumed on the farm or sent to market. The Cooley corn was extensively advertised, and sent to the U. S. Ag'l Department to be tested, from which sam- ples were sent to different parts of the Union, for trial. The returns of correspondents, embodying the results, appeared in the issue for 1872. It appeared from all the informa- tion obtained, that this corn, because of its early maturity, and its avoiding the droughts of August, so prejudicial to the white corn in the South, and its being more certain of pro- duction than large Gourd Seed, though less prolific, was desirable in the Southern States. In the Northern and Mid- dle States, it did not mature much earlier than yellow Gourd Seed, and was f;ir less prolific. The Department also dis- tributed, for trial, samples of the Pennsylvania yellow corn, which had been raised with great success in Eastern Penn- sylvania for some years, being early, prolific, hardy, and yielding an abundance of fodder; was a yellow Gourd Seed with a red cob ; the ear shaped like the white Gourd Seed of the South, but not quite so large, and very much earlier in maturing. The returns of correspondents who tried it, appeared in the Report for 1872, generally confirming these statements of its good qualities, and commending, especially, its habits of early maturity. The trials seem to have been made chiefly in the Southern States. A species of maize from Oregon has a separate husk for each kernel. Some have supposed this to be the original maize; but this peculiarity may be accounted for by the efforts of the plant to resist the coldness of the climate; maize being very remarkable for adapting itself to climatic conditions. In the Lake Superior region is found a variety hardly more than two feet high, with little, rounded, pearly grains, flattened and shining, on very small ears. The Man- dan corn, {prcccox, of Nuttall) — very low stem — was success- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 157 fully cultivated by the aborigines on the Missouri and its sources, ripening in a climate where it was supposed no other variety could. The Quarantine is said to ripen in forty days. The Golden Sioux has been referred to; is twelve-rowed, with short, thick cob; the kernel of medium size; was obtained from the Sioux Indians. Rice corn, resembling, in shape, the grains of rice ; of different hues ; small ear ; excels all corns in its quantity of oil, but is so deficient in starch that it cannot be made into bread, being dry, like sand. It doubtless makes fowls lay. Pop corn, the Zea Curagua of botanists, also called Valparaiso corn, is next to Rice corn, in abundance of oil and deficiency of starch. It is capital for Christmas parties, when well, popped. Corn poppers have been invented to facilitate this process. The American Cyclopedia says the oily principle is seen in the form of fixed oil in dots lodged in six-sided cells, which form the cellular tissue of the seed. On taking a thin, longitudi- nal section, and submitting it to a high magnifying power ; by touching the slide on which the section lies with a solu- tion of iodine, the starch will be colored violet, and the white, oily parts remain uncolored. The comj^actness and hardness of the kernels, in some varieties, is due to this close, albuminous, oily structure. The ears as well as the grain of Pop corn are small. It easily loses its popping character, when mixed with other corn. As Dr. Jackson says, when the grain is so heated as to decompose the oil, there is a sudden 'expansion of gaseous matter which ruptures every cell. This takes place at the weakest point of the arch, the whole grain being turned inside out. The cells, under the Microscope, will now be found torn out of shape. Decomposition of the oil forms carburetted hydrogen, with which large cities are sometimes lighted. Tuscarora corn cannot pop. Dr. Jackson thinks the use of oil in corn is obviously to prevent the rapid decomposition of the grain in the soil, and ]53 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, to retain a portion of the food till needed by the young plant, and is always the last portion of the grain taken up. It serves to keep meal from souring readily. Flint cornmealwill keep sweet for years, when put up in large quantities. Tuscarora meal, so deficient in oil, is good for rapid cooking; its meal is easily boiled or baked. After the extraction or decomposition of the oil, the substance of the grain is more readily digested by man, though less fattening to animals. There are many excellent varieties intended especially for boiling, or roasting ears; a few only, will be noticed here. Sugar or Fappoose corn; said to have been found among the Six Nations of Indians on the Susquehanna, and intro- duced into Massachusetts in 1779. Generally eight to twelve-rowed; ear small, but well proportioned; kernels densely packed on the green cob, and then rounded and swelling ; but when dry, rough and shriveled ; cob red or white; grain abounding in phosphates, sugar and gum, and deficient in starch. The Darling, named from its originator, the result of sepa- ration and selection for six years; three specimens — (i) white, smooth grain ; flavor like common sweet corn ; ears seven or eight inches long ; fit to boil by iSth of July. (2) Stalk and ear somewhat larger and a week later. (3) Eight-rowed ears, six inches long, ready for boiling by 18th of July. 'Y\\Q Eveigreen-y more recent; very delicious when boiled ; small stalk; very productive, ripening early; admits of sev- eral successive ripenings in a long season. A variety raised near the Lakes, the seed of which was from India, is one of the testimonies to the fact that the proper Indian corn seldom grew over four feet high; the ears set near the ground, sev- eral small ones on a stalk; the kernel of the sweet kind ripening in six or eight weeks. Many experiments have been made with a view to the establishment or improvement of varieties; here is one to INDIAN CORN AND US CULTURE. 159 test the comparative merits of several supposed to be already established. Prof. Daniels, of the University of Wisconsin, gives, in U. S. P. O. Report, 1871, the results of two experi- ments on Early Dent, Dutton, Sanford, Cherokee and White Australian, and other varieties, with respect to the times of first showing ripe ears, times of harvesting and product per acre. The Sanford was the last that ripened, and was harvested latest, and produced least. The Cherokee was next latest in showing ripeness, but, next to White Australian, was highest in product. This last ripened eleven days before the Cherokee. The Dutton, with two thirds the yield of the Australian, had ripe ears six days before the latter. In another experiment with seven varieties, his results were : Early Yellow Pop ripened the 15th of July; yield, 9.24 bushels to acre; Joint Pop, September 15 th, 142/3 bushels; Pearl Pop, September 15th, 37 ^/S bushels; Blue Australian, August 27th, 36^ bushels. This last was produced from bluish kernels selected from White Australian, a new kind of flint corn, brought to Colorado from Salt Lake about 1866, and was said to have come, originally, from Australia; and to be peculiarly adapted to high and dry situations. The seed, taken from Colorado to Northern Illinois in 1870, ripened in ninety-six days ; some of it eight, some twelve-rowed ; very soft, and more easily husked than Yellow Dent. Prof. Dan- iels thinks it shows indications of a new variety of a character not yet fixed. Another experiment to ascertain the best time of selecting seed, resulted in favor of ears selected at the time of husking, as against those from first ripe ears, the product of the latter being about one eighth less. Among the foreign varieties, the Chinese Tree corn was, many years ago, introduced widely; was said to develop in eleven days from planting, and when matured, to yield more than most varieties, making the sweetest and best meal; abounding in leaves for the very best of fodder ; and when IGO INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. sown broadcast for fodder, said to be sweeter, less liable to mildew, and, for the same soil and circumstances, worth 25 per cent, more than other varieties. These commendations appeared in the U. S. P. O. 1847. The Chinese were said to call maize, Ya-chu-chu; the Jap- anese, Nanbamthbi, (corn of new bran) outlandish corn. The leading kinds in Mexico (see U. S. P, O. 1847) were these: 1st. Alaiz de padus, the least important, with small eight- rowed ears. 2d. Maiz manchado Chinesco; productive; having white, yellow and red kernels, and sometimes blue. 3d. Maiz bianco — very productive. 4th. Maiz amarillo. There are two varieties of this : grueso, yields 300 to 600 fold; pcqiieno, smaller, less stout, but in a fruitful soil, returns 10 to 15 cwt. more than grueso. Tatdio, or riego, most productive of all ; cultivated around the City of Mexico, and in many moist districts. In Peru, two leading kinds are cultivated : ist. Maiz bianco; white corn with very large, coarse, inferior grains, rank and strong; for fattening pigs. 2d. Maiz amarillo \ yellow, large and fine; makes sweet bread. Chili corn has five good sized ears, set high on a single stalk ; needs rich land and high culture. In reference to European varieties, Wilson's Cyclopedia says that one hundred and thirty varieties were known in Spain. The French cultivate a variety resembling our Large Yellow. There is a large red resembling this in other qualities than color. Maize quarantine, to some degree, is raised in England, where it is called the Forty-days corn. In lower latitudes, such as the maize district of France, it is said to require three months. Cobbett's Indian corn is prob- ably the Quarantine. As Lawson describes it, it has a stalk about two feet high; an ear averaging four inches; grain INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 161 yellow, and smaller than that of other varieties. Egyptian maize, or chicken corn — in French, called 7naiz a poulet — is very small, and very nearly like Cobbett's. These two, in 1853 were said to be the only varieties fitted for field culture in England. The other varieties mentioned by Wilson are well known in the United States. One of the most important distkictions between maize varieties, is that of composition. This will be best illustra- ted by the subjoined tables, as well as by some in previous pages. In reference to the phosphates, one of the most important of the mineral or inorganic elements, (see U. S. P. O. 1853) Mr. A. A. Hayes, of Roxbury, and Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, Massachusetts, found that if a "watery solution of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) be applied to a kernel of corn, longitudinally split, the germ, or 'chit' only, becomes colored green, thereby beautifully defining the limits of the phosphates, by the formation of phosphate of copper." "If a grain of corn be split open, as above described, and thrown into a solution of sulphydrate of am- monia, the chit will be changed to a dark, olive color, which arises from the change of salts of iron into a sulphuret of that metal; a dark colored matter forming with the ammonia, turns the vegetable coloring matter yellow, and the two col- ors combined produce an olive." By preparing grains as above, and soaking in a tincture of iodine, the starch will show an intense blue, and the dextrine deep port wine red, and both being present, a rich violet. Extract the oil through alcohol or ether, from the horny part of the corn, and the tincture of iodine will show the starch in the part containing the gluten. Take an ear of corn having on it grains of two different varieties, as Tuscarora and sweet corn, slit the seeds and dip them in the same solution, and the sweet will show more than double the quantity of phosphates seen in the Tuscarora; the two kinds having derived unequal 14 162 / INDIAN CORN AND ITS CrLTURE. "^ amounts of phosphates from the same sap, derived from the same soil. So a crop of sweet corn will take twice as much of the phosphates as the other variety, and will sooner exhaust the soil of them The superabundance of the phos- phates in Indian corn is sometimes apt, it is supposed by some, to supply an excess of bony matter, producing stiff- ness in the joints of animals fed too freely on Indian corn. Mr. H. Piper, of Biddeford, Maine, explains the hybrid- izing of plants, (see U. S. P. O. 1867) as consisting in the fertilization of one species, or one of its varieties, with the pollen of another species, or one of its varieties, of the same or a different genus; the offspring being a hybrid, or mu'e. Cross-breeding between plants consists in fertilizing one variety with the pollen of another variety of the same species. He gives special directions as to the proper time and man- ner of effecting this successfully. Great care and skill are doubtless requisite, however, in the attempt to blend varie- ties; as the mere mixing on the same ear, of those not sufficiently harmonizing in development, may only embar- rass the movements of vegetation. Among the varieties of corn mentioned in an article by Mr. Bollman, in one of the U. S. Reports, is the Horsetoolh (another name for White Gourd Seed) — thirty-two-rowed. He maintains that the less the number of rows, the more flinty; the greater the number of rows, the less flinty; that the largest kinds are not so productive, as to quantity per acre, the smaller and medium kinds yielding most. The close planting of the North is contrasted Avith the wide planting at the South— four and one-half to five feet apart being the common distance in Tennessee. In selecting seed corn, it is better taken from the latitude where planted. Small early varieties that yield large crops in the Eastern States, as the Improved King Philip, often yield but moderate crops in the West, and quickly run INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 163 out. But Cherokee County, Alabama, was reported, in 1855, as raising two crops of Early Button on the same land, in the same season. The following lists of varieties of maize include many of the specimens seen in the Museum of the Department of Agriculture, at Washington City, in 1876; the officers in charge siating that a large part of the samples belonging to the Museum had been removed to the Government building on the Centennial grounds, at Philadelphia. The length and diameter of the ears is only given as an approximation, from a near view, and not from actual measurement. XXXVIII. Kinds. Length of Diameterof Ear, inches Ear, inches. No of Rows Color, &C. Eight-rowed Blacli. I'urple Amber Yellow Flint Sparkled do Wliite Sl)arkled White Flint Fli'it do Suf-'ar Sueet Amber Kice Amber Flint Ked do Pop Eisht-rowed Flint — white cob ... Dent do ..;. do do do do do do do do do do I'iirk Red.., h:\t\v\i Pqiniw IHnit do White Yellow , do . White.. Flintv.. White.., 10 11 to 14 8 9 to 14 11 13 12 9 1^ 2'l '2"io'2J4 9 8 to 12 15 6 to 8 2 to 3 8 11 to 13 lJ^to2 2>^ "iy^io-lA 2 to 2> 2 to 3 2 '2% 12 8 12 16 10 18 12 to 20 12 24 24 24 18 to 20 18 to 20 18 12 14 20 20 14 12 8 Flinty. Very early. ]?rom Ohio From Colnmhns and [West Jersey. Kentucky. Red cob White cob— Ky. Flinty -reddish. White— red cob. Iowa. ■Red cob. From Milford, Ohio. Dented- 1809. White mid black. From Milford, Ohio, do do do 1G4 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, XXXIX. Names. l.ength of Ear. Inches Diameter of Ear. Inches. No. of Uows. Colors. Whence received.ic. jjeut 12 11 9 to 12 2 to 3 2 to 2>2 Large 20 20 grains. High Yellow do do White and yellow White do do long 14- Flinty. 12 10 11 11 10 7 t(j 8 10 10 red and 23^ 3 18 to 20 18 to 30 24 to 30 Vellow 12 Milford.Ohio. do do do Light yellow & reddish brown. Fiintv. do White Uourd Seed do do [1870.. Stowcll ] 1% to 2 2 to 3 l)^to2 yellow.. 20 '""lli" '" White I'.lue and yellow.. White— white col Red cob. Mi.Ked. Higlilands. Evergreen J 24 .Mixed on ear- .. In addition to these were the Prairie AYhite Bread, from Illinois; Caragua corn, very large white, with kernel rather flat ; Hobson corn, long, narrow kernels ; Button, with broad, flat kernels, nearly circular; and Giant corn from Franklin County, North Carolina, eight to ten inches to a joint, the stalk two and one-half inches in diameter, and with four ears on it. Three ears of corn shown by W. D. Bailey, and obtained from Judge Wm. R. Putnam, of Washingt^on County, Ohio, in May, 1876, may be described as follows: No. I, Triple corn, about nine inches long, one and one- half inches in diameter; white cob; eight to ten-rowed; kernels flat, roundish, dented, flinty; small cob; three ears to stalk. No. 2, Dented, ten to twelve inches long, two to two and one-half inches in diameter; eighteen-rowed; kernels yellow at sides — white at top ; longish, closely-packed grains; red cob No. 3 has oblong kernels; dark red, with spots in streaks of deeper red. The following list of varieties mentioned in U. S. P. O. Reports, in various counties of the United States, with average latitude, colors, number of rows, year of mention, &c., may give some idea of the history of varieties. The INDIAN CORN AND ITS CCLTURE. 165 capital letter Y stands for yellow ; W, for white ; G^ for Gourd Seed, and F, for flint. The aim is to give the cen- tral latitude of the respective counties. XL. County and State. St. Lawrence— New York.. Wiimepisseoge — N. H. Rockiughiim — New Hamp. Ontario— New York., (i rail I — Wisconsin Miulisoii— New York Wayne— Michigan Eiie — Pennsylvania Barnstable— Massaclmsetts. Venango— Pennsylvania Adrian— Michigan - Hillsiiale- do Litchlield— ("onnecticnt Br.idford— Pennsylvania l-.aPorte— Indiana Elkhart— do Scott — Iowa Washington — Rhode Island Bridgeport— Connecticut Brooke— Virginia Miami — Ohio Delaware— Pennsylvania ... O.vford— Ohio Belpre — do Adams — do Brown — do Madison — Illinois iJorchester— Maryland- Jefferson City — Missouri ... Scott— Kentucky Woodford— Kentucky Amherst — Virginia Buckingham — Virginia Mercer- Kentucky Warren — Virginia (.'umberland- Virginia Joiiesboro — Illinois Franklin — Virginia Jaeksboro — Tennessee llalifa.x — Nortii Carolina South Carolina Sante Fe, New Mexico H i lids — M ississippi Barbour— Alabama Alabama Av. Lat Degrees 44y2 4a?3 43>4 42>4 42 417^3 4134 42 42 41?^ 41i^4 41;l5 41% 417-3 4134 413li 4034 40 40 89)4 39 39 39 38% S834 3334 38'4 38 37K 3 '.'2 3'>8 3">-8 37>^ 37 3(1 >X 32-3.5 32Vi^ 31 T^ 30-^) Color. Yellow do do do and white White A yellow Velio w (jourd Seed. Yellow A white Wliite ii yellow Vellow iJent . . White &. yellow White o 1850 Qualities. Preferred. Brown corn. Flint. Dutton. New York corn Flint. Dent. Ked cob. Canada. liarlv and late. Dent, Red cob. Large. Preferred. Flint R«d cob. Dent. Large & smalL Large. Ripens early. Large. Pitted. .iiammoth. Crowfoot. Equal propor'n ■■mall Flint and G. Flint. Flint— large. Double-eared Naiiseniond F. Late- large. W.— for home. Tiis. A Dea- iiig. 1 Cv^'p grail. s,Ac. Klat. Tiisfarora flint. Suw Eag varu- Ltie.-;. Early O. flint. In accordance with the instructions of the Commissioner of Patents, to determine the percentage of starch, dextrine, gluten and oil contained in the grain of the King Philip, Tuscarora, Wyandott and White Gourd Seed, or Horsetooth 1G6 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. corn, Dr. Charles T. Jackson procured well characterized samples and analyzed them chemically, and in addition, de- termined the proportion of caseine, albumen and glucose in the same grains. In one instance the analysis was entirely repeated on a fresh sample of King Philip corn raised the previous summer, the first analysis having been made on dry seed com. The results of these analyses, which appeared in U. S. P. O. for 1857, were as follows: ORGANIC ANALYSES OF VARIETIES OF INDIAN CORN IN 1 85 7. By Dk, C. T. Jackson, XLI. Kinds, and State whence derived. Jj 5j — P-Q a^ p 2. -■ CO - re if 3 c 9 10.3 3.6 4.S 1.65 3.0 62.0 6.3 S.2 3.5 4.H 1.7 3.0 I6(i.3lll.5 10.0 ■1.0 .5.1) 1.5 2.0 i63.l)'12.S l:i.9 4.2 hJ) 1.5 2.1 !54.5!l7.3 18.-^ 2.9 2.1 2.05 1.35 53.5117.5 5-3 Wyaiidott, from Washington - ~.. Tuscarora, from Massaeliu setts King Philip, frum Khixk- Lsluud _ _ do do MasMielnisetts.. Gourd Seed, or Hor.seluoth, finm Virginia . 3.3 1.0 1.1 2.0 l.S Two of these have already been described in the previous pages. The Doctor gives a very particular description of all of them, in connection with his report. The King Philip was eight rowed, of moderate size, long ears, slender and uniform in size from base to top ; of deep orange color, flinty, and very prolific. Keeps sweet when ground into meal; not suitable for starch making, nor for rapid cooking, since it is very difficult to soften by water. The sample was obtained from Braintree. The Wyandott was a corn of extraordinary beauty; per- fectly milk white; twelve-rowed, of medium size; the grain was very soft and starchy, having little cellulose in the form of epidermis and oil cells. "Grows admirably in the Southern and Middle States, and is especially adapted to the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 167 manufacture of starch," affording 50 to 60 per cent. The teeth of horses and cows can easily crush it, and its meal is easily cooked into puddings and bread, and almost wholly digestible. But its meal, like that of the Tuscarora, is more apt to become musty and sour than that of the flint kinds, and should be kept in the ear until wanted for grinding. ANALYSIS OF WYANDOTT VARIETY OF MAIZE. Water, separable at 212°, Fat oil, soluble in ether, Gluten, or Zeine, soluble in alcohol, Dextrine, soluble in water, &c. Caseine, precipitable by Acetic Acid, Albumen, coagulable by heat and alcohol, Glucose, (grape sugar) .... Starch, deposited from water, Cellulose, insoluble matter, Undetermined Ash, &c. The Tuscarora variety analyzed by Dr. Jackson, was from near the borders of Connecticut river, and of the crop of 1856. It was eight-rowed, with very large grains and very small red cob; white kernel, but less pure than the Wyan- dott ; raised extensively in New York for starch. Although rather a late crop there, it ripens in seasons of average length and temperature. Gourd Seed, or Horsetooth, from Virginia — crop of 1S57. The former name from its resembling Gourd Seed, having a prolonged husk ; had not been so thoroughly dried as the Tuscarora and Wyandott, which accounts for the larger quantity of water it contained. It will be observed that the proportions of the nitrogenous matters, to those not containing nitrogen, are smaller than in the tables given in the first analytical tables including maize. in this work. Dr. Salisbury's analyses give a larger propor- r cent , 15-30 K 360 (C 4 So (( 1.40 {( 2.00 «i I 00 i( .25 (( 62.05 (1 6.30 (( 330 100.00 168 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. tion, corresponding more nearly with those of other analysis, and very generally quoted as containing the true proportions, which will follow the subjoined analyses of corn cobs (made by Dr. Jackson) of different varieties of maize. The first ^ was an admixture of two varieties of Canada and Red-cap. The matter soluble in ether, alcohol and water was found to be in the following proportions : In loo grains of the ground cob, the whole amount dissolved was 3.145 grains, or about 3^ per cent of cob. A siccative yellow, fixed oil, . • per cent, or grains, 0.323 Sugar, ....... " " 0.242 Dextrine, gum, some albumen and extr. matter," " 2,557 3.122 Loss ... 0-023 3-145 * From Rhode Island — for ash from 1,000 grs. burned, see table on next page. , The saccharine matter was not crystallized, and wasl probably identical with grape sugar, or glucose. The importance of the cob analysis results from the divided opinions of agriculturalists as to the profit of grind- ing up the cobs of ripe corn with the grain, in order to make the feed go further ; some maintaining that the feeding value of the ear is greatly increased by grinding both together; others, that the cob is only fit for fuel; and others, that the question is not so much the additional nutriment, as that increase of bulk in the food which is most favorable to healthy digestion. The greatest value of the cobs, as feed, is probably when the ears are only nubbins, and not dead ripe; cattle will then eat them greedily without grinding. An analysis of the unripened ear, grain and cob separately, in this view of the case, might be an. advantage. Analysis of the cob of Burr's improved, Avrinkled sweet corn — early, cob sliort, &:c. — produced 3^:(per cent, of mat- ter soluble in alcohol and boiling water, of which 0.179 per INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 169 cent was siccative matter; 0,065 sugar; 0.242 brown ex- tractive matter ; Dextrine, gum and albuminous matter, 3.257 ; in all, 3.743 (from 100 grains of cob.) ANALYSIS OF ASHES OF COBS OF THE FOLLOWING CORNS. XLII. Per cent of cob. Potash ijoda - Silica Phospliate of Lime do of Magnesia! Oxide of Iron Phosphoric Acid Chlorine TJnburned t'arbon... Carbonic Aciil <4coal Sweet Corn. 02581 0.2104 0.1250 0.0521 0279 0.0416 0.0290 0.0292 0.0S12 Marylandi Southernl Tuscaro- White. : Red Cob. I ra Cob. 0.4585 0.12U 0.1720 1 0.0800 0.0420 0.0290 0.0340 0.2242 t 0.5872 Totals Ashes | 8545 | 1.7480 0.450 O.220 103 to 054 032 091 0.011 0.389 0.6430 0.1970 0.0714 ...O.OSOO OOSOO 0.0630 0.14.30 jafi590 1.3.50 i 1.5364 Button. 0.410 0.174 0.135 0.042 0.020 0.038 023 049 0.127 t 0.255 1.353 Grains. From Rhode Island. 3.204 492 0.800 1.000 0.260 0.360 0.300 0.198 1.500 t 1.388 9.500 t Phosphate of lime and magnesia. 1 Unburned carbon and carbonic acid. -Oxide of iron, carbonic acid, and loss. t Carbonic acid and loss. g U.xide iron, carbonic acid and loss. The cob of sweet corn weighed 480 grains — ashes, 4.2 grains; of Maryland White, 290 grains — ashes, 4 grains; of Southern, 560 grains — ashes, 7.6 grains; of Tuscarora, 630 grains — ashes, 12.2 grains. Of Button, 830 grains, three hundred of which dried and powdered yielded on analysis: Matter soluble in ether, alcohol and water, about 3^ per cent of the cob. Fixed drying oil. • . . . grains or per cent, 0.249 Sugar, do do 0.333 Dextrine, (gum) albumen and astringent extrac- tive matter, do do 2.700 3.282 Dr. Salisbury regards Golden Sioux (a bright yellow twelve-rowed, passing into fourteen rows) as an improved variety of Buel's Button, ripening earlier and having a smaller kernel. The white flint was grown on a clay loam, and manured in hill with mixed coal ashes and horse dung, and ashed with unleached ashes twice. 15 170 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. PROXIMATE ORGANIC ANALYSIS OF FIVE VARIETIES OF MAIZE. By. Dr. J. H. Salisbury, of Albany, New York. XLIII. Golden Sioiix. Per cent. Ohio Dent. Per cent. Small 8-rowed. Per cent. White Flint. Per cent. Large 8-rowed Yellow. Per cent. Starch 36.06 5.00 3 44 4 42 1 92 1.30 18. .50 7.25 15.02 41.85 4 62 3.88 2.64 3.32 5.40 21,36 10.00 10.00 30.290 5.000 3.900 6.000 2.200 4.615 26.800 5 200 13.400 40. .34 7.09 4.68 3.40 0.50 2.90 18.01 8.30 14.00 49 22 Gluten - Oil 5.40 3.71 3 32 Casein _ Dextrine 0.75 1.89 Fibre 11.96 Pu^arand extractive matter... Water 9 55 14 00 Totals 100.05 101.07 98.005 99.72 99 80 ANALYSES OF THE ASH OF WHITE FLINT CORN. By Dr. J. H. Salisbury. XLIV. Cut, August 22d. Ash of Kernels. Leaves. Cob, 9.500 35.500 0.160 2 410 23.920 22 .590 405 4.385 0.367 53 5.50 19 2.50 6.092 1.2.^0 12.762 8 512 9.762 4.1S5 13.600 Alkaline and earthy phosphates 23.924 0.300 0.900 Potash ~ 35.802 5.914 0.132 Sulphuric Acid 0.345 2 314 Carbonic Acid 6 134 Total 99.237 101.371 89.365 The above shows that the same plant may take up and assimilate a greater amount of inorganic matter under some circumstances, than others. This corn, besides being sup- plied with manure of the horse, mixed with coal ashes in t'-ie hill, was ashed with unleached ashes. Result, very sound, hard grain. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 171 In the table of Dr. Salisbury's organic analysis, the large eight-rowed yellow had the most starch, the analyst remark- ing that part of it may be set down as adhesive albumen. The nitrogenous elements are probably 12 per cent. The proportion of sugar is nearly that of Ohio Dent, which has the largest. The white flint has considerably the most oil, although third in amount of starch, and has nearly 12 per cent, of nitrogenous matters; gluten being the largest of them, and larger than in either of the other varieties. Take it all round, this is probably the richest of the specimens. The small eight rowed yellow has much the most nitrogen- ous, or technically nutritive matters, (the amounts of albumen and caseine being especially large) and much the least starch and sugar. Its fiber is much the largest. These corns seem to be all from the North, except the Ohio Dent. On the other hand, Dr. Jackson's specimens are all of Southern or Western origin, except the King Philip; the Tuscarora, though raised near the Connecticut river, still showing strongly marked Southern qualities. The assertion that it had neither gluten nor oil, (referred to in page 146) is here negatived ; although the amount is quite small, compared with that of some other varieties. Dr. Salisbury is pre-eminent as an analyst. His chemical investigations, in connection with the maize plant, covered two hundred pages in the volume for 1848, of the New York State Agricultural Society, for which the society awarded him a premium of $300. The analyses of maize in Prof. Emmons' "New York Agriculture" are by Dr. Salisbury. The above account of sayings and doings, as to the varieties of maize, is strongly suggestive of the greatness, past, present and to come, of the United States as an agricultural region. Here is a plant, which, at the sources of the Mississippi farthest North, hardly grows over two feet high, with an ear scarcely larger than the smallest finger. 172 IXBIA.V CORN AND ITS CULTURE. which goes on Southward increasing in stature, till near the mouth of this "Father of waters" it reaches the height of eighteen feet. The ear begins on the coast of Maine with the predominating eight rows, and in its South-Western pro- gress towards the Gulf takes on more and more, till in some l^laces it has attained forty. Going West, it has put on nearly all the shades of color in turn, from snow white to light red, and from golden yellow to pure black. In its different varie- ties, and different stages of growth, it makes the humblest and grossest of domestic animals an efficient worker in pro- ducing the cured meats that are acceptable in all lands, and the herds that roam over our pastures abound in the milk and butter that are a source of cheer on all our tables, and sup- plies the choice luxury of our summer harvests and winter holidays. But the best of it is that, when well conducted, its culture in different forms, and in its many varieties, helps out all other growths prized by civilization. The importance of the subject of varieties is evident from nature's great fact that every plant produces its like, or from those best of words, that "a good tree brings forth good fruit." The value of a full range of facts and theories, from which to deduce con- clusions is also evident from that old proverb so true in all kinds of republics, and especially that of science, that in a multitude of counsellors there is safety. But every farmer should so study them as to form his own conclusions, for the simple reason that the conditions of his crop may be in some respects different from all others known to him. And herein appears the value of a long continued culture of the same tract of land. Good eyes well used, and a clear head may make the cultivator, of twenty or thirty years continuance, very familiar with the capabilities and wants of any given number of acres which he has tilled thoroughly. And if he uniformly selects, at the best time, the best seed from his own liarvest, and preserves it in the best manner, and plants the INDIAX CORN' AND ITS CULTURE. best portions of it, and has a good variety to begin with, he •will go far towards producing the best variety for his farm. But his best seed may, in some cases, be improved by a blending with other choice varieties ; and the changes of the seasons often make it important to have two different plantings, an early and late one, and in very unfavorable seasons to have a variety not suited to the habits of his own choice variety. In trying a new one, he will be safe in beginning on a small scale. Eut a first trial may not deter- mine the value of the new seed, even for his own land, much less its average value. The merits of a variety very widely advertised will probably be fairly tested much sooner than one that passes quiedy into a few hands. But of course there is danger of counterfeits, where the true variety is a good one. As it is the fashion of advertisers to make the best of their own hobbies, and there may be a dozen in the market, each one of which is claimed as the very best, it might be well for a club of farmers in the same neighborhood to do a little experimenting on all of them that promise to begenuine, and so lessen the difficulty of selection, by division of labor. The Agricultural Department, at Washington, often does the farming interest great service, by securing a fair trial for new varieties, on a scale very widely extended. As a recapitulation of the conditions which affect the value of maize varieties, may be mentioned the climate, the surface and the soil of the given region; the height and robustness of the stalk ; the size, color, shape and composition of tiie grains and the cob, the number of rows in which they are arranged, and their capacity of withstanding early and late frosts ; their fitness for the various uses already or hereafter to l)e described, and for preservation and transportation. Their capacity for producing the best and richest fodder, green or dry, is also an important element in the best va- rieties. 174 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The tendency of different corns planted near each other to intermingle, has been very generally remarked. When a good variety has been established, great pains should be taken to keep it pure and unmixed. Two cornfields planted with different varieties should be widely separated, unless the farmer desires an intermixture. It has been said of pop corn especially, that if planted in the vicinity of other corn, it will be apt to lose its peculiar character. The old rule is nowhere more applicable than in the matter of seed corn, " prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good. " At the experimental farm of the University of Wisconsin, in tlie fall of 187 1, " characterized as a dry season, 100 lbs. in the ear of each of the seven varieties of corn named be- low, were taken at husking, then in good cribbing condition, dry enough to allow 500 bushels to be stored in a good crib without risk of heating, or moulding," and the whole dried on a loft. Corn shelled Jany 2 and 3, 1872, dry enough to put in large bins without damage. The following table gives weight per bushel of corn in the ear, at storing and shelling, with proportion of shelled corn &c. XLV. Varieties. K;ir y Yellow Dent. I'UltOll. ( 'lionikee Wliiit; Australian .., Siiiifoni IV'iiil I'op Jiiiiit Fop Average. 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 5 £ To 2. 97^4 90 91}^ 9r,t4 or-, 74 !.rD Is ? : 3c= ^ - ^ ""tea • — "fC 70,00 74 (it; 7r>.7i C9. r,f, 77.77 7;vo^ 76.19 •3.G9 JC O O ixl CS.45 72.82 71.1.T 07. as 71 l.T 70.18 70.47 70.23 X '-i OK 73 74 76 1.= ^ 82 77 79 84 79 80 79 Tlie Cherokee ami Sauford varieties are late at this place, the Sanford giving but a moderate yield. INDIAN COEN AND ITS CULTURE. 175 CHAPTER VII. USES OF MAIZE — I, FOOD — II, SUGAR AND SYRUP — III, WHISKY. IV, STARCH — V, GIL — VI, MATTRESSES — VII, PAPER. I, Food. » (a). Food for the soil. — The culture of the maize plant is capital for the soil. This is evident from the analyses which have been given of the stalk, leaves and cob, and of the ash of the grains. These contain large proportions of potash, soda, phosphoric acid, silica and magnesia, and smaller ones of lime, iron, sulphuric acid and chlorine. Especially do the breaking up and turning over, mellowing and repeated stirring of the corn field, make it receive more largely than fields of other grain, the elements of growth from without, and modify its own native stores within, to subserve the uses of cultivated plants. Then it is sometimes sown thickly, to be plowed in like clover and buckwheat. Green and ripe stalks, plowed under, not only restore fertility to the soil, but make it light, porous and mellow. A farmer in Orleans County, New York, preferred it to clover for this purpose. When sown for a soiling crop, or exclusively for fodder, the ground is filled with roots, which, broken up after harvest, make capital provision for the next crop. Even the stubble of a regular grain and fodder crop may be made too valuable for keeping up the soil, to be removed by burning. Of two neighboring Illinois farmers, cultivators of corn, A gathered every year, his cornstalks in a pile and burned them ; and, also burnt over his stubble before plowing. B never allowed a stalk or straw to be burned, but always plowed it under ; and after fifteen years the yield of A's crop was less, by fifteen bushels to an acre, than when he began cultivating it. B's 176 INDIAN CORX AND ITS CULTURE. crop was as abundant as at first. Indian corn, being a gross feeder, has a great advantage as a renewing crop. It is not at all dainty as to amount or quality of the usual fertil- izing substances, supplied at the proper time. Yet it can be p(. iioned by the e.Kcess of certain very concentrated manures. It is very common in some places to give the barnyard and other coarse manures, for a whole rotation, to the corn crop. The waste stalks left by cattle in consuming their rations of fodder, are excellent as absorbents and preservatives of liquid manures. Sometimes they are corded up, after being under feet of the cattle, in layers with other fertilizers, and kept wet with manurial liquids; sometimes mixed in stables with droppings of the cattle, and thrown down into a ma- nure cellar. Often the cattle yard is so excavated, as to throw the liquids into the center, where the waste stalks and other refuse are crowded. Corn fed to hogs is a great source of manure. No animal is more skillful or indus- trious in composting manures, when supplied with proper- material. Some twenty five years ago, the U. S. P. O. Commissioner issued a series of questions to his correspondents, including one as to the average result of swinish activity in making manure, while consuming a specific amount of corn. Mon- roe County, New York, answered, that manure from hogs consuming ten bushels of corn, increased the crop two to three bushels, according to one statement; and according to another, 15 to 20 per cent. That is, if a hog was bedded with sufficient straw or other vegetable refuse to absorb the entire product of the animal, and was properly secured against the elements, and the manure thus made was judi- ciously applied to an acre of corn on poor or worn out land. From a warmer latitude it was reported that twenty bushels of corn, consumed by hogs, produced ten loads of manure, adding to the crop 25 to 30 per cent. From Ashland County, INDIAN CORX AND ITS CULTURE. 177 Ohio, was reported a gain of two bushels to the acre. From Talladega County, Alabama, the manure from twenty bush- els fed to hogs, was reported as adding 60 per cent, to the crop on an acre. A statement from LaPorte, Indiana, goes more into detail. A full grown pig being enclosed in a yard about eighty days, consuming ten bushels of corn, with no drink but water; the whole yard being under co"er, and secured from drainage 3 muck supplied to receive all drop- pings, liquid and solid, which in ten days are removed to a heap, under cover, and replaced by muck in the yard, which at the expiration of the next ten days is also removed to the heap, and so on till eight loads are saturated ; and after slight fermentation applied to half an acre and covered ; as the re- sult, that half acre is supposed to produce ten bushels more corn than the adjoining half acre unmanured ; thus making the value of the manure from the hog in proper condition, equal to the cost of the food. It is evident that the effect on the crop, of the manure so made, would be modified by the breed of the hog, the qual- ity of the corn, the climate, the season, and the quantity and manurial value of the vegetable matter worked up, and the manner of its application to the land. Another use of maize in improving the soil, where land is cheap and labor dear, and the market not so accessible as to render the crop profitable as corn, is the practice of "hogging down." In some of the Western States this is quite common. A Missourian after stating from experience and observation, his belief that no ground or cooked corn would fatten hogs faster than green corn in the field, just after the milky stage, adds, that he had raised eight succes- sive crops of corn on the same field, and fed it down with hogs ; the last the heaviest he ever saw. The hogs are turned into the fields when it is not too wet. Some turn in the cattle first; the fields being either sepa- 178 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. rate originally, or made so by temporary fences. The cattle devour what they wish of the corn, and the best of the fod- der ; often eating cob and all, when the corn is soft. They are then changed to another field, and the hogs turned in to clean up after them, which they do very effectually, even taking a special liking, it is said, to that which has passed the cattle undigested. Thus the soil is fertilized, not only by the stalks trodden into it, but by the droppings of both cattle and hogs, and becomes permanent corn ground, while this system con- tinues. A Rush County Indianian states that after a field of corn has been gathered by hogs, if it is broken up for wheat, it al- ways brings an extraordinary crop. (b), Feeding domestic animals and poultry on Indian corn is very extensively practiced. It is fed in the young stalk, in the ear, and in fodder from the ripened plant ; and in fodder from the corn sown or planted so thick, that little or none of it ripens. Young growing corn, as many a farmer knows by sad experience, is a great temptation to horned cattle. This fact goes far to justify the practice of soiling, of late so common in the East ; especially when the ear be- gins to form. On some farms nearly all the feeding is done in this way. There being one strong fence around the whole farm, and one round the ample cattle yard, the usual inside fences are saved. The corn is cut green, and carried to them, Josiah Quincy of Boston, was one of the first in this coun- try, who made the plan a success. But before giving the views of distinguished farmers on this subject, we will gather from the U. S. Reports a few facts as to the digestive organs and processes of the several domestic animals. As horses and oxen in active service require concentrated food to repair the waste of their mus- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 179 cles, there seems no reason why soiHng as a complete sys- tem, should apply to them. The horse has but one stom- ach, and that a small one, but he has very large intestines, and the rapid and continued action of his digestive powers makes him hot blooded, and he can work on a full stomach better than the ox. In the pasture he is continually feeding, and very choice, taking in a little at a time. His molar teeth are less cutting than those of the ox, but are formed for grinding, the lower jaw teeth being narrower than those of the upper, so as to move from side to side ; thus triturat- ing the grain. The four stomachs of the ox are very much fitter for digesting coarse provender, but that digestion is more exhausting to his energies, and when he pulls hard, he is entitled to grain as well as fodder. If the cows four stomachs are loaded with coarse food, difficult of digestion, the energy spent in reducing it will be so much lost to the milk. Green food, more than dry, resembles cooked food. In the full grown ox or sheep, the first stomach is most ca- pacious, and the food after passing through the others is re- turned to the first to be further reduced during rumination. The esophagus which conveys food to the first stomach, is supplied near its lower end with muscles for that purpose. But the fourth stomach is largest in the young calf or lamb, because the milk, its main food, only needs one stomach to change it into chyle. If the cow is worked like the ox, as in some parts of Germany, she will require similar food. If she is kept for her milk, the food must be such as to make it flow ; something bulky, nutritive, and easily digestible, dh the green cornstalk when the ear is beginning to form. If soiling is well adapted to the feeding of domestic animals not kept for active service, it is especially a dairyman's resource. It is also better suited for Eastern or suburban dairying than for that of broad acres of cheap land and high labor. The subject has been thoroughly discussed in Eastern journals, 180 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. and at meetings of Dairymen's associations •; the chief objec- tion being the supposed watery character of food used in soiling, and the want of green chlorophyll in the plant, re- sulting from shutting out the sun by too thick sowing. Joseph Harris, in an address before the Dairyman's Asso- ciation at Utica, N. Y., in 1871, said the question was whetlier the corn was succulent, easily digested, sweet and nutritious. Before coming to ear, it would not be sufficiently concentratf d. Take away one third of the water, and one third of the woody fiber, and the remainder would be of much greater value than the whole. The water could be easily got rid of, and the excess of bulk over the desired standard could be reduced by the addition of sufficient corn meal. The President of the same association reported its de- cision, after a full discussion, bringing into view a great number of trials by practical men, that green corn was a val- uable crop as summer food for cows, and useful, whatever plan was taken for raising it; its additional advantages being, that the same ground could be used for a series of years ; its taking less manure to keep up needed fertility, than to pre- pare new ground ; and its enabling one to put the crop on land conveniently situated. The dense growth of corn keeps it clear of weeds, and leaves the ground ready for a new crop. Most useful to farmers in New York, if fed to cows, in August or September, when the pastures are short. The cows then put up and fed with corn fodder, would enjoy the change from the heat and exhaustion of summer, and gain rew vigor. Meanwhile the cooler nights and increasing moisture would renew the pastures for thiirfall feeding, and the ruinous fall pasturing of meadows would be avoided. Dr. Salisbury's analysis of the corn plant at different stages of growth may help to show the proper time of cut- ting the green crop. He found that on June 3d., fifteen days after planting, the stalk had INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 181 or water in lOO parts, . . 89.62 parts, ; of dry matter, 10.374 parts. July 5th., the stalk had water 90.518 •' " 9.482 " July 26 " " S2.33 " '« 17.66 " July 12 the root had water 81026 " " 18.974 " As late as the time of tasseling, the water in different parts of the maize plant was : in the leaves 86.78, sheaths 91.48, stalks 95.03, husks 89,08. This analysis of the plant just before the formation of the ear, gave in 100 parts, sugar and extract 35, matter extracted from fiber by solution of potash 12, dextrine and gum 6.04, albumen and caseine 7 96, woody fiber 39; calculated without water. (U. S. Agricul- tural Report, 1870.) The Dr's. conclusion as to its value as fodder was : "the plant during tasseling, owing to the large percentage of sugar and extract, with the respectable quantity of albu- minous matter and dextrine, which the stalk, leaves and sheaths contain, must afford a very palatable as well as nu- tritious fodder." The sweet corn seems more prized fur soiling than other varieties. The few cases reported of the failure of green corn fod- der as food for milch cows, were probably due to planting so thickly as to keep but the sun and air. One farmer who tried broad-cast sowing, found it better to plant in rows three feet apart, and in hills one foot apart in the rows, dropping three or four kernels in the hill. The green, juicy state of the stalks at the time of blossom- ing is supposed to indicate the proper time for cutting, in order to make more and better milk. Farmers in Massa- chusetts and Michigan have added their testimony to that of New Yorkers as to its value. One dairyman in June 1868 sowed an acre in drills and begaii cutting on July ist. for twenty-six cows daily. During September rains he omitted the corn fodder for some days, when the milk fell off 52lbs. per day. After four days he fed the corn fodder, and the cattle regained their yield. 182 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. Fodder in a dry state is of two kinds. First, that sown ex- pressly for the stalks and leaves ; second, that which remains after the ear is husked out of the ripened plant. The first, from proper seed, and properly grown, is an excellent winter resource for the farmer who adopts the system of soiling. Its excellence for milch cows has been long established, and it is relished by other cattle, liorses and sheep. It is the corn hay, having distributed through it the greater part of the nutriment that would have gone into the grain, had its con- ditions of planting admitted of earing. When this crop, from the best seed, has been well managed, and the season has been favorable, it is fully equal to the best hay, and a much larger product is obtained from an acre. Including the imperfectly grown crops, the statements show that its proportion of value per ton, as compared with good hay, is as one half to one, with a much larger product. This will appear from the facts to be shown in discussing the methods of culture and curing. Cattle have a preference for sweet co'-n, but flint ^md other kinds are sown; some maintaining that the larger sorts planted thickly, produce butts more easily masticated. But the habit of tall growing seems unfavorable for the free ad- mission of sun and air. Probably the Northern seed pro- duces the best crop at the North, though the Southern and Western, if not too slow in growing, may produce a more bulky one. Of course very much depends on the variety. This fodder is not only of great service in the winter, but in those sections, as in some parts of the South, where grass, at least in the form of hay, is not one of the staples, it is of the greatest advantage as fall feed. It is considered one of the most profitable crops. It may be fed out of the stack like other hay, or cut fine and mixed with corn meal or other ground grains, or chopped vegetables, or it may be compressed, or steamed, and fed in suitable troughs. Steam- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 183 ing is one of the latest and probably one of the best meth- ods, but it is less necessary for this than for the fodder of the corn grain crop. It is a very healthy and nourishing, as well as palatable food for domestic animals. To show the nature of some of the speculations of ingeni- ous writers on the effect of these fodders, we give the sub- stance of some portions of an article in U. S. P. O. 1847. Those proximate constituents of plants containing nitro- gen are the best food for animals, next those containing car- bon, last those containing mineral matters. All the usual fodder substances for cattle contain all three, but in very different proportions. Their vitality takes up only the sub- stances adapted to their species. The power of selection in the same species works according to rule. When the functions of the plant are undisturbed, it always produces the same quality, but not always the same proportionate quantity of the elements peculiar to the kind and species. The proportionate quantity may depend on a multitude of modifications not sufficiently known. The capacity for nutrition among the proximate elements varies essentially, and the nutritive powers among themselves and with respect to each other have not yet been estimated by any sure method. The nitrogen of the vegetable con- stituents produces, by assimilation, only combinations of pro- ducts containing nitrogen ; carbon, only those containing car- bon ; mineral ones, only those containing minerals. Now he who wishes to fatten, stores up what carbon will form fat, and must provide also the nitrogen required to form the flesh to hold the fat; and the material for this must be in the fod- der. For his hard working oxen he must look out for fodder containing nitrogen in the solid form. Certain foods agree or disagree, as a peculiarity, in respect to nutritiousness or power of assimilation, say with horned cattle, and have a different value for horses. To know the constituents of a 181 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. given fodder stuff is especially important with respect to the object in view. For the nutriment and power of being as- similated, of a fodder containing much carbon and little nitrogen, may be greatly increased by adding one containing more nitrogen, because the different parts intended to be formed in animals by fodder, can only be formed, when the simple constituents absolutely required for their formation exist in the fodder in form and quantity. In consequence of the insufficient form or quantity of a single indespensable constituent in fodder, all the other elements found in the fod- der, which might be otherwise employed in the formation of animal substances, are cast out as useless by the excrements. There are different degrees of capacity of assimilation in ani- mals, according to the standard of different species, and also in reference to individual y>o\^qx of appropriation; but in no case is there capacity to appropriate all the nutritious sub- stances in a fodder, though they may accord ever so closely with the objects in view, in reference to their separate elements. For in that case the manure would be worthless. Also if any one so combines fodder stuffs, that in respect to the constituent parts, as well as in regard to the form and quantity, they bear the best proportion to the elements of that which is to be produced in the way of assimilation, he can also attain in the object in view, the best increase cor- responding to the particular capacity of appropriation pos- sessed by the animal. * 5i>' * * Their form also, their volume, and the preparation with Avhich nutritious substances are given to animals, exercise an influence on their greater or less nutritiousness. The raw, solid form excites more the organs of digestion, than the fluid or prepared, and is on the contrary less easily assimilated. The raw, solid form is much better adapted to the endurance of labor; the fluid, prepared form to increased production of flesh, fat or milk. Food stuffs little nutritive, in large vol- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 185 ume, may, with suitable preparation, be fed out mixed with those which are corresponding, but very nutritious — if food which increases the product is desired for them. The nutritiousness of grain is increased by bruising, fermentation, baking into bread, and cooking ; that of raw stuffs by steam- ing, bruising and self-heating ; that of turnips and cabbages by pickling. All substances gain by saturation or mixture with salt. On the whole it appears that no definite and correct rules can be given in all circumstances ; consequently the ascertaining the nutritious constituents by analyses, can the less furnish a sure point of support, as analyses give re- sults greatly varying from each other ; and the analyses into the remoter or simple elements do not prove that the sub- stances, to be regarded as nutritious, also exist in a form ca- pable of assimilation in fodder stuffs ; for we may consider almost all plants which contain nitre as nutritious, because this substance contains nitrogen. The practical use of analy- sis is in its accurate arithmetical application to the attain- ment of definitely proposed results. The above is in the German style of abstract speculation, but contains some practical suggestions worthy of special notice. One of the above expressions might be excepted to; that almost all plants which contain nitre are nutritious because nitre contains nitrogen. If we are to believe Prof. Liebig, who has done quite as much as any other man in raising the reputation of the nitrogenized elements as sources of nu- trition, it is not the fact that a substance contains nitrogen, that makes it technically nutritious, but its nitrogen being in that proportion to carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, which is found in albumen, fibrine and caseine. The writer of the above himself refers to the form, as well as the substance as being required to be true, in order to complete the nutritious- ness of any article of food. In regard to analyses ; if they IG 186 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTIFRE, do vary, and if they do not furnish an absokite sure ground of support for agricultural calculations, they are no worse off than great numbers of bases of calculation and action in scientific matters, as well as in affairs of every day life. No child would ever learn to walk, if he would in all cases, be- fore setting down his foot, calculate whether it would touch an absolutely sure ground of support. Analyses may be very useful as aids to agricultural enquirers, without being step- ping stones to reach the most bountiful crops, or reap the largest profits. Geometry was a science more than two thousand years ago, and if the circle, the measurements of which occupy so large a place in the world's affairs, has had any other squaring than that of approximations, it must have been a very recent achievement. Chemistry was hardly a science one hundred years ago, and what a revolution it has made in the progress of the arts! The aids it has furnished through analyses, have been among its greatest triumphs. One great advantage of the maize plant is that it may be grown successfully for the fodder where the climate will not admit of the grain being a sure crop, as in some parts of Can- ada and Northern Germany. In some districts where the ripening is merely uncertain, the planting may be for the grain, and if the season proves unfavorable, the cutting up may be for the fodder only. In this way perhaps larger va- rieties may be gradually acclimated further North. Maize grown for the fodder is a large item in the agricul- ture of Cuba. Fodder from the regular gtaiii crop is a very important pro- duct. It is of two kinds — First, what is cut or stripped off from the plant in the act of topping, the ear being left on the lower part of the stalk to ripen ; second, the whole stalk cut near the ground, and generally cured in the shock with the ear on it, which is husked out. Much has been written as to the respective advantages of these two methods, which will INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 187 be considered hereinafter. The second is the younger method, and has been gaining on the first for a great many years, and since the introduction of machines for cutting up corn, is probably destined to supersede it almost entirely, for general cropping. It was formerly supposed that the quality of the tops and leaves was very much better when removed at that stage which would admit of the ear ripening on the remnant of the stalk left standing. That would be true enough if the fodder was mainly considered, but very doubt- ful if the weight of the grain and its complete ripeness were the main points. According to the first method, the tops were the best fodder at the North, and the leaves at the ^'outh. Some eastern men who have practiced this method of late, have contrived to utilize the butts, after the final har- vest of the grain, by salting &c., mixing them in this state with more nutritious kinds of feed, such as sheaf oats. Dr. Nichols, near Boston, tried this and found that only a small portion of the butts was rejected by the cattle to which he fed them. He found considerable nutriment in them; the only difficulty being their solidity ; but steaming reduced this so much that the entire stalk was eaten with avidity. It might be very different with the butts of the tall, heavy stalks of the South. The time of topping is an important condition of the use- fulness of this kind of fodder. Mr. Evans, author of Agri- culture in Canada, gives as the rule to be followed, — when on stripping the husks open a little at the top of the ears, the grain is found to be hard, but not hard enough to grind, as when dry, but hard enough to resist the strong pressure of the thumb nail ; when the farina has quilted the tassel, which is dead and dry ; and when the ends of the silk are perfectly dead, appearing withered and brown. When these signs appear, he maintains that tlie fops and blades have perform- ed their office, and the sooner taken away the better, '^ecause 188 INDIAN CORN' AND ITS CVLTLRE. afterwards they do no good, and only serve to retard tne ripening of the ears, by excluding in part the sun and wind. But probably in most maize latitudes, this would only hold t ue in part. The tops and leaves were laid in bunches or bundles, in the intervals to dry ; and when cured, carried away and stacked, or set up or mowed in the barn for the cattle. In the United States they were considered nearly or quite equal to hay, but Mr. Evans thought they came far short of that in Canada. The time for cutting off the tops mentioned in the Scotch Rural Encyclopedia, is substantially the same as in Evar.s, and includes the indications referred to by correspondents of U. S. P.O. from latitude 46" to 39° in 1851 except one — when corn is in milk. The same work says they are of more or less value according to the weather while curing. Cob- bett's statement that weight for weight and weather for weather, they will yield more nutriment fur cattle than hay, is denied by Wilson's Cyclopedia which says that though used in France and the southern parts of Europe as fodder, they are never found equal to English hay, and are seldom or never given to horses. They are however in the United States. As to the value of fodder from maize as compared with good hay, very much depends on the manner in which the former is saved. For several years subsequent to 1849 the Agricultural Department of the Patent Office of the United States obtained from its correspondents in different sections much statistical matter in regard to maize fodder. It was highly prized in most quarters. Mr. Temple Cutlt- r, of Ham- ilton Mass., in 1849-50 described his method, as making the upper half of corn-stalks, including the leaves, eq lal to timo- thy or other hay. He cut and got them in the same c'ay, in fair weather; giving them only a litde time to wilt in the ?\m. In the barn, he placed them on poles in good ventilation, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 189 when they kept perfectly sweet, being of a green color. Cat- tle ate them with great avidity, leaving not a stalk behind. Cows gave more milk, when fed on these, than on the best clover hay, and he was confident they contained more fatten- ing properties. By careful and accurate experiments, weigh- ing the top stalks, he ascertained that an acre producing 45 bushels of corn would yield 2,000 lbs. of dry stalks, cut above the ears The lower part of the stalks would weigh still more, cut and cured in a similar way. "The proper stage for cutting is when the seeds begin to form, for then the organized elements of the kernels are diffused throughout the whole plant." * * All for- age plants should be cured in the shade as far as practicable. A. W. Dodge, of Hamilton Mass., says the tops and blades well cured, are considered of equal value, ton for ton, with English hay. Two others of the same State say : one, that the shuck compared with the blade, is about one to two; the other, that the value of shucks and blades for stock feeding is one-third that of good hay. Mr. Marsh, of New Hamp- shire, reckons them at one half. From Xenia Ohio, the shuck was reported at one-third the value of the blade, and the blade well saved, about equal to second rate hay. In Wayne Co., N. Y., a ton of stalks grown for fodder, was more valuable for cows than a ton of hay, being richer, and greatly preferred by them. From Ashland, Ohio, report was that shuck and blades, weight for weight, were worth as much or more than the best of hay for cattle. From Portland, Ind., that the shucks were very valuable for cattle and horses; from Lincoln Co , Ky , that there was more nutrition in the shucks than the blade, and both valuable for all kinds of stock, especially cattle and sheep. From Montgomery Co., Maryland, that shucks were something more nutritious than good wheat straw for cattle. From Cumberland and Buckingham Counties, Virginia, that 190 1\DIAN CORN AND ITS CTTLnrKE. the best corn blades were superior to shucks or hay, or any- other long fodder. From the latter it is added that corn shucks, when packed away sufficiently moist to produce a little red mildew, and sprinkled over in packing with a sack of salt to the shucks from loo bbls. of corn, were very valu- able, and when passed through the cutting-box, wet, and mixed with corn-meal or ground oats, they were little in- ferior to the blades. If the blades are saved and stacked in the field, the shucks quite equal them in nutrition. From Amherst Co., Va., that the blade was equal in value to hay of any kind ; the shuck was too coarse for horses, but eaten freely by cows. From Halifax, North Carolina, that the shuck was greatly preferred to the blade, but was more diffi- cult to save in good order; neither shuck nor blade, weight for weight, would compare with good hay. From Edwards, Mississippi, that the blade was preferred to the shuck, and good hay to both. From Washington, Miss., that theshuck was richer and stronger food than the blade, which was chaffy, at best, gathered from the stalks that had matured grain, and was the most costly fodder fed in any country. It cost eight or ten per cent of the grain, in weight and value, by being stripped before the grain was ripe. The cotton crop could not be thoroughly worked, for the fodder pulling. A hand could not pull, bundle and stack more than three or four hundred lbs. per day, during which his health suffered more than at any other work. Blades were equal, pound for pound, to timothy hay as received there in bales. From Memphis, Tennessee, it was reported that the blade was the best long food for horses, exceeding in price the best Northern hay ; the average price 70 cts. per cwt. ; the shuck fed to cows and young mules. From Licking Co., Ohio, that the shuck, if used immediately after husking, was worth more, pound for pound, than the blade, and both together, deduct- ing the stalk* when well pressed, worth for horned cattle INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 191 more than the best of hay, weight for weight. From Clark Co., Ohio, that sheep if they have plenty, will often refuse the husk entirely, while cattle will eat the husk first and then the blade. Same weight of well saved blades better for young stock and horses than average hay. In the statements of correspondents for 1S53 in U. S. P. O. Report, out of some dozen who gave the mode of harvesting, three topped their corn. One was John Brown sen'r., who introduced the Erown corn ; he topped early in Sep- tember, and harvested about October 9th., raising 104 bush- els of shelled corn to the acre. The second preferred it as less laborious. The following table from U. S. P. O. Reports 1849 ^"ti 1S50, shows a great diminution in the phosphates, potash and chlorine, and organic acids from July 19th to Oct. i8lh (these having gone into the grain mostly,) and a great in- crease of silica and lime, so necessary to the strength of the stalk. Elements of ash of leaves of maize at different stages, XLVI. Carbonic Acid... Silica. Sulphuric Acid. Phosphates Lime Ma.siiiesia Pola.sh Soda Chlorine Organic Acid.... Totals. July 19 5.40 13 50 2 IG 21.00 0G9 0.37 9 !t8 34 39 4.5.') 5.50 Aug 2. 2 850 19.8.50 1.995 10.250 4.035 2.980 11.075 29.590 0.020 2 400 98.14 97.7.-0 Aug 23. 99.58 Aug 30. 3.50 30.27 5 84 13 .50 3.38 2.30 9.15 22-13 1.03 2 05 99.75 Oct 18. 4.050 58.050 4.8M 5.8.30 4. .510 0.8G.') 7 333 8 520 2.004 2.2f'0 99.523 The Fodder frovi the general crop ^ after the grain is removed, like other fodder, is rich or poor according to the time of cutting and care in saving. Different indications are relied on for the best time of cutting up at the ground ; a certain dryness of the lower leaves, a certain degree of hardness of 192 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. the grain, a certain whitening or browning of the green husks; the finding, on careful examination, no ear but whai is too old for boiling, &c. &c. The manner of curing will be des- cribed hereafter. If put up in too large shocks, it is apt in moist situations to mould ; if in too small shocks (unless re- shocked after a few days, or removed to the ricks ) to become weather beaten and to lose its flavor. In husking, the shucks are usually left on the stalk. This fodder is very much prized, and is generally estimated at one half the value of good hay. Its virtues are often improved by chop- ping, scalding, compressing or steaming, and mixing witli meal, bran or other grain. The value has often been reckon- ed at one-third that of the grain. The simplest way of feeding is to draw the corn stalks be- fore husked to the feed lots, often portions of a pasture tem- porarily fenced in, and to spread it over the ground ; first turning in the fatting cattle, which are soon turned into an- other lot, followed by stock cattle, and these by hogs. After a general husking, fodder may be fed out every day, especial- ly during winter, either spread over the pasture lots, or the cattle-yard sloped circularly towards the centre, where the liquid manure and falling water colkct and act as a solvent for that which is rejected by the cattle ; or it may pass through the cutting-box and be thrown into the troughs to be wet, salted or mixed, for the cattle or horses in the stalls. Some have protested against cutting too short, as subjecting the gums of the cattle to injury from the hard and sharp material of the butts, which might be prevented by making the length of the pieces greater than the diameter. Some cut half an inch long. To do this economically, a great number of labor siving machines have been patented. They are too nu- merous for any general description. Some feeders after cutting fine the fodder for horses and neat cattle, scald it, so that it almost equals the green state, INDIAN CORN A.»D ITS CULTDRE. 193 especially in producing a flow of milk. Mixing the cut fod- der with shorts, meal or bran, adds to its feeding value twenty-five or thirty per cent. An ox is said to eat two per cent of his live weight. A farmer, (see U. S. Agricultural Report 1869,) recom. mends, from personal experience, the following apparatus for steaming. A large box, made steam tight, is placed with- in a larger box, with some non-conducting material, such as sawdust, packed between, at least twelve inches thick. The food to be cooked being placed in the steam box, hot water is turned in, and the apparatus covered lightly with woolen rags to confine the heat. Among the results claimed for cooked or steamed food for domestic animals are — it makes mouldy cornstalks &c., perfectly sweet and palatable for animals. In U. S. P. O. Report 1865, E. W. Stewart, of New York, says when keeping a large stock, there were often bought for steaming, stacks of fodder which would have been utterly worthless for feeding in the ordinary way, and no difierence was detected after steaming in the smell, or relish with which it was eaten. The odor of bran or corn-meal mixed with the fodder is diffused through the whole mass. It softens the toughest fiber of dry cornstalks, rendering them almost like green succulent food, &c. It enables the farmer to turn al- most everything raised, into food for his stock, without less- ening the value of the manure. The manure from steamed food decomposes more readily ; is always ready for use. It cures incipient heaves in horses ; those having a cough for several months at pasture, have been cured in two weeks on steamed food, ^ It has a remarkable effect on horses in cases of sudden colds and in constipation. Those fed on it are much less liable to disease, and in this respect, it seems to have all the good qualities of grass. It brightens the appear- ance of an animal, makes him more contented, gives him when working, the necessary time to eat, and enable? the 17 ..;,-,. ^« -^..^u .... - 194 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. farmer to fatten in one-third less time. It saves one-third of the food ; two bushels of cut and cooked hay satisfying cows as well as three bushels uncooked. The machinery for cooking corn fodder was thus de- scribed. "U. S. Agricultural Report 1865, pp 403. A porta- ble steam engine of five horse power provided, the animals, steam box, food &c., arranged as follows : The stables are jn the lower story, on each side of a feeding floor, ten feet wide. It would be more convenient to have room around each tier of animals to pass a cart or wagon to carry off t! e manure, than to throw it out at the side, A wooden track is laid in the center of the feeding floor, on which to run the steam boxes. Two, holding one hundred bushels each, should be provided for one hundred cattle. One would run under the upper floor to be filled and steamed, and then be moved away for use ; while the other could be run to the spot, filled and steamed. On the upper floor the straw cut- ter would be placed, provided with a feeding apron to feed itself, with two bins overhead, one for cut hay or straw, the other for meal or bran. Elevators to carry up the cut feed from the cutter to the feed bin, as fast as cut, would be neces- sary — also a water pipe connected with an elevated reservoir, to furnish water to moisten the feed. A tank might be placed overhead. An upright revolving shaft will be set in the center, provided with six arms just long enough to turn inside. This shaft will pass through a like cross-bar on the top, and extend above enough to receive a pulley of the proper size to revolve it 600 times per minute. A spout extends from an elevated feed bin to the top of this cylinder, with a slide to open or shut it. A spout also extends from the meal or bran bin, so as to communicate in the same way with the cylinder, and a water pipe, with a stop-cock and moveable cover, is placed on the top of the cylinder. A belt runs from the engine to the pulley on the top of this shaft. When ready INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTljRE. 195 to fill the steam box, the shaft is set in motion; the spout for cut feed operates so as to discharge a definite quantity, and the spout for meal, so as to discharge the proportion desired ; and the water is let in, 20 gallons for 50 bushels of feed. The feed, meal and water, in passing through the cylinder, will come in contact with these swift moving arms, and be thoroughly mixed, and fall into the steam box, ready for steaming. The food should be pressed into the steam box as more will be steamed, and better. One expert man may cut and steam feed for one hundred head of cattle, and two men could easily care for two hundred. Thus with proper system and machinery, the expense of cutting and steaming for a large stock, will be little more than the ordinary way of feed- ing. This steam engine may be used to grind the grain, cut and steam the food, and do all the work requiring stationary power on the farm. The engine should be placed as near the steam box and straw cutter as it can be safely; with a double spark extinguisher over the chimney to prevent fire. Wetting the feed, as well as steaming, is suitably provided for in the above arrangement. The want of sufficient wet- ting is said to have been the great mistake in the early ex- periments in steaming fodder in America and England. Fed in the common way, without housing, fodder is much better for early than late winter feeding. Kept in barns, it may keep good for three years; cut five or six inches long, saves waste. A Michigan correspondent of Moore's Rural New Yorker, for November, 1873, advises for winter feed the mixing of cut fodder, one bushel, with two quarts of meal ground from corn, oats and wheat screenings, as causing a greater flow of milk than clear corn-meal. H. Mosely. a but- ter maker, was said by the Springfield Mass. Republican, to feed corn-stalks twice in the morning before milking, after- wards hay, cut feed, corn fodder, oats and hay wet with warm water and mixed with corn and rye meal. 196 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, The corn fodder has been frequently said to pay for harvesthig the grain crop. Its money value has been various- ly stated in different years and at different places. In 1853, in Wayne Co., Michigan, where the grain was 50 cts. per bushel, thirty- five bushels being the average crop, the stalks were worth S3. 00 per acre. Near Lake Village, New Hamp- shire, corn was Si.oo per bushel, and in a crop of 104 bushels to the acre, four tons of husks and stalks were valued at $8.00. In Seneca Co., N. Y., in a crop of 50 bushels per acre at 56 cts. , the acre of corn-stalks was worth §4. 00. — In other years, the stalks were reckoned at $5.00 per ton for food and $2. 00 for manure ; sometimes at S15.C0 per ton. A farmer in 1851 found sown corn fodder better than the best of hay for sheep, and the product per acre three times that of the best meadow land; he had kept from two to four hundred head on it almost exclusively; the fodder from i}4. to two acres sufficient to winter one hundred head of sheep without any grain, except for ewes, through the month of March. As to the feeding qualities of corn generally, the testimony is very ample and positive. From Delaware Co., Pennsylvania, it was stated that the most economical and profitable extra feed for working cattle, horses, beef cattle, hogs, dairy stock, poultry (taking into view the comparative certainty of obtain- ing a crop, against all seasons and accidents,) was corn. Fifty per cent of the entire profits of our agriculture, exclusive of dairying, came, directly or indirectly, from corn alone. In the ear, soft corn, or that not perfecdy ripe, including nubbins, so called, are fed to cattle and hogs whole ; the cat- tle munching cob and all. They do not contain as much nutriment, but they are more digestible than corn perfectly ripe Soft corn is said to suit horses. Ripe corn in the ear or shelled is considered by most farmers, who can get good prices for their grain, "unprofitable, fed dry to full grown INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ]97 horned cattle. It is otherwise with young cattle and sheep. An Ohio farmer, writing to one of our agricultural journals on wintering calves, advises giving them good shelter, shelled corn and plenty of good clover hay, or corn fodder, and as- serts that corn meal is apt to make them scour; the feeding of corn to be light at first and gradually increased. Wilson's Rural Cyclopedia says a feed of whole corn reveals the com- parative youth or age of horses, whose grinders cannot be seen by an intelligent purchaser. If his grinders are old and ■worn, he will slobber the grain out of his mouth; if young, he will grind it soundly and vigorously with a noise that cannot be mistaken. According to Dr. Salisbury (see U. S. P. O. Report, 1861,) the maize grain has in 100 parts, XLVII. Sugar and extract .March Fibre Oil Gluten Aug 30. 3 67 1.0-i Sept 13. 5 10 9.75 2.43 Oct 18 13 32 56.30 0..S9 4.60 3. 68 Matter from liber. Albumen Casein e Dextrine Water Ang Sept 30. 1.03 13. 1.53 0.21 0.84 0.08 0.04 64 0.66 90.80 78.75 Oct 18. 5.99 4 29 0.08 3.-6 8.45 "The analyses of the cob, shows that these elements pass from the stalk to it, and from it to the grain." The great in- crease of sugar and starch in October shows that their de- velopment takes place late ; that of oil especially. A want of sap due to drought, checks these operations. Nearly five- sixths of the starch, more than half the sugar, nearly all the oil, nearly two-thirds of the gluten, and four-fifths of the al- bumen and dextrine are developed during the last thirty-five days of the period indicated by the above dates. Little undigested corn fed whole is said to pass horses and sheep. An Ohio farmer preferred feeding in the ear if the horse gets the lampers ; if corn ready shelled, they grow on him ; if fed in the ear, he will eat them off. It does better 198 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. feeding corn whole to hard working horses and oxen. After an animal has been freely fed on ground or cooked food for a considerable time and the fatting is nearly complete, it may be best to wind up with good hard corn, and this is often done. But the propriety of feeding corn dry and whole must (le[iend largely on the vigor of the animal and the state of his teeth, as the general rule is that all unbroken seeds pass the animal undigested. But if the digestive powers are very niuch stimulated by severe exercise, what then? The great majority of late writers on the subject, whatever the gen- eral practice may be, favor the softening or breaking of the grain, previous to feeding. It is very easy keeping corn to soak for feeding, when grinding is inconvenient. Many farm- ers, when there is much feeding to do, always keep a barrel or hogshead of soaked ears on hand. This saves the time and expense of steaming or grinding, as well as the toll or freight. Of five farmers of long experience in different parts of Washington and Meigs Counties, Ohio, one soaked more or less for cattle, horses and hogs, twenty-four hours in spring, and twelve hours in summer ; on corn soaked in the ear, he raised as good a lot of hogs, as he ever did by other methods. Another said that soaking for cattle would do for a while, but they would whet their teeth on it, till they would not eat it , he soaked for hogs, shelled ; but preferred grinding and cooking; and there was a gain of one-fourth by letting it sour in summer. A third found it best steaming cob and all for cattle and hogs, and soaking in a barrel, with two quarts of salt on top for horses. A fourth found a gain of one quar- ter in grinding and cooking for cows, but fed shelled unground to sheep, and boiled in the ear to horses and hogs. A fifth fed the small ears whole in autumn to cattle and horses, and ground and cooked the balance for cattle, and ground and wet the b.ilance, (except in winter, when he soaked it) for INDIAN COaN AND IT3 CULTURE. 199 horses ; fed bran and chop stuff to sheep, and com in the ear to hogs. The cobs of green corn used for human food, both before and after boiUng, are eaten with great reHsh by hogs. Many farmers shell their corn and cook it whole. One method is to fill a potash kettle half full of shelled corn, then fill to the brim with water and boil the water away ; leaving the vessel full of boiled corn. It is much more rapidly cook- ed when broken. This has been recommended by some for hog feeding, as adding considerable to the nutriment of the grain. But it may be a question whether some of the nu- tritious qualities of the grain may not be dissipated by long boiling. The simplest way of breaking the grain is crushing it. Many prefer this to grinding, for horses. In 1870 it was stated on the authority of an English Journal that feeding horses on crushed maize had become very common of late in England. Corn and cob crushers were in fashion many years ago. Allusion has already been made, in connection with the analyses of the cobs, to the different views of farmers as to their nutritive qualities. It might be added that when mix- ed in a crushed state, with other feed, they help out the ma- nure. As fuel, they are much esteemed for smoke-houses. At a discussion in one of the Farmer's Associations which are becoming so interesting in some of the older States. Dr. Syl- vester said he had experimented on cobs ground with corn, and found they produced good milk. He estimated the cobs, when ground with corn at 15 to 20 cts. per bushel. Prof. Whitney thought the preparation of the cobs cost more than the good they did. When the ears were boiled whole, the cobs might help eke out the scanty forage of a hard spring. Next as to grinding the grain, it is generally estimated that for horses and cattle, twenty to thirty per cent is gained in feeding qualities, or added to the value of the corn. For horses, coarse grinding is said to be the best. For oxen 200 INDIAN COEN AND ITS CUITCRE. and cows, perhaps the greatest gain is in sprinkling the meal over cut fodder. This with a little salt makes the coarse provender very palatable. Fed to milch cows in their slop, it is a very effectual milk compeller. For hogs it is a con • siderable gain on the whole corn, but cooking the meal makes it go much further. The grinding, however, will hardly pay, if labor is high, and corn low, and the farmer must pay a heavy toll for grinding, or lose much time or labor in getting it ground. Good judges say it pays if the toll is only one eighth, and the mill is near by. If the feeder has a mill of his own at his farm, the case is very much altered, that is, if it is of sufficient power to give employment to a boy. The calculation is easily made, when the farmer knows clear- ly the value of his time and the expense of the grinding. In feeding coarse fodder, hay or straw, the meal has a special value in making them more palatable. Grinding also makes cooking for hogs easy. The favorable effect of the two operations in hog feeding has been variously estimated at forty to one hundred per cent. One farmer mentions as a simple contrivance of his, for breaking the corn in a small way, the fastening of a plane bitt in a board, so as to act like a plane in taking shavings off an ear of corn. A distinguished Vermont drover, at the Farmer's club, de- clared strongly in favor of corn-meal for fattening stock gen- erally; he said that the farmers did not feed heavy enough, and that of twelve quarts fed, the last four did twice as much for fatting as the first four. In the earlier volumes of the U. S. P. O. and Agricultural Reports, is placed on record quite a range of testimony as to the different methods of feeding maize to the different do- mestic animals, which was brought out by the efforts of the Department to ascertain the different opinions and practice on the subject prevalent in the various sections of the United States. That embodied in the Report for 1849-50, is strong INDIAN CORN AND TT9 CULTURE. 201 in favor of grinding for cattle, and grinding and cooking for hogs; less favorable to grinding for horses and perhaps still less for sheep, because they were thought to masticate the grain more thoroughly. There was a greater unanimity in the witnesses to this effect from the Atlantic than from the Western States. A Southern planter gave his opinion that if the feeding was to be done by plantation negroes, corn were best fed in the ear. Some recommended boiling whole, others crushing the grain and cob together; two giving it as their experience, that the ground cob added one-third to the nutriment of the grain. One expressed a doubt whether the fat from cooked corn was as solid as that from whole grain raw. Corn-meal was said to be best for beef cattle. The range of estimates of increase from grinding, or crushing and cooking was not far from that already stated. The advantage of cooking was illustrated every day at the distilleries, where after distilling, the refuse corn was considered equal to the raw grain for feeding. An Illinoian gave his opinion that grind- ing and cooking increased the nutriment, but would not pay in feeding beef cattle ; it might in hog feeding. As to mix- tures of feed, horses had been seen looking very fat and sleek after being fed on cracked corn and oats moistened Avith salt water; and corn ground with rye was good horse feed. There were fewer statements on the subject in the U. S. P. O. Report for 1853. Two, from Illinois and Pennsylvania, favored corn and cob meal, the latter estimating the loss in feeding whole to cattle or sheep at one-fourth. But a New Yorker said he had known corn ground with the cob to in- flame the stomachs of horses and cattle eating it, so as to prove fatal. Mr. Joseph Sullivant, in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1869, has a very elaborate article on hog feeding and pork making, in which he states that the "chemical analysis of the corn cob gives six to ten per cent of matter that may be 202 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. rendered, by long maceration and boiling, capable of assimi- lation by the animal. ' 'He thought the nutriment in cob feed- ing was not paying, but an occasional feed of cob-meal would relieve that instinctive want that induced the hog to eat coal, rotten wood, and even clay and dirt." The experiments of Lawes and Miles had shown that as the hog approached ma- turity of fatness, the quantity of corn required for making a pound of pork increased, and he thought it would take less food to make 600 lbs. of pork from two animals than from one. His estimate of the number of pounds of pork to be made from one bushel of corn, was, if fed on the ear, 9, as raw meal 12, as boiled corn 13^^, and as cooked meal 15. — But sixteen to nineteen pounds of pork -were possible, and eighteen to twenty pounds to the bushel were not unfrequent in actual practice. The result of two experiments by Rob- ert Thatcher, a Pennsylvanian, one on five very ordinary pigs, getting id-^j pounds, and the other on five superior Chester pigs, resulting in 1 7y%\ lbs. from a bushel of cooked meal, was accounted for by the feeder as due to "very care- ful feeding, clean and warm bedding, and a tight house." Prof. Miles of the Michigan Agricultural College, in the course of an experiment in fattening pigs, fed two for twenty weeks on corn meal and in 140 days they gained 205)4 lbs. or 98 j^\ lbs. each pig, over the original weight. "In the twenty weeks, 935^ lbs. of meal were consumed, equal to i6_7_. bushels of corn, and giving a return of 12^ lbs. of pork for each bushel, and requiring 4^4 lbs. of meal to make one of pork." They were grade Essex pigs ; two weeks old when the first feeding began, which was a mixed diet of milk, meal and a portion of roots, and was continued nine weeks before the twenty weeks on corn-meal commenced. Prof. Miles' deduction from his experiments was that in pork making the best return will be obtained by "liberal feeding during the early stages of growth." The result of experiments by Mr. INDIAX CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 203 Lawes, (of England,) of a similar kind was "that the larger the proportion of nitrogenous compounds in the food, the great- er the tendency to increase \i\ frame a.nd flesh, but that the ;;m- iuring or ripening oi the animal— in fact its fattening — depends very much tnore on the amount, in the food, of certain digestible «c«-nitrogenou3 constituents." G. Geddes, of Syracuse, N. Y., is quoted as stating at "Discussions" during the New York State Fair, 1867, that "he had thoroughly proved, years ago, that cooking independent of grinding, at least doubled the value of food." G. A. Moore, of Erie Co., N. Y., "had fully satisfied himself that the value of food was tripled by cooking." Prof. Mapes, says (in Transactions of American Institute, 1864,) "this experiment often tried, has proved that eighteen or nineteen pounds of cooked corn is equal to fifty pounds of raw corn for hog feed; and Mr. Mason, of New jersey, found that pork fed with raw grain, cost i2^cts. per lb., and that from cooked corn 4^cts. It is evident that the breed and condition of the animal fed, the variety of the corn consumed, the climate, the season and the surroundings, as well as the manner of feeding must be taken into view in accounting for the results of different modes of treatment. The mode of feeding, with a view to profit, must often be determined in a great measure by the scale on which the feeder operates. An Indianian in 1869, found the best food for young pigs was corn-bread crumbled in milk or dish water ; they gaining a pound a day in weight. A Delhi correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette shows the advantage cf mixed food used on a large scale by feeding 108 cows at 4 a. m. and 5 p. m. as follows : Into a car box 16 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep, two bbls. of meal ground in cob were thrown, then i bbl. of middlings and 4 bushels of barley sprouts from malt manufactory. This was shovel- ed over to mix. then cut corn fodder, or clover hay was r.d- dcd, making the box three-fourths full. Morning food pre- 204 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, pared the previous evening, evening food in the morning. This suggests the importance of regularity in feeding. Some farmers recommend feeding the same animal, meal in one trough, and whole corn in another, giving him access to both. If the assertion is true, as made by one writer that un- broken corn in all cases passes the stomachs whole, of all animals except birds, then the quadruped that eats, if he di- ' gests, must grind the grain himself. This would be allowing better molar teeth to young cattle and sheep than to the rest of their fraternity. Indeed the teeth of the animal have con- siderable to do with the manner of feeding. Certain general principles on this subject are quoted in U. S Agricultural Report, 1865, substantially as follows: Glob- ules containing meal, flour or starch, whether in grain or roots, are incapable of affording any nourishment as food for animals till broken. The mechanical method of breaking or grinding, is only partially sufficient. The most efficient man- ner of breaking globules is by heat, fermentation or chemi- cal agency of acids or alkalies. Dextrine, the kernel of each globule, is alone soluble, and therefore alone nutritive. The shells of the globules are reduced to fragments by me- chanism or heat. Cooking, if long continued, will burst them, but some mechanical force will do it very much sooner, as any one knows who has tried cooking corn whole and un- broken. The mouse-eaten kernel is softened much sooner than its fellows. 1 Cooking for the animal saves part of the waste of the tissues and heat producing elements, and makes the digestion more rapid and complete. The added flesh or fat is stored away sooner, and room left for more. The water so neces- sary to good digestion is cooked into the food, and distends the stomach, and lays the nutritive particles open to the proper organs. The delicate stomachs of swine are certarnly good arguments for cooking their food, but their dental ap- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 205 paratus admits of the occasional feeding, at certain stages of development, of whole corn with decided advantage, provided pure water is given with it ; and when cheap corn, scant fuel, high labor and other circumstances make it ad- vantageous to the feeder, for the porker to grind and cook his own feed, the delicate stomach refuses to make as ample re- turns in fat and flesh, or demands more corn for making them. Other viands than cooked meal for this delicate stom- ach as well as for the stronger stomachs of the cow and sheep, may be more cheaply provided near the manufactories of large cities, where also the carrying and marketing of the product are easier and more certain ; and the kitchen, that common friend to the swinish and bovine races, in the case of small pens and barns near by, may diminish considerably the drafts on the corn-crib, by a more thorough preparation of what is taken therefrom. As to work animals, those farmers who testify that cook- ing for work animals is not favorable, confirm the theory that exercise stimulates the digestive organs, and that severe labor, in hastening the transformation of the tissues and in- creasing the animal heat, makes the organs more powerful for assimilation, while it creates the fierce demand for food we call hunger, and causes the nutritive matter to be of more account than the saving of the tissues of the stomach. Feeding poultry. — Corn is excellent for this purpose, and is much used in the United States, especially for fattening. It is fed to them in all sorts of ways except as raw meal, dry or wet. For young chickens wet meal is dangerous — giving them the gapes. Wilson in the Rural Cyclopedia says that maize grain is fed whole to large fowls, and bruised for smaller ones, and that these are remarkably well adapted for feeding and fat- tening all kinds of poultry. All the famous, fat, large liver- ed geese of North-west France and South-east Germany are 206 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUKE. fed with whole maize, and all larm-yard hens and barn door turkeys, of Great Britain, would succeed better on a plain diet of maize, than, in the former case, on most special feed- ing, and in the latter on the filthy, splashy, expensive and most troublesome system of cramming. Cobbett says he killed one pullet not of large breed, out of which he took loose fat weighing ^ lb. Fattened most perfectly ten turkeys in the same manner. Geese and ducks fatten easier than either of the former, fattened in the same way. For fresh eggs in winter, plenty of corn is given whole. To very little chickens or young turkeys, some is given in a cracked state, but they soon learn to take it down whole. Sparrows eat it as fast as fowls ; hence poultry should be fed close to the door. Bennett, in a work on fowls, describes certain experiments of a French poulterer in cooking corn for fowls in various ways, .which illustrates the profit of so doing. Mush from corn meal is very much relished by hens, and in satisfactory quantities multiplies eggs. Mixed feed for fowls, as well as our other domestic dependants, is fast getting into favor. A change of food works well. The smaller and oily kinds of corn seem specially fitted for chickens. One of these, called maize a poulet, has been very much in use in France for this purpose. Human food. — Indian corn as a bread material, to be manu- factured on a large scale, cannot compete with wheat. Not that it is really less nourishing, but because from the com- parative coarseness of the meal and the smaller quantity of glufen, it cannot assume the saleable forms of cracker and loaf, which wheat flour takes on so easily. As cakes, warm bread, mush, samp, hominy, hulled, parched and popped corn, and roasting and boiling ears, it is very much relished by a great many, even as a luxury, and in certain quarters as common food ; presenting, if anything, a greater variety of INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CULTURE. 207 dishes than wheat flour or any other grain can produce. And for these general or occasional purposes its use throughout Christendom, if not throughout its native America is doubt- less on the mcrease. But it will probably never again be so exclusively used as vegetable food as it was by the Mexicans of Cortez' time, or by the North American Indians, or by the slaveholding communities of the Southern United States. Roasting or boiliiig ears. — Any one observing the huge piles of green corn ears on the pavement by the city market place in summer and early fall, will realize what an important place this luscious article of food takes at our city tables — especially in large cities where corn bread for sale is hardly known. Any of the common varieties taken at the right stage may be boiled or roasted with some advantage, but the sugar corn is very generally preferred. The requisites are that the saccharine matter shall be well developed, and that the kernels shall have attained their full size, but are still soft and yielding to the finger-nail. Perhaps the best indication of their fitness for boiling is the dryness of the silk at the end of the ear, while the husk outside has lost none of its green- ness. It requires some experience however to select surely and readily, ears not too young, nor too hard for healthful and nutritious eating, when boiled. Some cooks shave the grain from the cob with a sharp knife before boiling, as when cooked with beans. Others grate the corn off the cob, and make corn soup. Some break the surface before boiling; others cut the corn off after boiling; but most generally it is brought to the table in the ear, and eaten with a litde salt or butter. Corn soup is one of the richest and most whole • some of viands. The New York Albion, speaking of these ears with their grains that seem bursting with milky juice, says that when placed a sufficient time before the fire, they become little 208 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CLLTURE, bags of delicious milk. Americans commonly roast the ears before a clear fire, or on hot embers. Boiled are not so good as roasted ears, yet esteemed very palatable when boiled with fat pork. The female flowers are gathered by some of the French and Germans before the male flowers have expanded, and are pickled like cucumbers. Young small culms of thickly grown crops are cut from time to time by the Mexicans, and served in desserts in the manner of Asparagus, in order that they may yield their sweet juices to the mouih tvhen chewed. A German correspondent of a Vienna (Austria) Journal, says the extremely saccharine stalk is eaten raw by many Indians. Reference has already been made to the choice varieties, Sugar, Evergreen, Darling, Canada and New Mexi- can Black &c. The Adams is a late variety which produces very good boiling ears. The ears of the above sorts are generally small, and in some kinds, shriveled when dry. All these ripen early, some by the i8th of July or earlier. In Cincinnati the average price per dozen in July 1869 was 10 t0 2octs.per doz.; in July 1872, 15 to 20 cts.; in October 1876, 5 to 15 cts. Many of the poorer Mexicans are said to subsist entirely on the **unripe ears cooked." Some of the Indians preserve roasting ears for winter by stringing and drying. From the Cincinnati Weekly Gazettes from 1871 to 1873 are extracted the substance of a few recipes for disposing of green corn. (A.) — Scrapes the corn from the cob with the back of the knife, thus securing the sweetest portion ; cooks with milk or cream, boils the cobs with beans, drains the latter when cooked, and mixes with the corn, adding salt and water. (B ) — Scalds the corn, not enough to harden it, tlien .«haves tlie grain off the ear, so as to divide it three or four times ; scrapes the chits from the cob, being the sweetest part, adds sweet milk with a little water, butter and salt, lets it simmer IXDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 209 for twelve minutes and stirs in evenly, a beaten egg — to be eaten with a very little sugar. Drying green corn. (C.) — Plucks it before it grows hard, cuts it from the cob without scalding; dries in the sun, or about a stove ; soaks a few hours before cooking. Keeps in loose sacks instead of jars, and so prevents mould. (D.) — After cutting, scrapes the cob with a knife to get all the heart and milk ; stirs it in a skillet on a stove till dry as it can be stirred ; then salts and peppers and spreads thin, and dries in the sun. Will cook much quicker than when boiled on the cob ; makes a good soup for the sick. (E ) — Packs in a jar or some clean vessel, the corn from well selected roasting ears; first covers with salt ad libitum ; then covers the vessel till wanted for use, when it is well washed, and soaked over night; stewed in a little water about half an hour, and seasoned with butter, cream and pepper. Canning. (F.) — Dissolves i J^ oz. tartaric acid in a half pint of water; cuts the corn from the cob and when cooked in sufficient water, adds one table-spoonful of the solution to each pint of the corn, and cans immediately, using tin cans. After opening adds a very little soda, four or five hours be- fore using. (G.) — Cuts the corn from the cob into a kettle, and covers with water; dissolves two oz. tartaric acid in one pint of hot water; adds six table-spoonfuls of liquid to each gallon of corn; then boils five minutes and cans; not pressing the corn tighdy, but letting the water stand over it ; seals, and keeps in a cool place; on opening, empties into a crock, and wash- es in a couple of waters, adds half a tea-spoonful of soda and two table-spoonfuls of sugar to one quart of corn ; finishes with salt, pepper and butter, and if preferred, a little cream and flour; and then cooks five minutes. Succotash or Sucatush is a term frequently applied to corn cut from the cob and boiled with beans. It is said to be an 18 210 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURR. abbreviation or change from ?niisiquatiish, an ancient Indian dish, in which however (see U. S. P. O. Report 1866, pp 499 to 504) the Indians are said to have boiled fish and venison, and flesh of bears, beaver, moose, otter or raccoon, as well as peas, pumpkins and other vegetables raised among their corn. Corn is toasted by the Apache and other Indians by placing the kernels in a basket with a few live coals, or heated stones, and shaking rapidly ; occasionally holding the open basket to the fire. (e.) — The stalk, after the ear is pulled, at the right stage for boiling, will go on for a considerable time filling up with sweet juice, and if ground and pressed, might make a tolerable syrup. But when sugar can be obtained at the present average prices, it would not be very profitable making such stalks into syrup, even if enough of them were robbed of their ears. The ancient Mexicans made syrup of the stalks, and the same thing has been done occasionally in the United States. (/.) — Of the ripened grain, /^rr//^^ corn is probably the most economical preparation. If the variety used abounds i 1 starch, and contains a reasonable amount of oil, moderate heat causes it to swell and brown over the fire. Very good teeth may manage it whole j but where these are deficient, it is better ground. If first crushed in a mortar, and then ground fine in a coffee mill or small corn mill, it makes a very palatable meal, which, if one's beard is short enough, may be eaten dry; if otherwise, it is better wet, and best of all, wet with sweet milk. This meal of parched corn is said to have been carried in little bags by the Indians in the early years of our colonial history, when going long journeys on foot, being very effective in keeping up the strength of the system. (See U. S. P. O. Report, 1S66 ) The warriors on a war-path, subsisted on parched corn, which they called "Nckakee." Roger Williams traveled with two hundred INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 2il Indians at once, nearly two hundred miles through the woods, every man carrying a little basketful of this at his Lack, sufficient for three or four days provision. Parched meal is probably the lightest, as well as most economical sub- stitute for bread known, as what water there is in the grain is nearly all evolved in parching. The Mexicans roast the kernels for food. The Western Indians now consume large quantities of parched corn. (a) — Shelled corn boiled whole has been recommended by some, but the boiling is a long process, unless something is put into the boiler, to hasten the breaking of the epidermis. It is a question too whether much of the flavor of the kernel is not dissipated in the boiling before it is sufficiently com- plete for digestion. The larger grained varieties are best suited for this purpose. Eaten with milk or soup, it makes an agreeable and nourishing diet ; but perhaps it is not best to swallow the hulls, unless well broken in cooking or in chewing. (/i.) — Hulled com is the grain boiled for a while in water in which potash or pearlash is infused, which hastens the re- moval of the hulls. The oil with this alkali forms a soap. Sometimes a little bag of wood ashes unleached, is sub- stituted for potash in the kettle of corn. When the hulls are fairly loosened, the mass is taken out, and thoroughly wash- ed, and rinsed; the rinsing water carrying away the hulls ; the corn then boiled until thoroughly done. The time re- quired for this purpose makes it advisable to cook a huge kettle full at once. Eaten with milk, it is quite palatable ; when cold, may be fried, or otherwise warmed up. It is probably a rare dish of late. (/.) — The Indians had their 0-mo-nee. After they had se- lected out their seed for the next year from the crop of maize grown, the balance was dried in the husk on stagings over a smouldering fire^ then husked, shelled packed in large bifLh 212 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. bark boxes and buried in the ground below the action of frost. Oinonce was this dried corn cracked in a stone mortar and then boiled. (B. P. Poore on Agriculture, U. S. Agricultural Keport, iS66 ) Our word hominy seems to be derived from this, sometimes spelled hommony. For this the grain is first hulled, and then simply broken, not ground, ^\'hat issome- t mes called yankee corn, including the flinty kinds, would seem most fitted for its manufacture. One of seven pre- miums given at the Indiana State Fair in 1869, on the best samples of corn, was on hominy corn, the others being on yellow, white and other colored varieties. The Pueblo and other Indians boil their corn in weak lime water, to remove the hull, and grind it into a soft pulp, of which cakes or bread are made. Hominy requires careful boiling, gentle and long enough continued. It is apt when placed over a heavy fire, to stick to the kettle and burn. It is most palatable, as well as most wholesome, when boiled quite soft. (y.) — Samp (the coarser parts of ground corn sifted out, and separated from the bran proper) when thoroughly cook- ed, is one of the best dishes prepared from maize. Where Indian corn is produced most abundantly, the white is mostly preferred for human food; its flavor being more agreeable, and its appearance more inviting. (y^.) — Grinding and cooking for the table. Corn-meal in its various preparations, is the chief medium through which this grain reaches the human stomach. Corn cakes are the form it has most generally taken. The North American Indians in Capt. Smith's time, after bruising it in a mortar, sifted it tiirough a basket for ash cakes. The Mexican tortillas be- * long to the past, as well as the present. The shelled corn is softened in water with the aid of lime, then rubbed on aflat stone into a fine mass, and from this is formed into their round cakes, which are baked on a thin clay plate, and eaten INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 213 hot from the plate in place of bread, the Mexicans preferring the tortilla. A woman spends six hours every day in pre- paring them, and 312,500 strong, healthy Mexican women are said to be so employed. H. Carl Heller, in the Vienna Zeitung, writing from Toluca in 1846, says that raw meal is also made into tortillas for the Spaniards. The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona are said by a wiiter in the U. S. P. O. Report, 1870, to cultivate in the primitive manner the original corn of America, of pink, blue and white colors, and small slender ears. These are pounded in a stone mortar into bluish white meal, and made into a kind of cake, called Tourke bread. A brisk fire is made under a slab of iron, or stoneora flat earthenware plate, supported by stones, resting on the ground, so as to admit the fire. A batter is then made of the meal, into which the wo- men having pressed the fingers of the right hand togethei, dip and draw them out thickly covered with the batter, which they press evenly on this heated substitute for a pan ; leaving a thin coating which quickly curls up; a sign that it is cooked on that side. It is then taken off, and another di[) made with the fingers is spread as before, then the upper side of the first cake is laid on top of the new dip; and when the second is ready to turn, the first is already cooked, and the second put through the same process as the first, and so on till a large pile of these wafer like sheets is rolled up — called by the Indians guaguave. It has a look like something coarser than blue wrapping paper. The above writer and others, having been feasted by the Indians for some time on these cakes, found them somewhat dry at first in the mouth, but quite sweet and easily chewed, and a real luxury eat( n with the juice of preserved peaches. The Indians often mix their newly ground corn with pieces of meat, and red and green peppers, and put between soft corn husks and boil them. 214 INDIAB COK\ AXD ITS CULTURE. Corn cakes are among the choice specimens of American cookery throughout. They require finely ground meal, ■which is usually sifted. If the meal is scalded the night be- fore the batter is made, they may be wholesome and sweet, if only mixed with salt and water, and baked on a griddle, or in a bake pan over a brisk fire. But they will be lighter for a little baking-powder, or soda and acid, in the right pro- portions stirred in, so as to gain the full effect of the effer- vescence. Tartaric acid, or vinegar, or still better, sour milk or buttermilk answers very well for the acid. An egg or two to the quart of batter, broken in, makes the cake superb. The effect of scalding the meal over night is to make it sweet- er, by inducing the saccharine fermentation. If the batter is thin, the cakes may be baked rapidly over a hot fire ; if thick, slower baking over a slower fire is better. When the batter is mixed with buckwheat, or coarse flour, or fine, the flavor may be improved. For sedentary persons, or those subject to constipation, a liberal addition to the batter of wheat bran is a great improvement. Cakes of a remarkably delicate taste are sometimes made of the fine flour of corn- meal sifted through a gauze sieve. Eggs, butter, sour milk and soda are usually added. What does not pass through the sieve makes a very fine samp. The common bran sifted out of corn-meal, thrown into water, will separate into two portions; the broken epidermis remaining for a time on the surface ; the coarser and more oily parts of the kernel sinking to the bottom. The latter, after considerable boiling, is very liutritive and agreeable to the taste. (/) — Hasty pudding or mush has been a staple article of American cooking from time immemorial. The Apaches, one of the tribes inheriting the ancient Indian customs, cook their mush in flat, water-tight wicker baskets. Wooden tongs with charred ends, are used to throw into the presumably INDIAN CORN AND ITS' CULTURE. 215 wet mass, stones heated very hot, which are incrusted with this rudely mixed batter, and taken out when cooked ; new ones being put in. The stones are then reHeved of the cook- ed mush adhering to them, and the process continued till the meal is all cooked; when the family are gathered round and scoop out the contents with their fingers. This is very much like South Sea Island cookery. Carl Heller speaks of corn-meal boiled in water, with va- rious roots, as one of the standing Mexican dishes. Our Puritan ancestors, for many years after they landed at Plymouth are reported to have made their suppers on mush and milk. Acting on different principles from those of un- dying hate, life-long revenge, torments for the poor captive, and punishing the guilty by slaughtering the innocent, which have been the main causes of the thinning out of the savages and the slow advance of their arts of living, these fathers of our social progress could afford to cook their mush in geome- trically shaped kettles, and eat it out of nicely glazed bowls, with handsome plated spoons. As now commonly cooked in the United States, the water in the kettle is first brought to aboil, and the sifted meal then stirred in gradually, and salt- ed, stirring all the time to break the lumps, and secure an equal distribution of the heat. Mush is best made thin, and allowed to boil some time after the materials have been wt- 11 stirred together. Cold mush is capital, cooked up with milk, or fried in lard. Mush and milk is an excellent diet for young children to grow upon — and as an occasional dish for adults, is quite a luxury. Those wishing to inquire furUv r into the virtues of Ha^ty Pudding, are referred to Joel Bar- low's poem on the subject, which will be found in the ap- pendix to Allen's American Farm Book. {in ) — Some of the early English authorities have been dis- posed to give maize a low rank as a bread corn, asserting that it cannot be made into good bread without the fiddition 210 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. of wheat or other flour. A few experiments made on this grain, or rather the meal, in Prussia many years ago, led to similar statements from that quarter. Tne Rural Cyclopedia asserted (1854) that in its various uses for human food, it was in almost all cases, more or less inferior to wheat flour, and was often mixed with that flour, like potato starch and bean meal, as downright adulteration; that many American farm- ers used it as bread corn only till they could aff'ord to grow wheat; and that the inhabitants of the maize countries in Continental Europe for the most part, used it only when pov- erty or some other form of stern necessity, prevented tliem from obtaining a better. He admits, however, the use in some parts of the Low Countries, of maize flour made into paste and fried with fat bacon, as ordinary food. The above work then quotes John S Bartlett, of the New York Albion, as "a very competent witness," who speaks highly of maize as a bread corn, and of its general use in the rural districts of the United States; as making children thrive and adults labor, with no aid from wheat ; as having no equal for gen- eral domestic use, where economy is kept in view, and as easily converted into puddings, cakes and bread; and as corn meal added to wheat bread, decidedly improving its quality, and causing it to be preferred at almost all American tables, giving a sweetness and freshness, unknown in purely wheat bread. The intimation made in works published a quarter of a cen- tury ago that the eaters of maize bread in Southern Europe belonged only to the poorer classes, was not very much against its usefulness. We all know what the humbler classes in France, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Greece have been doing since that time, and how much they have accomplished towards getting into the light even in Spain, one of the old- est of the European maize eating districts. Reliable au- thorities that characterized the upper classes as degraded and INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 217 imbecile, spoke of the peasantry as a very fine race. Mr. Borrow, whose travels among the gipsies in that quarter ex- cited so much attention, described the manly and self-reliant character of the poorer classes in Spain, as very much in con- trast with the wealth and rank worshiping poor of England. One great difficulty in Spain, in establishing a permanent and enlightened government, has been the contempt in which the poor and proud Spaniards hold their leaders. The nature of the "depressing" influence of maize eating in America of which one of our agricultural writers speaks, was fairly exhibited in the history of the Pilgrim fathers. It was the kind of depression that rejected the teas and other luxuries of England when they became a badge of political slavery. It was the kind of depression which resulted from the break- fasts of George Washington, which were said to have been by rule four buttered corn cakes; and which was shown in the doings of the Green Mountain boys at Bennington ; and in the preference of Marion and his corps for a dinner of sweet potatoes roasted in the ashes in the woods and swamps of the Carolinas with liberty, to the rich feasts of the British officer, who was fastened by red tape to the feet of tyranny. Mr. Ben, Perley Poore, in his History of Agriculture, (U. S. Agricultural Report, 1866,) gives due credit to the de- pressing effects in the case of the old fashioned New Engend- ers, long lived and large hearted, whose maize and rye bread dinners, and mush and milk suppers distinguished them from their luxury loving descendants. The fact is, the grand truth that man does not live by bread, alone, has a great deal to do with the condition of a people ; much more than the kind of bread they eat. Some of the reasons why wheat as a bread corn should have the advantage of maize in cities and towns where the main reliance is on baker's bread, have already been stated. The fact that maize is especially prized for warm bread, and 19 218 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUBE. wheat for cold, shows why it should have obtained predom- inance at a great many farm-houses, where the exigencies of the table require the bread baked sometime beforehand, and in comparatively large quantities. When cold corn bread is brought to the table, it is generally warmed over. The mix- ture of rye and Indian, or wheat and Indian were formerly baked in large quantities. It is true that once in a while an American farmer speaks with contempt of corn bread, but the abundance of old and new recipes for this article, often represented as producing something "splendid," or ''fit for a king," show how well it is appreciated in a great many quarters. At the tables of well to do farmers it has been common to have both wheat, and corn bread or cakes, at the choice of the participants, and so far as the author of this has had an opportunity to ob- serve, the warm corn bread was disposed of as quickly as the wheaten loaf. He has remarked the same thing at the best tables on Western Steamboats. A large proportion of hired men on farms in the United States (leaving out negroes, who have been great corn eaters) are either emigrants, or de- scendants of emigrants from the Northern European States, where maize is little cultivated, and its uses, (except in feed- ing animals,) comparatively little known. Between i83oand i860, about 4,800,000 alien passengers had reached the United States, of which more than one-third were entered on record as farmers or laborers, and probably nearly all of them unused to corn bread, or corn as food before their ar- rival here. Many of the Irish have a distaste for corn as food in any shape, unless it be that of roasting ears The Irish are remarkable for their adherence to old tastes and customs. Nearly the same proportion of emigrants from 1856 to 1868, of those whose occupations were noted, were farmers or laborers. Testimonials as to the use of corn meal for brend appear in the U.S. Reports for 1849 and 1853, from Vermont, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 219 Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio. The difference between wheat and corn bread is more in bulk for the same weight, and general appearance than in amount of nutriment. What makes wheat flour swell so much with yeast is its gluten; the corresponding nitrogenous ma- terial in maize being zein, which in rising gives less bulk. Corn bread may be made with or without leaven. Per- haps the simplest form is the corn dodger, which is often merely scalded meal, made into dough with salt and water, and slowly baked in a bake-oven or otherwise. With plenty of buttermilk, it eats well, cold, for a bite, when one is hun- gry in the field. In the early settlements of West Kentucky it made a great part of the dinners of school children, when home was too far off, and too many hours in school were re- quired to admit of going home for a warm dinner. Another style of unleavened corn bread was mixed up of meal, salt and water, and spread on a smooth long board, and placed before a blazing fire in the old fashioned fire-place. The position of the board was carefully changed until the cakes or loaf were well done throughout, and without burning. The author remembers eating, more than half a century ago, from a loaf baked in this way, one evening at a log farm- house, where he stopped for the night on his way to college. It was very much relished. Corn-meal mixed with wheat or rye flour, makes very good bread, warm or cold. The rye and Indian corn bread was referred to by Plantagenet in describing the productions of New England in 1648. It requires long baking, but is quite agreeable and wholesome, eaten warm or cold. General Recipes for corn bread. — Unleavened, (i.) — One quart of sweet milk, a little salt, sufficient meal for very thick batter; let stand one hour or more, ready to bake; mixture should be thick enough to be taken up and rapidly moulded 220 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. in the hand, without dropping back into the mass; if not, thicken or thin as required. Lay the dodgers in hot, well greased pans and bake in a well heated oven, in sheet iron, or better, cast iron pans. (2.) — Take half a gallon of milk, add one half tea-cup full of grease, (any meat fryings,) salt to suit, mix with water, stir well with the hands; make into pone about half an inch thick; put in a well greased pan and bake in a well heated oven. This for a family of three or four. (3.) — Take two quarts sweet milk, boil one quart, and while boiling, stir in as much fine Indian meal as will make a very stiff batter, add a spoonful of salt, and make very sweet with molasses. Butter a pan, pour the batter in, and the remain- der of the cold milk on it. Cut little bits of butter and put on top, and bake two hours in a moderate oven. Said to taste like custard. (4.) — Lightened corn bread. For a family of four persons, take one pint sweet milk, and one pint sour milk, y^ tea spoonful of soda, one table-spoonful of sugar, a lump of lard the size of a hen's egg, a table-spoonful of salt and two eggs, and stir in enough sifted corn-meal to make a stiff batter. Pour the batter into a stove pan, and bake in a hot oven one half to three-quarters of an hour. (5.) — Boil three quarts of water and thicken while boiling as for mush, as long as you can stir it; set off, when cool enough to bear the hand; work in one table-spoonful of salt, two of lard, two of molasses, and as much meal as you can smooth over. Let it rise six hours ; bake two hours in any old-fashioned Dutch oven by a fire place. (6.) — Scald one quart salted corn-meal; work when cool with the hands; add one table-spoonful of yeast, three of mo- lasses, and wheat flour to mould with ; let stand till it cracks on top ; bake one hour. (7.) — Lightened pone. — Pour boiling water on a half gallon INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 221 of corn-meal, mix to thick batter ; when cool enough, put in two table-spoonfuls of lively yeast, and one of salt ; stir well and set by the fire to rise ; put in pan when light enough, and bake in a stove oven. (S.) — Slcajned mixed bread. Two cups corn-meal, one cup flour, one cup sweet milk, one cup sour milk, half cup sugar or molasses, one tea-spoonful soda, and another of salt ; steam three hours. — Splendid. (9.) — One pint corn-meal, one pint wheat flour, one table spoonful salt, half tea cup sugar, one tea-spoonful soda; mix well and add buttermilk to make a thick batter; then add two- thirds cup melted lard and two eggs, stir thoroughly, pour into pans well greased ; the batter being one inch thick, bake in a quick oven twenty minutes, and serve hot. (10.) — One egg, three cups meal, one cup flour, one cup molasses, two cups buttermilk, a little salt. Dissolve a tea- spoonful of soda in a little cold water, and stir in just before pouring into the pan; bake rather briskly. (11.) — Scald the meal, mix the batter with milk, add one egg and a little lard, with a tea-spoonful of soda, stir well to- gether ; bake three quarters of an hour. (12.) — Scald at night two handfuls meal and a coffee cup full of new milk ; wrap close in a table-cloth. In the morn- ing put a cup of tepid water over this and stir in flour to make it of a proper thickness. For salt-rising bread, add a little salt and keep warm until it rises. Bake by lo o'clock. (13.) — Boiled corn bread. Two cups corn-meal, one cup wheat flour, half cup molasses or brown sugar, one pint sour milk, one and a half tea-spoonfuls soda, one tea-spoonful salt ; mix well, put in a well greased tin pail, cover tight, set in a kettle of boiling water ; cover and boil two hours. A suitable portion of wheat bran stirred in corn bread and cakes makes them more wholesome, as it does wheat flour bread. 222 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. (14.) — Indian corn pudding baked. Scald one pint sweet milk (do not let it boil,) tak-e a half pint of corn-meal, moist- en it with cold milk ; stir in the scalding milk, take one egg, beat well with sugar, add the milk to the egg and sugar, and stir into the pudding, spice it and add a little salt, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Bake one hour. (15.) — Scald a quart of milk, steep a tea-cup full of Indian meal and three tea spoonfuls wheat flour in cold milk ; stir it into the boiling milk, add a tea-cup full of sugar, a tea-spoon- ful of cinnamon and half a tea-spoonful of salt. Mix and bake slowly four or five hours. Skim milk best for pudding. (16.) — Eoil one quart of milk, add nine great spoonfuls Indian meal, large cup of molasses and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Lumps all mashed, add one quart cold milk. Bake four hours in a moderate oven; eat with butter or salted cream. There is litde doubt, in looking over these recipes that very palatable bread and puddings can be made from corn- meal with the addition of a few ingredients easily obtainable at a farm house, or where one or two cows are kept; but they require some time and trouble, and the expense of fuel is something. The dishes thus prepared would not be easily salable as separate articles, especially by the side of the va- rious delicacies prepared from wheat flour. So that when- ever the demand at boarding-houses or restaurants, or at private tables is for ready prepared bread, corn-meal could not supply it as wheat flour could. But wherever articles for the table are habitually served up warm, the preparations from corn, including green corn, hominy and meal, may be made equally palatable, and a great deal more economical. An account of an experiment made at the instance of the Editor of the New York Albion, was (on the economical value of mush and milk) substantially as follows : He care- fully weighed out one pound of meal, and gave it to a per- son who understood the mode of cooking. In boiling, it ab- ISDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 223 sorbed about five pints of water, which was added at inter- vals till the process was complete. The bulk was again weighed, and gave as the result four and a half pounds. Such was its power of expansion. Dividing the mass into portions, it filled four soup plates of ordinary size, and with a little milk and sugar, gave a plentiful breakfast to four serv- ants and children. According to this experiment, one pound of maize flour, costing one penny, would give breakfast to four persons at one farthing each. Adding to this another farthing for milk, sugar or butter, the breakfast would cost one half penny each, and would be an ample meal for fe- males and children. "Thousands of working men have gone to daily labor during the past winter with a much more scanty breakfast. Equally adequate for other meals, particularly supper. People in rural districts, instead of becoming tired of the article, become more attached to it. The principal auxiliaries of mush are sugar, molasses, treacle and butter; milk best of all, a small quantity of which gives it a most agreeable flavor and renders it highly nutritious." Some experiments were made in the fall of 1875 and the succeeding winter on various articles of food, the quantities and cost of the different articles used being carefully noted from day to day, and the results as to health &c. — Among these were, Ist.— One week (Oct 12 to 18, inclusive) on wheat flour C lbs. costing 25 cts. made into griddle cakes with wheat bran 3 cts., vinegar, salt and soda 3 cts., and ienion cakes, ." cts., mutton 2)-^ lbs. 15 cis., herring 5 cts., corned beef S cts., tea, coti'ee and sugar, 14 cts. ..... Total 70 cts. Ouc or two hours daily exercise, most of tlie time reading and writing. In- digestion. 2d.— One week (Oct 30 to Nov 5. inclusive) white flour bread bought at bakers % fresh, % stale 143^2 loaves, (>! cts., tea and sugar 10, meat 15, Total 89 cts. tine or two iiours daily exercise, most of time reading and writing — good di- gestion, but tendency to costiveuess. 3d.— One week (Rept 20 to Sept 27,) on mush from three quarts corn-meal costing 9% cts., and ^^ quart wheat bran 1 ct., bacon 1% lbs. SlJ^g cts , tea, sugar iind .salt. 13cls. ....... Total 55 cts. Five lidurs hard work every other day, rest of time except sleep, reading and writing.— Very good health. 224 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. 4th. — One "week (Sept 27 to Oct 4,) on com cafeesfrom six quarts Indian meal at 5fl.0O per bushel, IS'J^ cts., wheat bran say 4^^ cts.. salt, vinegar and soda'icts. corned beef 13^2 lbs. 10 cts., tea and sugar 13 ets. . . Total 4Scts. fcome hard work, reading and writing, and health. 5th.— One week (Nov 2S to Nov 30,) rye-meal 13 cts., corn-meal 10 cts., beef bo ue and pork Sets., tea, coffee, sugar and apples lb CIS. . . Total 43 cts. Urisk exercise and good health. 6th.— One week (Dec 1 to Dec 7, inclusive) corn-meal cakes from 7% quarts meal 17 cts., wheat bran 3)^ cts., tea, sugar and soup 8 cts., one loaf wuite flour bread C cts. ........ Total 34>aCts. Copying.— Good health. 7ih.— One week on parched corn from 14},) on pop-corn 2% pints shelled, costing 6 cts., tea, sugar and apples 5 cts. l"or two days 11 cts., or 532 tts. per day. The seventh of the above experiments is only valuable in showing what can be done in cases of extremity to sustain life (as in times of prevailing famine,) or in very peculiar circumstances requiring close application with very scanty means of support. It has been stated in r.egard to certain students of Divinity, who afterwards became active and prominent ministers, that during part of the term of study, their food cost only ?5.oo a year. This would be nearly at the rate of ten cents per week. Probably the quantity con- sumed was greater, and the price per bushel less than in the above experiment. As to the first six experiments — their value is chiefly re- ferrible to special cases of a different character, as where one is deeply in debt, and finds the best way to get out is by economy in the style of living • or when one of narrow means wishes to indulge in the luxury of giving liberally to some good object; or when one of slender income is occupied with some useful enterprise that does not pay; or where a man with a growing family and moderate means is anxious to se- cure the ownership of a pleasant home. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 225 For those who have secured a fair income, and especially, for those of ample means, a more liberal style of living has many advantages. A temperate use of the abundance with which the Ruler of the Universe has blessed this country is best for the individual, and for the society in which he moves. A somewhat liberal scale of expenditure is most favorable for the cultivation of one of the prime virtues of civilization — hospitality. It leads more, but is not necessary, to that kind interchange of civilities and good offices, which, with the cultivation of other virtues, extends one's influence most wide- ly and most usefully. For those professions and occupations which require for success, an extended acquaintance or a free intermingling with general society, even an expensive style of living is often an immediate advantage. This may be all right, if the individual spends only his own means, and not other people's or what ought to be other people's. As to high living, the example, and the effect on society at large are tobe consider- ed, as well as the means, honestly acquired, of the individual. When it is important or necessary to practice the strictest economy, the advantage of living on the preparations of the rnaize plant will be clearly seen. One of the most healthy and nourishing of these is the ear of sweet corn when it is getting a litde old, but before perfectly ripe ; the soft kernels being grated off the ear, and eaten with butter or rich soup. As the analysis of sweet corn by Dr. Salisbury has not yet been given, it is here annexed, being taken from an article in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1858, by Mr. J. H. Klippart, whose name is so largely associated with the late progress of agriculture in Ohio. It is there quoted as Dr. Salisbury's analysis of this variety. In 100 parts, starch has 1 1.60 parts, gluten 462; oil 3. 60; albumen 1430; caseine5.84: dextrine 24.82 ; fiber 11.24; sugar and extractive matter 14 62 ; water 10.32. The extraordinary amounts of albumen, sugar and dextrine show remarkable qualities for nutriment and digesti- 22G inhian corn and its culture. bility. Most of the starch seems to have been changed into dextrine ; becoming thereby more soluble ; but both together are much behind the ordinary proportion of starch in the corn grain. The large quantity of fiber seems due to the greater surface of the epidermis made by the shriveled con- dition of the grain. The nitrogenous matters here foot up 24. 76. The same analyst gives pop corn, starch 46.90 parts, gluten (including some sugar,) 9.24, oil 6.96, albumen 5.02, caseine 2.50, dextrine 2.25, fiber 8. 50, sugar and extractive 7.02, water 12.12. In his analysis of the Tuscarora variety, the gluten and oil are undetermined, but the albumen and caseine are reckoned at 11.04; the starch 48.90, sugar and extractive 10.00, dextrine 2.00, fiber 14.00 and water 13.68. (11.) — Sugar and sy7 up from maize. About the year 1843 it was found that tolerable syrup could be made from the ex- pressed juice of the maize stalk, cut at a proper time after plucking the ears for roasting ; and by planting so thick in the rows that the corn could not come to ear. A still larger quantity of juice could be expressed from stalks of a more convenient size. Mills were contrived of a more simple character than those used for grinding sugar cane, but work- ing on a similar principle. Experiments were made on a somewhat extended scale in the East and West. A report of the results in this line by John Beal, of New Harmony, Ind., appears in the U. S. P. O. Report, for 1843. He had the ground prepared as for other corn and planted in rows three feet apart, so as to leave the stalks three or four inches apart in the drills; the corn cultivated in the usual way, and kept clean. As soon as the ears began to form, or about the time they showed silk, they were pulled or cut off, and so from day to day as long as there appeared any disposition to form ears. It might be planted in the climate of New Harmony any time from April 15th to the last of June, and would ripen from August iSth to the last of September. When the blades INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 227 began to die about the middle of the stalk, it was to be cut and the juice pressed out. The blades were stripped off when the stalk was ripe ; the instrument recommended for this was a hooked knife, the hook about four or five inches, semicir- cular, fitted on a straight tongue, suitable for driving into a wooden handle about twelve or fifteen inches long. One blow with this would cut off the top, and the same knife would cut the stalks at the ground. The tops and blades were to be secured for fodder, and the stripped stalks (just enough being cut for pressing that day) were carried to mill. This was composed of three wooden rollers fixed upright in a frame, similar to an apple mill. The center roller had a shaft run up through a frame of sufficient height for the lever which the horse turned it by, to clear a man's head. The center roller had cogs on it, working in holes in the two side rollers. The rollers were 14^ inches in diameter &c. When operating, these rollers crushed the stalks as they were passed through, and the juice was caught by a trough fixed underneath, and conveyed to a tub, to be carried to the boilers. The arrangements for boiling were such as to boil down the juice as rapidly as possible ; the granulation depend- ing on this. Mr. Beal boiled down the juice in about two hours, in three iron kettles from eight to ten gallons each, fixed in a brick arch, one kettle only immediately over the fire ; the blaze and heat passing under the other two, through flues four inches deep; the bottoms of the kettles only being ex- posed to the fire. The juice was first passed through a sieve, and lime-water, one table spoonful to a gallon added ; then put into the kettle farthest from the fire, and well skimmed before coming to a boil ; then passed to the next kettle, and fresh juice put in the first ; then passed to the last kettle over the fire, and l)oiled as rapidly as possible, and scum removed as fast as it appeared; the granulating point was when it would raise Fahrenheit's thermometer to between 238° and 240°. 228 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. At 2x8° it began to rise up, and would flow over the top of the kettle, if small portions were not then taken out with a ladle from time to time, and poured back again. At 225° or 226° it began to thicken and settle down in the kettle, not rising again. The heat was raised 12° to 14° more before finished ; which was known by a smell of burnt sugar, the difficult bursting of bubbles with puffs of steam rushing out, and (a small portion being taken between the thumb and finger, and moderately cooled) by the drawing of a thread more than half an inch long. Mr. Beal's syrup did not com- mence graining till from twelve to forty-eight hours after it was taken from the kettles. The syrup when cool was poured into common sugar or flour barrels, where it grained, and the molasses flowed out through a small hole in the bottom. The molasses was rather more acid than cane molasses generally is; twenty moderately grown stalks yielding a gallon of juice, from which one-tenth to one-eighth syrup was ob- tained ; one pint of syrup weighed one and a half pounds, and would yield by measure one-fourth molasses and three- fourths sugar. The stalks all raised on upland. The experiences of Messrs. Plummer, Deaderich, Adams, Humphrey and Tillotsons, in making sugar or synip from corn stalks, are also given in the U. S. P. O. Report for 1843-44, with methods and machinery somewhat differing from the above ; the places of trial being in different sections of the Union. The last named were Louisiana planters; and their experience was against the profitableness of the maize sugar planting, as compared with that of the cane. They speak of one great advantage the sugar cane has, in being planted only once in three, four or five years ; six to eight hogsheads of sugar the produce of one planting. Mr. Webb, of Wil- mington, disputed the inferences of Messrs. Tillotson from their experience of maize sugar planting. Perhaps it is more suited to the Northern stature and size of the stalk, than that INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTDEE. 229 of the Southern; although it seems to be a general fact that saccharine matter forms more abundantly in Southern than Northern latitudes. The Mexicans and other Southern maize growing nations made what was called honey from the stalk hundreds of years ago. If the cane supply of sugar should ever be cut off from this country, or any part of it, it is very probable that either the maize or beet, or both, may in some degree be substitutes. (m.) — Whiskey from maize. The nature of strong liquors as drinks, seems to have been as well understood 2,600 years ago as it is now. It was King Lemuel's advice to give strong drink to him who is ready to perish. Its value for this pur- pose was appreciated when 140 were dying per day, of the Cholera, in one of its earliest visits to Cincinnati. Some who oppose its use as a beverage, employ it as a remedy in cases of Asthma, and other complaints. Modern science has found it beneficial in many of the arts, especially when the distil- lation is carried further, and it becomes alcohol. This is im- portant as a solvent in chemical analyses. It is one of the accepted agents for preserving valuable substances from decay or decomposition. A familiar instance of this is the substitution of whiskey for water in dissolving ink powders, — the ink will not freeze in that case. Those who are curious to know the processes of distillation, will find them in the American, one of the latest of the Encyclopedias. The consequences of its continued use as a beverage are too well known to need repetition here. The strength of the appetite for whiskey when once formed, finds a good illustration in the early military history of this country. The most common punishment for disobedience, lawlessness or unfaithfulness in a soldier, was stopping his allowance of whiskey ; as appears from the order books of some of the detachments that pro- tected the infant settlements in Ohio. The U. S. Government, in its earlier as well as later years, 230 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. has encountered much difficulty in attempting to tax this article. Soon after the formation of the Constitution, Con- gress laid a duty on distilled spirits, and in 1794 meetings were held in Western Pennsylvania, which resulted in the organization of some seven thousand insurgents. The mar- shal of the United States was forced by armed men into an agreement to desist from the performance of his official duties. Fifteen thousand men were called out under President Wash- ington's requisition from the four States nearest the theater of insurrection, and marching under Gov. Lee soon made an end of the outbreak. In the late taxings of the manufactured article, under the United States laws, it was found that by makingthe tax $2.00 per gallon the revenue from this source was greatly reduced. It was asserted by one of our most reliable journals, that at that time, the value of distilled liquor produced was not less than ^100,000,000. . The revenue was much increased by lowering the rate to fifty cents per gallon. The great maize growing States seem to abound most in products of distillation. The Mexicans and Peruvians made intoxicating liquor out of maize. So do the Indians of the far West. The Apaches in 1870 were said to make strong drink called tiswcen, out of maize. They soak the grain twenty-four hours, then dig a hole in the ground, generally in the wigwam, and cover the bottom with dry grass ; the corn is then laid in, and covered with grass; warm water is sprinkled over it four or five times daily; at night the family sleep on it to increase the heat caused by sprouting, and in four or five days it is ready for the next operation. It is then dried, pulverized, and boiled five hours, when cooled mixed with sugar and flour, and left to ferment for twelve hours, when it is ready to drink. The exports of whiskey are quite small in com- parison with the product. There is a large internal trade in the article. Much of the corn imported into Cincinnati is con- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 231 sumed by distillers. The United States Census for 1870, gives the following details as to the manufacture of distilled liquors: XLVIII. Census Year. Distille- Employ- ries. ees. Capital Employed. Riiw Material. Product. 1850 1800 1S70 968 + 1193 t 719 4008 5416 6131 85.409,334 ll,54b,675 15,545,116 §10,.543,201 18,330,713 19,729,432 $15,770,240 26,7(J.S,225 36,191,133 t Establishments. In 1850 there were also 38 rectifying distilleries producing $791,030. It is not stated how much of the raw material was corn. In 1870 the census gives the largest number of distilling establishments in the United States to Kentucky, 141 ; the next largest to Pennsylvania, 108; the next to Ohio, 6^. The largest amount in value was produced by Illinois, $7, 888,751; the next by Ohio, $7,022,656; the next largest by Pennsylvania, $4,618,228; and by Kentucky,$4,532,73o. Statements from Treasury Department of the United States for 1869, gave as the total number of gallons produced and accounted for during the year ending June 30, 1868, as 16,396,351 ; and during the year ending June 30, 1869, 56,183,577 ; and as the amount of the tax collections for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870, $55,000,000. There was withdrawn of that which was produced prior to July i, 1868, from bonded warehouse from that date to June 30, 1869, in gallons 24,479,512 The revenue collections from spirits in 1875 were some $7,000,000 larger than those made for 1869. Alcohol was formerly used as a burning fluid, especially for cooking oysters. (iv.) — Starch frotn maize. Starch is made from wheat and potatoes as well as maize. It was one of the articles yield- ing revenue under the excise laws of the United States. 232 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. Starch is manufactured for food as well as laundry purposes. In 1S63, the collections on that manufactured from corn, at the rate of i^ mills per lb., amounted to $11,763, pdcts., showing the quantity taxed to be 7,842,640 lbs. By the U. S. Census lor the three last decades, there were for making staich: XLIX. In year. Establisb- meuts. Employ- ees. Capital Invested. RaAV Material. Product. 1850 1860 1870 146 167 195 694 1073 2072 $692,675 2,051,710 2,741,675 $799,459 1,380,000 3,884,909 81,261,468 2,82o,'J58 5,994,422 In 1870 New York made the most starch, by Census 84,678,413. • For the various methods, new and old, of preparing starch from maize, and other raw materials, the reader is referred to the American Cyclopedia. (v.) — Oil from maize is more or less developed during its distillation for spirits, but little is said about it. The New England Farmer, of June, 1829, speaks of it as obtained from the mash, or that which is fermented for distillation. Two quarts of oil were obtained from four bushels of corn. It burned brilliantly ; was said, as a medicine, to be as effectual and mild as castor oil. The oil was separated, or made to rise on the tub, by a process accidentally discovered; the secret not disclosed. As long as we have petroleum and lard oil in such abundance, it is not likely to become an article of extensive manufacture. Dr. Jackson reported a little fixed drying oil found in the corn cob. (vi.) — Mattresses continue to be made from corn hu«:ks, and they are often used for re-filling beds. This use of the corn plant has been occasionally referred to in the U. S P. O. Reports. A correspondent from Memphis, Tennessee, in 1849, says the husks were preferred to moss for mattresses, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 233 as being cleaner, and more easily manufactured. When mixed with coarse cotton, and properly prepared, they made a mattress little inferior to curled hair; the price being about 50 gts. per cwt. Husks have been occasionally seen in the Cincinnati markets in bags. They are generally slit into narrow strips to make the mattress more elastic. Husks are braided into mats placed at the front doors of dwelling houses. (vii.) — Paper from, maize husks and stalks. (See U. S. P O. Report, 1863.) There were two manufactories of maize paper in the Eighteenth century. In 1802, Burgess Allison and John Harkins, of New Jersey, obtained a United States Patent for making paper of corn husks. In 1838, Homer Holland, of Westfield, Mass., obtained a similar patent. One was issued in i860 by the United States, for making pulp of corn cobs alone, or cobs and husks together. Re- cently, a Bohemian, having shown the Austrian Minister of Finance a process for maize paper making, which was tried at Schlogelmuhl by the Imperial paper mill, and proved a failure,— certain experiments on the fine husks enclosing the maize ear were continued till a new fiber for spinning and weaving was discovered; its waste being a material for cheap paper. The cloth produced was considered a good substitute for common flax and hemp linen, oil-cloth, tar-cloth, &c. The process developed fibers, flour dough and gluten ; the fibers were spun and woven, the flour dough made into agreeable and wholesome nutriment, and the waste, consist- ing of gluten and broken fibers, was made into paper. Good paper was also made of the maize cloth when reduced to rags. The steam boiler used for reducing and separating the ele- ments from the raw plant, was heated by fuel from the stalks. Among the resulting manufactures at the Imperial mill at Schlogelmuhl, which have been quite a success, are strong and durable parchment, and document papers ; very trans- parent and tenacious tracing papers, ("an effect of the natural 20 234 IJIDTAN CORN AND ITS CULTTTKE. gluten of the husks ; ") and very cheap letter paper of vari- ous styles and colors, with a smooth and polished, but soft surface, which takes the ink kindly ; chancery papers of great variety, the size very heavy and durable ; beautiful silk paper of several colors, of wonderful delicacy in structure and finish ; paper for making artificial flowers, in lilac, rose, blue, green and brown, gossamer like, yet strong, weighing but six pounds to the ream, and cigarette paper seven pounds to the ream. Of most of these varieties, both machine and hand papers are produced. The peculiarity of this paper is due to the large proportion of gluten it contains. The process of manufacture is simple; the humblest laborer, with a little instruction, understanding and practicing it with success. CHAPTER VIII. CLIMATE SUITED TO MAIZE CULTURE. Climate, as relating to the culture of Indian corn has respect to solar heat, air and moisture, and the various conditions of growth and health, vegetable and animal, arising there- from. This may be thought a broader definition than the case requires; but when we remember how much depends, for the success of this crop, on steady and timely industry in the processes of culture during the very months when the most fatal climatic diseases are the most prevalent, we will see the importance of including salubrity of climate among the more important conditions. Keeping in view what has already been stated touching these climatic relations, under the heads of Analysis, Distribution, History, Statistics, Va- rieties and Uses, and referring especially to what has been said on the subject in pages 17, 34, 35, 138, 141 and 144. we may find it sufficieiit to set forth some of the more important INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, principles underlying the relations of climate to culture. So- lar heat depends on the latitude, the elevation above the sea, the nature of the surface, the position as regards the ocean, or large bodies of water, or chains of mountains. The atmosphere has an average height and character, which long ages do not seem to alter essentially, although there are constant changes going on within its limits. The quantity of moisture accessible to plants depends on the na- ture of the prevaiHng winds, as influenced by the above named causes, producing rainfalls; or it is affected by the de- posit of dew, or the capability of the land for irrigation. The subject is fully discussed, and the chief points made clear by apt illustrations in various articles in the U. S. P. O. and Agricultural Reports, among wl^ich maybe especially noted, Climatology in the Volumes for 1853-54. Meteorology and Agriculture, for '55, '56, '57, '58, and '59, the last four by Prof. Henry; and Prof. Poiiy, for 1869-70, and tables of variations of temperature and rainfall, in most of these reports from 1849 to 1870. Electricity has some bearing on the subject, and its lead- ing principles are explained by Prof. Henry in that for 1859 — also the subject of atmospheric humidity, by J. S, Lip- pincott, in the Report for 1865. As the fodder from the maize plant, and the crop grown especially for the fodder are becoming, more and more, import- ant parts of our subject, the limits of successful culture, as depending on the ripening of the grain, may be considered as transcended in various quarters. But confining the present discussion to the maize climate of North America, the state- ment of the maize limits by Mr. Blodget, in carrying out his theory of the 68° mean heat for July, as the fixed require- ment for its profitable cultivation, will be an important aid to the inquiry. All South of the limiting line he considers within the maize region, except some mountainous tracts in 23G INDIAN CORN AND IT9 CULTURE. Northern New England and New York, some parts of Canada West, and nearly all those parts of the Great Western plains and the Rocky Mountain system, which are incapable of ir- rigation, or arrest no water from the mountain sides. Be- ginning at the Atlantic coast at the Bay of Fundy, and the valleys of New Brunswick near the 46th parallel of latitude, and extending from West longitude 64° to 67°, thence to the higlilands of Maine below 45°, and in New Hampshire to 44°, thence ascending to 47^° at St. Ann's, near Quebec on the St. Lawrence in West longitude 72°, thence to 82° West longitude at Lake Huron in the river valleys, and favorable locations up to latitude 46°. We have now reached an ele- vated region, which, as well as the influence of the Great Lakes, reduces the midsummer heat so as to bring the limit ing line down to 45°, which continues almost to the Missis- sip[)i. It then rises abruptly to latitude 50°, near where the Red River of the North empties into Lake Winnepeg, where a lower surface makes the climate warmer in 97° West lon- gitude. This is supposed to be its highest latitude, giving on that Meridian 23° of latitude for the development of the maize plant in the United States, and 35° for North America, fully equaling in value any other. Westward of 97° the range is irregular and exceptional. Special points on the upper Missouri admit of maize culture to the base of the Rocky Mountains as far as 47^° North latitude, and to the same latitude on the West of that chain ; and the lower val- leys of the North fork of the Columbia carry it up to Fort Colville near 49°, Mr. Blodget here remarks, that "much the larger portion of this great elevated interior mass South- ward to New Mexico admits but a partial and imperfect cul- tivation," and that ' W 120° of longitude the maize range ceases for all latitudes on this continent, but between 97° and 120° the whole continent is embraced, south of the points just nnmed, and with the exceptions mentioned as belonging to all the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 237 Rocky Mountain plateau north of New Mexico." As ex- ceptions to tlie statement italicised^ of the maize range ceasing for all latitudes on this continent, the valley of the San Joa- quin and Sacramento rivers in California, are stated by the same writer on the second page previous, as having a suffi- ciently high and equable summer temperature ' for the growth of Indian corn, or one great enough to render the cin-ve of daily change unimportant as an obstacle." The Pacific coast line, from Puget's Sound to San Diego, has a very low mean summer temperature throughout, "no montli attaining a mean of 65°, the July mean being under 60° from the ocean to the coast range of mountains; the low points of which, are the occasion of the same low temperature reaching the interior as far as the chief mountain ranges. * Later statements, including some accounts of recent maize culture in California, and some accounts of the silk culture there, in the U. S. Agricultural Report for 1868, giving statements of temperature, must be admitted as modi- fying the above. It is there stated, that "all of California, except a strip within fifteen miles of the ocean, from Point Conception to Cape Mendocino, and forty miles wide north of Mendocino, and the mountains more than 3,0 o feet above the sea, is suitable for the silk worm," which thrives best, "other things being equal, in a place where the thrr- niomcter reaches 65° in May, and stands about 75° in June and July, as it does at Los Angelos, and nearly all parts of the Sacramento Basin." The exceptions due to the Rocky IMountain plateau, mny be more apparent after a few general statements as to the whole face of the country of the United States. Extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it has two great mountain systems, or swells of Innd; the Alleghany, averaging 3 000 feet above the sea, nearly parallel to the former coast; and the Rocky Mountains to the Coast Range, averaging about 238 INDIAN CORJf AND ITS CITLTFRK. j. 5,000 feet elevation, pressing hard on the latter. Individual ranges and peaks, however,, have in each system, a very much higher elevation than the average. From the South to the North, these spread apart, leaving the great Mississippi valley in the middle. It slopes down to the Gulf of Mexico, from a dividing ridge about 1,200 feet above the sea. Beyond the sources of the Mississippi, the lower land slopes north- ward, with the basin of Hudson's Bay, and the valley of Mc Kenzie's River, to the Arctic Ocean ; making a path for the Polar winds. From the Gulf of Mexico come up the south and south-west winds, laden with rain clouds from that great evaporator, to fertilize the eastern half of the United States; the Allegany ridges being nearly in their direction, and suffering them to passon either side. This eastern, rainy- half extends west to about the pSth meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, West of that, except on the Pacific coast, and on the mountain sides, the general tendency is towards dryness — in some jdaces of an extraordinary char- acter. This has been supposed to be .owing to the lofty coast and rocky ranges preventing the free passage of the rain bearing winds from the Pacific, or perhaps robbing them of their vapor in passing eastward ; the fall of rain on the west- ern mountain sides throwing out the latent heat, which ex- pands the current of air, and throws it iip higher; so that with its remaining vapor, it passes over the inferior middle ranges, and leaves the broad interval, except under special circumstances, without rain. It has been said that more rain falls -since the completion of the Pacific Railroad. Irrigation has been tried, with great success, in many places where rains either did not full, or could not be relied on. Crops of the smaller grains have in many instances been enonnous. Wheat, bearing so much higher prices, would be apt to engross very much more of the farmer's labor and capital than maize ; for which, even in INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 239 fattening hogs, a substitute has been found in barley. Ex- periments, widely and perseveringly instituted^ will be much safer ground for generalization, as to the climatic relations of maize to this new and vast region, than meteorological theo- ries in the present state of the science ; especially as those re- lations are very much controlled by local peculiarities. The native Indians, by planting in holes ten or twelve inches be- low the surface, have made even the arid table lands yitld this grain abundantly, and the Mormons of the Salt Lake valley have don-e the same through irrigation. This valley is a depression, surrounded by mountains, which bring down some rain. The Smithsonian weather tables for 1868, give Great Salt Lake City a rainfall, including melted snow, in May of 2.36 inches, in June 4.00, in August 369, in January 2.44,; that on the hills in Cincinnati for those months of i868 being respectively 6.09; 5.60 ; 4.64 ; and 372. Wanship in Utah, has less rain ; 1.45 in January, 0.70 in February, 2 inches in March, and 1.40 in December. Maize was said to be a good crop in S. W. Utah. The rains in Cali- fornia, as indicated by the few returns for 1868, commenced with 0.34 inches in October, and increased to 8 50 in Jan- uary, and diminished to 0.23 in June; there being next to none in July, and none at all in August and September. The three places of observation were San Francisco and Mon- terey on the coast, and Murphy's probably in the interior. From another table given in the same volume, in connec- tion with an article on the silk culture, and the remarks ac- companying it, it appears that there is no rain in the summer in California, and little in autumn, but there is considerable in the spring, mainly in March ; the heaviest being in winter. A writer in U. S. P. O. Report, i866, states that along the rivers in the interior, much bottom land has always yielded maize grain abundantly. But where these rivers are supplied from the snows of the sierras, the lands suitable for corn 240 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. raising are liable to overflow, as late as April, and sometimes in May, when the early hot weather sets in. In the valleys in the coast district, corn is raised in many places, the yield being large, and the crop certain. The same favorable con- ditions appear in the southern parts of the State, where the soil has sufficient moisture through the summer season. The most famous place for growing maize was stated to be the Russian River Valley, in Somona County. In the report for 1869, corn was said to make good crops in many of the valleys of western Oregon, "the warm, dry summer weather of that region being adapted to its growth and maturity." It fails in Washington Territory for want of higli summer temperatures. In Arizona, according to Gov. Saf- ford, an average of thirty to sixty bushels to the acre, and with high culture 105 bushels, are obtained. It is a staple in New Mexico, growing wherever irrigation is possible. The maize crop in Colorado for 1869 reached 600, 000 bushels. It thrives in the mild climates of Montana. Dakota produces all the grains of the north-western States abundantly. Be- fore the grasshoppers cut down the maize crops, they were a great success in Kansas and Nebraska. The report on the Public Domain in the U. S. P. O. Report, 1868, confirms these statements. One passage in that report is significant with regard to the general crops of the so called Desert re- gion. "The Jesuits, in commencing to cultivate the soil in the Bitter Root Valley, (Montana,) about twenty-five years ago, could raise scarcely anything; but continued experiment developed the proper course to be pursued, and the grounds in that region which at one time refused to yield, are now prolific with splendid crops; the incoming setders having profited by the experience of their predecessors." Wheat was the main product there. The facts of production already adduced, as to the maize districts east of the 98th meridian of longitude west of INDIAN CORN AND ITS CDLTURB. 241 Greenwich, render it almost unnecessary to bring testimony as to the climatic capabilities of maize south of the limiting line marked out by Mr. Blodget. Nearly the whole of this immense region is within the belt of rains, although occasional droughts prevail near the time of ripening, and some districts are subject to early or late frosts. Some of the districts where the climate is said to be too severe for the profitable maize cultivation of grain, are the high dividing ridge in Vermont and its northern counties bordering on Canada. In 1851 it was said to be a very uncertain crop in Washington County, Maine, latitude 45° near the eastern boundary of the State. At Cornishville, York Co., Maine, in about latitude 43^°, in the interior, near the Saco river, it was the most import- ant crop by far; the usual crop being forty bushels to the acre. It appears then that the United States territory proper, with the exception of a few very elevated districts, as far as temperature is concerned, has an average climate eminently suited to maize culture. How is it with the supply of moist- ure! As far as rainfall is concerned, this depends very largely on the winds. The principal rain bearing winds are from the south-west and south, loaded with vapor from the Gulf of Mexico. The Allegheny mountains lie in the range of the direction of the south-west, and the Mississippi river nearly in the direction of the south wind. These are aided by evaporation from the great lakes, and to some extent from the Pacific ocean. In the extreme south, the north-east trade winds have some effect. On the Pacific coast the equatorial winds traversing the great western ocean, come in abundant supply, but to a large extent seem to leave their moisture on the western side of the coast range. A large part of the equatorial heated winds, which rise near the equator to the top of the atmosphere, and flow north-eastward, come down to the surface of the earth in about latitude 30°, and curve 21 242 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. round in a contrary direction, but some flow over towards the poles and become south-west winds. That portion which passes up the coast, gives it a temperature for hundreds of miles abnormally equable and warm, and fills it with vapor. It seems to be different with that portion which passes over the coast range towards the overheated plains in summer. 'J he atmosphere is supposed to be about fifty miles high, but the denser half of its substance is said to be included in a stratum next the surface of the earth about three and two-fifth miles deep, and one-third of it to be beneath the level of the Rocky mountains. The coast range is not much lower, and if this south-west wind in meeting it, is sufficiently cooled to lose its vapor in rainfall on the mountain side, it is so much expanded by the heat set free in condensation (according to the law that a body passing from the state of a rarer to a denser medium, throws out heat,) that it rises up high, and passes over the ranges desiccated. This is somewhat accord- ing to Mr. Espy's rain philosophy. Eut whatever the causes may be, it is this far western portion of the United States, except on mountain sides, and in choice situations, that lacks rain— the interval between the two great ranges, and that portion of the great plain west of the looth meridian, and not affected by the melting of snows on the Rocky mountains. But there irrigation does wonders. The results deduced from actual observations as to the di- rection and amount of winds in different sections of the Union, are given in Prof. Henry's article on Meteorology in the U. S. P. O. Report, for 1856, as based on materials worked out by Prof. Coffin of Uafayette College, in connection with the Smithsonian Institute. They are illustrated, each section, by regular diagrams, one representing the summer, and the other the winter winds of each section. Lower California for the summer is visited by winds almost entirely from the south-west; in the winter fiom all parts of the horizon, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 243 but rather the most from north and west. Oregon and Wash- ington Territories, in summer mostly from the north-west ; in winter from the south-east, but still largely from the north- west. Texas and New Mexico, in summer chiefly from the south ; in winter from the north, with considerable from the south. Nebraska and Kansas, in summer, chiefly from the south, the south-west preponderating; in the winter from the north-west. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Missis- sippi, in summer mostly from the south and south-east ; in winter, the winds nearly equal all round. Illinois, Wiscon- sin and Iowa, in summer from the west and south ; in winter there is more wind from the south, and still more from the north-west; the latter would seem to be part of the polar current. In Pennsylvania, the summer winds are mainly from the west ; in the winter they change somewhat in favor of the north west. In New York, the west winds prevail still more in summer; in winter, the north-west prevail. In New England, in summer the south-west prevail ; in winter the north-west. The valleys of the Hudson and St. Lawrence, and the basins of Lakes Ontario and Erie, allow a flow of air from the Mississippi Valley to affect the climate locally. All these are surface winds, governed in part by mountain ranges, or river valleys. To illustrate the latter, similar diagrams are given to show the winds at Hudson, N. Y., for eight years, north and south prevailing, this being the general di- rection of the Hudson River Valley on which it lies ; also of Albany, (12 years,) at the junction of the Mohawk with the Hudson, its winds being chiefly south and north-west. Those of Utica, (12 years,) on the east and west running Mohawk, are mostly from the west, some from the east. The Allegheny mountain range is said to deprive the easterly winds of moist- ure. The meteorological observations, though often affected by the local topography, have its results eliminated by com- puting the average direction from a number of stations within 244 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. a limited distance of each other. "By collecting all the re- liable observations which have been made on the winds in the northern hemisphere, so far as accessible to the Smith- sonian Institute, Prof. Coffin has established the fact that the resultant motion of the surface atmosphere between latitudes 32° and 58° in North America, is from the west; the belt being 20° wide, and the line of its greatest intensity in the latitude of about 45°. This however, must oscillate north and south at different seasons of the year with the varying declination of the sun. South of this belt, in Georgia, Loui- siana &c., the country is influenced at certain periods of the year by the north-east trade-winds, and north of the same belt by the polar winds, which, on account of the rotation of the earth, tend to take a direction toward the west." Mr. Russell, of Scotland, supposed all the atmospheric disturbances in this country resulted from the "unstable equi- librium occasioned by the superposition of the north-west wind on that of the south-west." As to the Smithsonian Isothermal lines of temperature; (of which the annual mean for 50°, the mean of summer for 70°, and that of winter for 30°, are given herein on pages 144-5,); the mean annual for 40° commences near northern Nova Scotia, diverges gradually from parallel of latitude 45°, in its course through Canada and Lake Superior, till about the 95th meridian, it curves faster northward and leaves the United States for British America at about longitude 103°. The mean annual for 60° from near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, passes a little downward toward the 35th parallel of latitude . till about the meridian of 98°, then rises rapidly to the north to its greatest altitude at the 115th meridian, then gradually southward to the 125th, thence with a very short bend, goes parallel to the coast to latitude 34°. The mean annual for 70° passes from latitude 28° on the Florida coast, through New Orleans, to a point on the Pacific in latitude 30°. It INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 245 curves upward in passing through the gulf, showing that New (Jrleans is warmer than a corresponding place on the Atlantic or on the shores of Texas. It then curves rapidly north, showing the greatest temperature near the eastern edge of the mountain system. It ends on the Pacific, two degrees higher than where it began on the Atlantic. In all these descriptions it must be kept in mind that the temperatures shown are such as would be true were the whole reduced to the level of the ocean. The summer line of 80° passes from Charleston S. C. rapidly upward through the valley of the Mississippi, showing a much higher summer heat in the interior on this parallel, than at the sea. The western part shows great summer heat in the mountain system, and great uniformity along the coast range parallel to the Pacific. The winter line for 40°, starting from the mouth of the Chesapeake, and following nearly the same general direction as that for 30°, meets the Pacific near Pu- get's Sound, giving this place, and Norfolk, on the Atlantic, about the same winter temperature. The winter lines for 50° and 60° are similar to the last, giving the Gulf less win- ter heat than the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In reducing these lines to the level of the sea, 333 feet of elevation an- swer to each degree of Fahrenheit. The great heat at the equator going down into the depths of the ocean, is supposed to expand its waters there, so that they stand higher than at the poles, occasioning warm surface currents from the equator towards the north and south, which are cooled, and eventually sink to the bottom, and then re- turn, and so on. But as the earth turns on its axis eastwardly, the bottom currents flowing towards the equator from parts moving slower to parts moving faster, would fall behind into a westerly direction and ascend obliquely, and go back towards the pole, curving eastwardly. More or less of the upper current would keep on in an oblique northerly course 246 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. and now and then descend, some nearly reaching the poles. The four great ocean currents, of which there is one north and the other south of the equator, in the Atlantic and also in the Pacific, are thus partly accounted for; though Prof. Henry thinks them mainly due to the winds in the equatorial belts and the two temperate zones. The Gulf Stream, passing from the equator along the At- lantic coast of the United States over towards that of north- ern Europe, warms up Great Britain and Norway into some- thing very different from the climate of Labrador ; and the Pa- cific current flowing along the Asiatic coast, probably does the same for Alaska, before it cools off, and returns by our west- ern coast to be heated up again. It is on a similar principle that the trade winds and other currents of the great aerial ocean are formed ; the rotation of the earth giving an oblique eastward direction to the heated and expanded equatorial airs, moving down inclined planes toward the poles; and an oblique westward direction to the cold polar airs moving up inclined planes in the direction of the equator. One of the most important subjects connected with climate, is the earth's radiation of heat. It is constantly receiving during the day, and giving out during the day and night. In the long days of summer it receives more than it gives off, and accumulates heat, so that instead of its beginning to grow colder as soon as the days begin to shorten, the effect of the previous heating continues till more is radiated than received, which occurs about the 25th of July, or later. But the ra- diated heat is less penetrating than the solar rays, and can- not readily pass through masses of vapor in the atmosphere ; consequendy in a humid climate like that of our narrow Pa- cific coast line, the temperature is remarkably equal)le throughout the year, and through five or six parallels of lati- tude. The haze from Lake Erie has some such influence in northern Ohio, not only in preventing frosts after cold nights^ INDIAN CORN AND ITS CrLTURE. 247 but in arresting the effects of frost that has actually fallen. But to the great dry plains, the radiation brings cold nights after very hot days, sometimes making a difference of 60° in twenty-four hours between the high and low temperatures. Forests are supposed to do much towards preventing exces- sive radiation, although when they prevent the evaporation of standing water, they hinder the absorption of heat by the soil. But deep culture, and especially subsoiling, make way for the reception and storing away of heat, and fall and winter crops growing, including grass, may greatly diminish ra- diation. Some have credited our Indian summers to radia- tion. One of the conditions of successful maize culture, healthful summers, admitting of timely and persevering field work, is promoted by the absorption through the vegetable world, of surplus heat. What is called the belt of equally distributed rains in the United States, extends from 95° west longitude, to the At- lantic, between the 38th and 45th parallels of latitude, and here the prevailing winds are from the west. It is remarked of this 'that the rain falls in frequent showers during the sea- son, when the wants of vegetation require it." (See Ohio Agri- cultural Report, 1858.) Sometimes however, they come too heavily, as in 1857^ when the continued warm rains in au- tumn, caused the rotting in the field of millions of bushels of corn, and the destruction of the germ next the cob in mil- lions more, where the outer appearance was fair. Farmers in search of locations in new districts, will do well to study carefully the meterological tables proper to them, that is, if the observations have been made extensively, re- peatedly and carefully. Hasty conclusions from imperfect data are always unsafe. But knowing the latitude, longitude, elevation above the sea, character of surface, direction of the winds, and the relation of the place to river valleys, large 248 INDIAN COBN AND ITS CFLTTTRB. bodies of water and chains of mountains, the close observer will be apt to choose a location favorable to permanent suc- cess. But the extensive opening up of new farms, by sub- jecting the sod of centuries^ covering large tracts, to de- composition, often fills the air with malaria, and makes them for the time being unhealthy. After this process of decom- position has become tolerably complete, salubrity will proba- bly return, if other causes do not make the region perma- nently unhealthy. As to the bearing of minor causes on maize culture, such as the aspect of a hill-side with regard to the sun and winds, earlier planting and earlier ripening often belong to loca- tions sloping sunward, and perhaps more security against drought, to northern or north-eastern hillsides. When the cold winds come from the north-west, a slope towards the south-east is often a protection, unless the course of the wind is circuitous. The cold air often settles in deep valleys at night, while the neighboring hilltops are comparatively warm, which may be the result of greater radiation in the lower strata. It is likely to be otherwise when the valley is over- hung with clouds or mists, which greatly diminish radiation. Moist winds often supply the needed fluids to the leaves of plants. But there is no end to the minor facts of an interest- ing character, arising out of climatic relations. CHAPTER IX. SOILS PROPER TO MAIZE CULTURE. A first rate soil for the maize plant will have everything to supply or promote its growth, except what it derives from the sun, rain, dew, or atmosphere, or from cultivation. The analyses in tables v, page 19, vi and vii, on pages 20 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 249 and 21, XLi, XLii, XLiii, xLiv on pages respectively 166, 1C9, and 170, and a few others herein, show the elements of maize. Some of the organic elements, the plant forms out of the materials presented or absorbed during growth, but the inorganic elements the soil must supply, or they must be otherwise obtained or added. Other materials the soil needs, such as /lufnus to assist it in absorbing and retaining solar heat, moisture, and ammonia and other gases from the atmos- phere. Some substances, such as lime, are needed as stimu- lants or chemical agents, for opening up the heavy parts of the soil, or compacting the very loose portions, or decom- posing the vegetable waste matters. Other substances such as clay, (its base being alumina) mellowed by a suitable pro- portion of sand, are needed to give body to the soil, so that the plant can, by its roots, firmly establish itself therein. Waste animal and vegetable matters of a great many kinds may enter into the composition of a good soil for maize. Such a soil will be most surely found in river or creek bottoms. Water courses of all kinds, from the smallest rill to the grandest river, are manufacturers of soil. All bodies of water, from the little muck pond to the great ocean, do their part towards the building or repairing of soils. So also do the storms, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes. So also the frost, whether stealing over the landscape on still clear nights, or leaping down as glaciers, grinding the rocks to powder and crushing to atoms, in a moment, what man has been building up for centuries. So also the gentlest rays of the sun, and the quiet attractions and repulsions of inanimate nature, as well as the infinitely varied forms of life, contribute their mite toward the formation of soils. The more recent contributions of all these workers are most apt to be piled up along the banks of streams and around the mouths of great rivers. What the old-time workers have been doing in this line, if geologists speak true, may be seen in the dried up 2'0 IXDIAN CORN AXD ITS CULTURE. beds of old lakes, as in north-western Ohio, and perhaps Indiana and Illinois. What a wealth of matter lies there, fitted for maize production, may be judged of from the effects of a dried up muck pond transferred to the corn-fields of a New Englander. Corn on bottoms and fertile plains, however, is sometimes made under difficulties. The rains now and then come not to slake the natural thirst of the fields, but to drown the crop ; and in other cases make their appearance just in time to stop the plough before the planting, or the cultivation after the corn is up. Even after a good crop is harvested and laid by, the results of too much of a good thing are sometimes what they were in Ohio in 1857, — It is then that the hillsides and rolling uplands come to the front. Here the soil is generally thinner, and the average yield smaller, unless high farming and gradually deepened plowing have carried the rich mould low enough for the best rooting of the plants. In the early settlement of the country, as a sage old farmer expressed it, it was of no use to say hills to the river bank farmers, even if fever and ague thinned out their numbers. But the German emigrants came in due time with their side-hill plows, and never tiring picks, to make our roughest acres glow with maize like the Peruvian mountain sides. And farmers that under- stand the use of muck and the art of mixing soils, find means to make the uplands hold on to their riches, and gain more. From the exposed situation of high points, where plants will grow at all, the effects of the winters will be most severe ; and consideriog the comparative thinness of the atmosphere, the thawing heats of summer will have a great effect in dis- integrating rocks. When the elevated spot is comparatively level, the rocks will acquire a covering from the sand, clay &c., thus disintegrated, and as the nature of all cultivated soils, as shown by Prof. Way, and we may suppose, of all permeable soils resembling them, is to absorb free acids and INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 261 alkalies, and separate ammonia, potash and other bases from pre-existing compounds ; we may infer that this disintegrated substance receives from the atmosphere more or less of those floating fertilizers, as well as seeds of grasses and other plants, and droppings of birds, and begins with very small growths, the refuse of which is left to decompose and produce more or less humus, and in the course of ages will accumulate con- sideraljle of a soil. Even on bare hill sides, more or less of the same process goes on. As the roots projecting from the crevices of the rocks, grow large and stout, their stumps ar- resting and giving body to the sliding matters from above, and these are gradually woven into grass plots or clumps of brush- wood, warmed up by the sun, soils of very considerable fer- tility are often formed. Prof. Newberry, the geologist, in his address before the Ohio Agricultural Convention in i860, thus speaks of some of the Ohio coal measures, where stiff clay mingles with sand and limestone. "As the limestone and clay are impervious, in many instances covered with strata, through which the water runs down, until it reaches the impervious portions, and is distributed over the side of the hill, in never faiHng springs, so * * this regular distribution of moisture over the hillsides and surface, causes the decomposition of the rocks below, that constitute the soil. We get such a variety of desirable elements in the soil, among these hills in the coal regions, that exhibit unexceptionable fertility, with the best of corn growing on the tops of them." "The coal measures cover about one-third of the eastern and southern borders of the State." The stiff, tenacious, in- tractable clays, grown over by the beech and maple, are found in "the upper coal measures, where the shale has been ab- raded." Shale or slate clay, differs from clay slate in being softer, with frequent impressions of fossil vegetables. Going northward from the coal measures, we reach the clay left by 252 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTnRE. the drift deposits, once considered intractable, and for a long time neglected; but after being subdued "give permanence and success to the efforts of the husbandman as much per- haps as any other ;" the dairy farms of the Western Reserve being largely owned by highly prospered men. In the north-western part of the State are the remains of the ancient lake beaches; sandy ridges with intervals of de- pression, once swamp lands, full of rich deposits, but re- quiring drainage. These show traces of ancient lake levels 25 ) feet higher than the present levels. In the south-west in the blue limestone region, is a continuation of the inexhaust- able soil of the blue grass tract of Kentucky, underlaid by a vast mass of fossils, the disintegration of Avhich has made the phosphates very abundant. In the south-west are also long tongues or islets, left by erosions, the work of ages. The Ni- agara islets, so called, form regular plateaus, generally hold- ing the moisture which falls, and becoming in some instances intractable swamps, requiring thorough drainage before warmth and fertility can be established. The Clinton islets are warmer and more workable. — The varieties of soil, as set forth by some writers, are very numerous; Thaer and Fel- lenburg making So. Judge Buel uses Sinclair's classification, including first, the sandy soil, where sand predominates; too loose to be retentive of manure and moisture. It is the chief soil along the Atlantic from New York to Florida, and on the pine lands of the interior. If silex does not exceed 60 to 65 per cent, it bears working as well as other soils. The proportion of seven-eighths sand, according to Sir H. Davy, is necesgary to a sandy soil, and sandy or gravelly soils effervescing with acids, are called calcareous sands or gravels. To clay soils one-sixth, and to loams one-third of impalpable matter, not considerably effervescing with acids, is necessary. One half vegetable matter is required for peat. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. 2o3 As quartz and mica are in part constituents of granite, tlie soil abounding in their fragments, is called granitic. Ac- cording to some writers, a proper sandy soil contains only lo per cent of pure clay ; a sandy loam, 60 to 90 per cent of sand; and from 30 to 60 per cent of sand can be mechanic- ally washed out of a loam. From 15 to 30 per cent of fine sand, well mixed with clay soil, makes it clay loam, as it be- comes more free and friable. From 5 to 15 per cent of si- licious sand mixed with pure clay, makes the strongest (tile) clay soil. Pure or pipe clay, has 60 parts of silica, 40 of al- umina and oxide of iron, in most cases chemically combined. Marls are an important element in eastern soils; they are differently classed by scientists, but those of the United States are divided by a writer in the U. S. P. O. Report, 1868, into argillaceous, glauconitic or green sand, and calcareous. Ar- gillaceous marls consist of clay and sand with a little lime, and in some cases are valuable fertilizers. * 'Glauconitic marls include the green sands of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and a few localities further south," permanently beneficial for the potash and phosphoric acid they contain. "Calcare- ous marls are the debris of countless successive generations of life, the remains of which may or may not be recognizable, according to the amount of pulverization and attrition they have undergone, from the motion of the water in which they were deposited, and the subsequent conditions to which they have been exposed. These deposits range in time from the cretaceous epoch of geologists to the present era, and are even now in process of formation both in marine and inland waters. They are found in greatest amount in the tertiary strata." The limestone is supposed to have originated in the same way. Calcareous soils contain more than 20 per cent of lime, as classed by some ; marls 5 to 20. Later authorities give certain marls from Vermont from 73 to 89 parts in 100 of carbonate of lime ; and pond marl of New York, from 56^ 254 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. to 93^ of same, and other pond marls from 12 3/^ to 5o|- parts of lime; and shell marl from Maryland and the Carolinas, 21 1'-^g to 90 parts in 100 of carbonate of lime. (See U. S. P. C). Report, 1868.) As distinguished from limestone, marls are generally friable. Clay soils when thoroughly subdued by admixture of sand, barn-yard manure, lime or fertilizers, or by ploughing in green crops, or otherwise, produce abundant crops of sound corn. They are usually much more difficult to work than sandy soils, but are more retentive of moisture and ammonia, and probably better absorbents from air and water of fertilizing matters. Much has been written on the analyses of soils; and there is no doubt they are of advantage in ascertaining some of the properties of a soil. The report of the chemist in U. S. Agricultural Report, 187 1, maintains that it is difficult to analyze a soil, so as to give its average component elements. The ammonia contained is so volatile as to diminish one half or more in passing from spring to summer. The soluble salts of potash wash away. Still the farmer may profit by analy- sis, as it relates as much to the mechanical as the chemical composition. The relation of soil to heat is important. The power of the soil to absorb and retain moisture depends on the amount of water it can hold below saturation, and both of these can be detected by any one who has at command an accurate balance. These properties, together with facility of percolation and the activity of capillary attraction, depend largely on the firmness of the particles composing the soil. The propor- , tion of clay usually required as a measure of this in re- lation to water, is true only when the clay is not saturated with water. Sandy soils are very inferior to clay in absorb- ing ammonia. If manure added contains any lime, much more of it will be removed by a sandy than by a clay soil. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. '255 Prof. Voelcker showed that if the solution of saline matter brought in contact with a soil, be very dilute, there is hardly any absorption of ammonia, potash or phosphoric acid. This is spoken of as showing that the sewage of towns is of no value when very dilute, since the soil, though possessing highly absorbent powers, has not the power of overcoming the affinity of water for the solution. — One of the uses of cal- careous marl is to increase the power of sandy or pure clay soils to absorb ammonia and potash. Carbonate of lime ab- sorbs six times as much ammoniacal salt, as stiff clay. Gyp- sum in the soil helps to prevent the dispersion of ammonia. These matters are said to descend during rain, or in win- ter, and rise during summer "when evaporation is greatest, and when the plant needs more food and moisture." (See U. S. Agricultural Report, 1870.) Humus retains the moisture in the soil, and evolves heat by its slow decomposition. Its darker color makes it a re- markable absorbent of solar heat. Some extracts from Thaer's Principles of Agriculture in U. S. P. O. Report, 1844, as to the relations of humus, and sand and clay to the soil, are very much to the point. Abundance of humus gives a black- ish hue to the soil. If a ball of earth is submitted to incan- descence in an open crucible, which allows atmospheric air to come in contact with it, and its dark color is due to humus, it will soon disappear, and the earth become white. To find the quantity of humus in the soil, take a portion not too near the surface, and dry it in the sun till it pulverizes in the hand and feels quite dry ; pick out the small stones, weigh the remainder accurately, place in a crucible heated to per- fect incandescence, and keep it in that state for about ten minutes, and stir it with a glass tube all the time. To hasten tlic burning of the humus, a little nitrate of ammonia may be united with the earth, which completely volatilizes that sub- stance. The diminished weight shows the quantity of humus. 266 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The earth, especially if argillaceous, loses some of that water which was too closely united with it, to be evaporated only by the process of incandescence. Where the soil con- tains much lime, the volatilization of its carbonic acid and water of crystallization, will sensibly affect the result, and it is necessary to begin by getting rid of the lime. If a liquid paste is made of the earth to be analyzed, and water, and a strip of blue turnsole paper is dipped in it and turns red, it shows acidity in the humus. If the humus, when burning, smells like burnt feathers, it has come from animal matter, is richer, and more easily decomposed. Clay makes land richer by the adhesion which it contracts with water. During a long drought, clay holds on to the humidity indispensable to the nourishment of plants, and yields it to them. It gives a solid support to the roots of plants, and by resisting their too great extension, obliges them to put forth "several tufts of short fibrous roots, by means of which each plant seeks its nourishment in a circumscribed spot," and does not rob its neighbors. Clay prevents the at- mospheric air from coming in contact with the roots of those plants which it injures, and yields them a moderate and equa- ble warmth during the constant changes of the atmosphere. If not too damp, growing crops on it suffer much less than those on sandy land, from sudden changes from hot to cold, and vice versa. Clay attracts oxygen, and probably nitrogen, and thus favors their reciprocal action. But excess of clay is injurious; in damp weather retaining its water too long and forming with it a tenacious paste. In dry weather it hardens, and often rubs against the plants like a mass of brick. Dur- ing summer heat and winter frosts, it cracks into gaps or clefts, and tears the roots, or lays them bare to the atmos- pheric air. It forcibly takes up all the nutritive juices con- tained in the manure applied to it, and will not part with it as easily as lighter soils. Clay, thoroughly manured and in INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 257 good condition, retains its fertility a considerable time, but once exhausted, requires very heavy manuring to bring it up. A soil with too much clay is hard to cultivate; in damp wea- ther clogging the plow and harrow, and in dry weather is hardly divisible into large clods, which refuse to crumble under the harrow or roller, until moistened by rain. A mix- ture of humus or. lime ameliorates such soils more or less, but the application of sand is better. The upper layer always contains some sand, which makes it available for the plow. Mr. Thaer makes the value of most lands depend prin- cipally on the proportions of clay and sand united in them. He means by sand, that coarse ground silica, which, when any portion of earth is carefully washed, is precipitated to the bottom of the vessel, and can be collected. Experiments had shown that when clay was boiled with water, a consider- able quantity of fine ground silica was separated from it, and if this operation was prolonged and carefully perfected, the alumina was deprived of nearly the whole of its silica ; the quantity of this fine silica being considered the difference be- tween rich and poor clay. Sand injures, when too large a component of the soil, be- cause not sufficiently retentive of moisture, allowing the water to evaporate or drain away, and carry with it fertilizing par- ticles and juices ; and because it does not combine with hu- mus, and hardly enters into a physical union with it, strong enough to absorb fertilizing particles from the atmosphere. Sandy soils will not bear frequent cultivation, though much is needed to destroy the weeds which infest them, especially where humus abounds; very frequent workings depriving it of that cohesion which prevents the wind from decomposing and carrying away its richer particles. Sandy soils, being good conductors of caloric, transmit the influences of severe cold or intense heat immediately to the plants, and at each sudden change which the temperature of the atmosphere un- 258 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, dergoes. A soil containing more than 60 to 80 parts in 100 of sand, is termed sandy clay. The value of this land di. minishes in proportion as the sand increases. Mr. Thaer's classification of soils is very extensive and minute. Only a few of his distinctions have been here presented in a some- what abbreviated form. "Gravelly soils are sometimes composed of small soft stones, and sometimes flinty ones." "They often contain granite, limestone and other rocky substances, partially, but not very minutely decomposed. Gravel is more porous than even sand, and is /iuf!^ry," especially when composed of hard and rounded substances ; these do not attract the animal and vege- table matters they receive, and so easily lose them. When dry, these soils are soon heated by the sun, and cool more slowly than sand. Their crops are the earliest and most sul)- ject to drought. Indian corn suits them, especially on a sod of clover or grass ley. Gravelly loams, warm and dry, are especially advantageous in wet seasons and climates. Chalk soils have an excess of calcareous matter, which may be remedied by the addition of pure clay, and vegetable or animal matters, where these are deficient. Combined with sand or gravel, they are light and often unproductive. The nature of the subsoil must also be considered. If the surface soil is easily penetrable, and the subsoil impervious and the land level, there is apt to be an excess of water about the roots of the plants, in moist weather. If both soil and subsoil are very penetrable, the water is apt to drain away too rapidly, unless there is an abundant supply of humus or a sufficient admixture of clay to hold a fair supply. When either the surface or subsoil is swampy, the excess of water loads to the formation of certain vegetable acids, which in excess render the soil cold and sour. Draining and subsoil ])loughing do much towards remedying this. The geological features of the United States show that lime INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 259 is the base of all the important fertilizers (except the green- sand marls,) which yield the most important inorganic ele- ments to the growing maize plant. Limestone, or the natural stratified carbonate, magnesian limestone or dolomite, sulph- ate of lime or plaster, phosphate of lime, pond marl and other marls, are among the chief sources of these fertilizers. The older calcareous limestones of the Atlantic States form a wide belt nearly coinciding with the great eastern mountain range ; beginning with the upper silurian limestone in New Brunswick, which appears in the Green mountains in con- nection with the lower silurian, it passes along the east line of New York, near the coast in northern New Jersey, through West Virginia, North Carolina and north Georgia, and ends in north Alabama. The newer calcareous deposits are di- vided among the more recent geological formations, the car- boniferous, cretaceous and tertiary. The carboniferous lime- stone appears in Pennsylvania, west of the silurian and par- allel to it, and shows traces along to the south-western limit of the silurian. The cretaceous appears in Georgia. The tertiary belt gradually widens from southern New Jersey to Florida, and is separated from the limestone range by gneiss, slates and sandstones. Large beds of shell marl and lime- stone formed from its consolidation are found in the tertiary. (See U. S. Agricultural Report, 1868.) Great quantities of the phosphates are found in the Caro- linas, and the green sands of New Jersey are celebrated as fertilizers. The Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and similar ones but smaller, in north Alabama, middle and east Ten- nessee and Virginia, abound in nitrate of lime, from which saltpetre was made for gunpowder during recent war times. Eminent writers have frequently characterized the great body of the far western formations as hopeless for extended systems of agriculture. There is considerable testimony on the other side of the question. The Reports of the Commis- 2 ;0 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CDLTUHE. sioner of the General Land Office, (see the last named vol- ume,) show not only in Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Ne- braska, large tracts of river bottom, and rich upland suitable for maize culture, but also in Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, California and Oregon, with irrigation, and in many districts without. Evidently the eastern system of agriculture must be more or less modified to meet the conditions found here. And when the success- ful methods have been found and reduced to practice, it does not follow that the extraordinary crops at first obtained in some cases, will be permanent. It would seem reasonable to suppose that in large rainless districts, uncultivated in the main for ages, there would be accumulations of fertilizing matters on the surface, the disintegrations of the rocks and the wastes of slender vegetations, and deposits from the atmos- phere, comparatively unleached, and held together by a net- work of coarse grass, which when first made agriculturally productive, would bring forth for a time, wonderful crops. The first wheat crops in California were extraordinary, but the yield per acre is said to have fallen off greatly in recent years. Similar facts, though less remarkable, were true of much of the pioneer agriculture of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. But, as the overflowings of the Nile were used by human skill and industry to make a magnificent garden out of a sandy desert, we may hope that science and skill will open new paths to high attainment in the arts of culture through this vast field for effort and enterprise. What nature herself, without any aid from man, will some- times temporarily accomplish for the renovation of land, is shown in the description given by the missionary Moffatt, of the great Karroo plain, in South Africa. During the dry sea- son, it was perfectly devoid of vegetation, a solitary waste of indurated surface; but after the rainy season set in. it quickly revived, and in due time became an immense pano- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 261 rama of wild flowers, a wilderness of beauty. When the dry- season returned, the old desolation returned with it, to be again exchanged for the grandeur of loveliness, on the return of the clouds. Some testimonies from the U. S. P. O. Reports, as to the adaptation of Soil in the older States to maize culture, will now be given. In 1850, it was reported from Springfield, Vermont, that Indian corn on soil highly manured and well tilled, was the most profitable of all grain crops. In west- ern Massachusetts, clay loam on a clay subsoil was said to pre- dominate ; there were also sand and gravel loams, and pure gravel and pure sand plains; and in Bristol County, (South- east,) fifty to seventy five bushels to the acre of maize, were not uncommon. This crop, on the gravel and clay soils of Rhode Island, was made by the drought of 1849 a total fail- ure. In average years it was good. Jefferson Co., N. Y., has well watered land; of a loose, gravelly or loamy texture, producing twenty-five to forty bushels to the acre, as a com- mon yield. In Newcastle Co., Delaware, a heavy soil pro- duces flint corn, and a light soil gourd seed. Cumberland Co., Virginia, in the old tobacco region, had been very much worn. In Buckingham Co., Va., the yield on uplands was about half that of bottoms. From Baldwin Co., Georgia, it was reported, (1849,) that the land would never be improved to much extent so long as cotton raising was continued. From Washington Co., Mississippi, that the pine woods farm- ers spoke of their sandy lands, little valued, as producing three fair crops of corn, and four or five of rice, with an oc- casional crop of sweet potatoes, before they were completely worn out. Manuring, except by cow-penning, was never practiced. Mississippi was said to have vast beds of rich marl. In Clark County, Ohio, (1S49,) the uplands were said to produce the heaviest grain, and the bottoms the largest stalks and ears; average yield forty bushels to the acre. 262 INDIAN COBN AND IT3 CUITFRE. Michigan soils required little draining, the surface being un- dulating ; average of corn the same. Drains were being con- structed in Indiana for reclaiming wet lands. In 1853, Berk- shire Co., Mass., reported corn, with proper management, as fattening to the soil; the very process of raising a good crop was just what the land required at frequent intervals. The Shakers in Worcester Co., Mass., obtained from land naturally stiff and clayey, rather moist, suffering severely from drought, and somewhat rocky and unfeasible, maize crops of thirty-five to fifty bushels to the acre. The soil of Mis- souri was more favorable to this than to any other crop. Corn land in western New York was said to require more of the phosphates and vegetable mould than wheat, and was found in considerable quantities in the basin of Lake On- tario. From Ontario Co., it was reported that Indian corn was grown to advantage on a good, rich, gravelly or sandy soil. To raise it on a clayey soil was an up-hill business. The greatest difficulty was with the drought of July and Au- gust From Metagorda Co , Texas, corn was reported as growing indiscriminately, and in the greatest abundance, in every portion of the State, with less labor, and perhaps a more bountiful return than in any other part of the world. As to the condition of the soil proper for maize culture, there seems to be no point on which the witnesses so gen- erally agree, as that sod land, old pasture or meadow, of three or more years standing, other things being equal, is the very best. One of the largest recorded crops, made in the in- terior of Kentucky, some thirty-five years ago, of 196 bushels to the acre, was a result of a system of plowing in the fall before planting, a grass sod of eight years standing. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 263 CHAPTER X. IMPROVEMENT OF LAND FOR MAIZE CULTURE. (a.) — Maize cannot thrive on land that has not in it the elements which the soil is expected to furnish. What these are, the analyses of the plant already given will approximate- ly determine, if taken in connection with sufficient experience in culture. The enquiry will be more suitable under the name of fertilizers, reserved tor the next chapter. {p.) — But these elements may be present without materially benefiting the plant. If this is due to the climate, and the temperature is at fault, the remedy if it is attainable, must be looked for in the choice of varieties, or special modes of cul- ture. If due to deficiency or excess of moisture, as the pre- vailing character of a district, irrigation or drainage may make the crop feasible. In such cases these operations are apt to be made most beneficial, conducted on a large scale. But there are many cases, where the general climate is suited to maize culture, in which the season is sometimes unfavorable, and the location is so, as a rule. Certain spots are subject to early or late frosts, or to droughts or floods. They may wash badly, they may be covered with bogs or swamps, or they may be simply worn-out land. Land injured in any way by excess of water, requires a thorough drainage. If the soil is saturated with water, the sun in spring is too slow in warm- ing it for timely plowing. The result of Count Rumford's experiments as to tlie mode in which heat is propagated in fluids was, that heat is transmitted in water only by the motion of the particles in the water, and if the heated particles are prevented from rising, water cannot be warmed except where it touches the vessel containing it. To warm the water, heat applied to the sur- 264 INDIAN CORN anh its culture. face must be conducted downward by some other medlnm. Pleat the bottom of a vessel, and the colder particles descend till the whole is warmed. Stagnant water will keep the soil cold from its want of circulation, and its removal is the first step towards giving the soil the benefit of the sun's heat. Where water only escapes from the surface by evaporation, it produces cold. Every gallon evaporated is said to carry off heat enough to raise five and a half gallons of water from the freezing to the boiling point. (See U.'S. P. O. Report, 1856.) _ Draining is said to raise the temperature of the soil often 15° Fahrenheit. Indian corn vegetates at about 55°, and at 45° the seed would rot in the ground without vegetating. The sun will often bring the temperature of dry soils up to 90° or 100°, when the air in the shade is only 60° or 70°. There are different methods of reclaiming swamps and bogs after the surface water is drained. The eastern farmers make great use of the muck taken from them to aid in com- posting manure. The Shakers in Worcester Co., Mass., had some meadows which had been cropped of their natural grasses for fifty years, till no longer worth cutting, and then left to grow up to bushes three feet high, with moss and bogs. They were first ditched six feet to the bottom of the peat, the ditches near enough to each other for perfect draining. The bushes were then mowed, the bogs cut up and burnt, and the ground fall plowed, and planted according to their usual rotation. In 1853 they gathered eight hundred bushels of potatoes, "as fine as any one could wish" from four acres of such meadow, first plowed the fall previous, and each acre in the following June, after re-plowing, manured with ten loads of muck and planted, and then left to its fate till har- vesting. They afterwards took a new plan to reclaim their meadows ; first mowing the bushes close to the ground, bogs and all; leaving the surface clean and smooth, which was INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. 265 burnt over and made an excellent manure. They next carted on fifty loads of clay loam and mixed the soils with a light harrow and sowed timothy and red top, which on the third year brought two and a half tons of hay per acre. Clay proved the best application on their meadows. {c.) — Where the swampy districts are of large extent, the Government has sometimes taken their improvement in hand, and, as in Ohio nearly twenty years ago, devised a system of taxation for the purpose. North-western Ohio has had much of this character of soil. Eight hundred miles of drains of a more simple kind were reported to the Convention of Presi- dents of County Boards of Agriculture as having been laid in Wood County in 1857. They were ditches, into which were thrown long poles on which a light covering was cast. The work was greatly facilitated by opening the streams. The Convention however recommended tile draining as the best and cheapest mode. Of late years manufactories of drain tiles have been established in south-western Ohio, and much progress has been made in their use for underdraining. These tiles are "made of clay similar to brick clay, moulded by a machine into tubes, usually thirteen inches long, and burnt in a kiln or furnace to be about as hard as what are called hard-burnt bricks. They are of various forms and sizes. Some are round, with a sole or flat bottom moulded with the tile, and are called **sole tiles." * * Others are of a horse- shoe form, open at the bottom, to be laid on the hard bottom of the ditch without a sole, or in soft places with a sole or flat bottom of the same material, with the tile, made sepa- rate from it. For some localities, pipe tiles, merely round tubes, are preferred. When there is danger of displacement by reason of the soft condition of the ground at the bottom of the trenches, pipe tiles are often kept in position by means of collars of the same material as the tiles themselves, made loosely to fit over the joint. * * The size of the tiles to be 23 266 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUUK, used varies from two to six inches calibre, according to the quantity of water to be conveyed. It is a question of ex- pediency whether to use very large tiles, or to lay two or more courses of smaller size, side by side, when the flow of water is very great." (See U. S. P. O. Report, 1856.) As for the depth and distance of the drains apart, there has been much controversy in England. Elkington intro- duced the deep draining system in 1 7 64. His theory was that water from springs caused wetness in land. Mr. French of Exeter, New Hampshire, refers to the thorough drainage sys- tem of Mr. Smith (1832) of Scotland, as the one now gen- erally adopted in Great Britain ; its leading idea being that land is injured as often by water from rain which falls upon it, as from springs; and that all land may be drained by pipes laid at moderate depth, as three or four feet, at distances apart say from fifteen to sixty feet. In reference to this sys- tem Mr. French assumes that tiles must be laid below the reach of the subsoil plow, subsoiling to follow the work ; they must be laid below frost and the roots of the crops; must have reference to the fall and outlet, and should be adjusted with reference to the cost ; it being supposed to cost as much to dig the last foot of a four foot ditch, as the first three. Four feet depth in nine cases in ten, is best. The distance apart of the drains depends "on a careful study of the de- tails of the subject," such as the nature of the soil, the dis- position of the different strata of the subsoil, and the depth to which the drains are cut. Some stiff clays require three foot drains, fifteen feet apart ; porous gravelly soils may admit drains of the same depth, sixty feet apart. As to the direc- tion of drains over slopes, it is thought best, when running up and down the declivity. The water enters the tiles both at the joints and through the pores of the burnt clay. It should enter at the bottom of the tiles. How it is that stiff, clayey soils, nearly imper- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 267 vious to water in their natural state, can be under-drained is shown as follows : *'A11 soils, and clay in particular, expand when wet, and contract when dry. When drains are laid in clay, the soil next the tiles is deprived of its water, and of course, rendered dryer than the rest. This causes it to crack, the cracks commencing at the drains, and extending in almost straight lines into the subsoil, making feeders leading to the tiles. The main fissures have numerous smaller ones diver- ging from them, so that the whole mass is divided up into the smallest portions. The dryer the soil, the larger and longer the main fissures. When wet comes, the cracks close up, leaving room for the water to pass through them. Clay, saturated with water, loses one-fifth in bulk on being per- fectly dried." The advantages of under-draining are both mechanical and chemical. Some of them have b^«n already stated, and further, as applicable to uplands, as veil as lowlands, it pre- vents drought, supplies oxygen to the roots, promotes ab- sorption of fertilizing substances from the air, and improves the quality of the crops. The necessity for drainage depends mainly on the character of the subsoil. If this is of sand, ' gravel, or other porous earth, natural drainage carries off water not evaporated. Asubsoil of suchimpervioussubstances as clay, or rock, chokes the passage of the water downward, and it becomes stagnant, or bursts out in springs. Land too wet in early spring, is often very hard in summer, so that cultivation is very difficult. It is often cold and sour ; in- . jurious quantities of vegetable acids are formed, and it suf- fers from early frosts in autumn. In a wet subsoil, the roots of the plants find unhealthy food in such acids formed in ex- cess, and also in such inorganic substances as protoxide of iron. The advantage of under-draining in such cases is very clear. The Committee on draining, in their Report to the State Agricultural Society of New York, in 1848, asserted 268 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. that there was not one farmer out of seventy-five but needed draining to bring the soil into high cultivation. The Secretary of that Society, in his Report for 1855, said "the testimony of farmers in different sections of theState. is almost unani- mous, that drained lands have suffered far less from drought than undrained." The general testimony shows that under- draining equalizes both temperature and moisture, for the benefit of growing plants. There is great gain also in the sea- son for working the land being lengthened. At a discussion on drainage referred to in the U. S. P. O. Report, 1868, a Mr. Brown remarked that drainage makes cold land warmer, wet land dryer, dry land wetter, heavy land lighter, and in some cases light land more compact; and that land thoroughly drained, if anything like hard land, could be cultivated at about half the cost of wet land. Special directions for under-draining will be found in Prof. Norton's work on Agriculture. Mattice & Penfield's drain tile machine is described in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1858. See also U. S. Agricultural Report, 1870, for exhaus- tive articles on draining. (d.) — For dry climates and soils, irrigation has been prac- ticed for thousands of years in some parts of the old world. Herodotus mentions a mode of raising water for irrigation, very much like the well-sweep and bucket formerly used in this country for raising water from wells. The Assyrians made canals for irrigation; the overflowings of their rivers not being rich enough, China and India, as well as Egypt, in very early times, made use of irrigation ; so did the ancient Peruvians, and the Aztecs of Mexico. In Persia and Syria, and all the more Eastern Countries, it is still practiced ; and it is an important feature in the agriculture of Belgium, France and Italy. A very learned treatise will be found on the subject in the U. S. P. O. Report for i860, and others in the Reports for 1849, 1868, 1870 and 1871. Irrigation on INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 260 an extensive scale is comparatively a new thing in the United States. The necessities of the far west have called attention to the subject. Some account of what may be done in this way in the eastern States was given by Prof. Coleman some nine years ago in reference to a farm at Brattleboro, Ver- mont. The farm was on a high hill, near the summit of which a basin covers several acres, formerly a boggy swamp, and the source of a small stream watering the fields below. By damming up the lower edge of the swamp, a reservoir was made, holding a large quantity of water. From this, water could be taken over most of the farm, and carried to parts of adjoining farms. Irrigation was only practiced on the grass crop. The water, soon after leaving the reservoir was divided into several main channels by which it was car- ried to different fields, where it was made to flow in thin sheets over the grass. The water was let on in the spring before the snow was gone, the effect being the melting of the snow next the ground, a space being made between the snow and the grass. The water thawed the ground, and the heat thus given started the grass, so that by the time the fields were bare they became beautifully green. The water was kept running on the grass, not constantly on the same ground, but as required, until about two weeks before haying. Most of the irrigated land produced one and a half to two tons of hay the first cutting, with an after-growth of one-half to three-quarters of a ton. In Colorado, (187 1,) it was found that the co-operation of whole townships was wanted for success. In California the Pacific slope ditches were sometmies fifty miles long, 'ii.e only water supplied to Denver for irrigation during eleven years, was by a ditch twenty-four miles long, and for build- ing such a ditch by the combined work of farmers, very little cash was needed. Wells may be sunk on points too high to benefit by open ditches from a distance; the water being 270 INDIAN CORN ANB TTS CULTURE. raised by an ordinary suction pump put in and operated by a small windmill one can make himself. If the water is too low for a suction pump, a belt of cups may be used. But our space is too limited for even an outline of the practical methods, and other details of irrigation described in the vol- umes referred to. The time has not come in this country for its connection with the maize crop to be fully investigated. ( ITS CTTXTUKB. The boll-worm, or corn worm {Heliothis artnigera,') in 1854, injured corn and cotton very much. It eats the growing grain in the husk. As a remedy, fires are made near the corn patch in the evening to attract the moths, destroy- ing them before their eggs are laid. (U. S. P. O. Report, 187 1.) In 1876 they were reported in parts of Mississippi and Texas. The black cunulio ^iih. itscnriously wrought thorax, in 1870 was very destructive to the young plants of maize fields in New Jersey, piercing the stems on which the larva lives. Dr. Walsh speaks of a similar insect as piercing corn blades with six or eight holes of the size of a pin or larger, and where these pests abound, every stalk is killed. The ravages of \\\e grasshopper have already been referred to. They are among the Orthoptcra, which includes also crickets, cockroaches &c., and are provided with jaws, the upper wings thick and opaque, while the large under ones are net veined, and fold like a fan. The transformations are partial, the larva and pupae resembling the perfect insect, but wanting wings. (See the U. S. Agricultural Report for 1 868, which gives practical directions for farmer's sons to pur- sue the study of entomology.) A very full account of the grasshopper nuisance is given in the monthly U.S. Agricultural Reports for May and June 1876, and also for August and September. During the week end- ing August 1st, at Bartow Co., Georgia, they appeared in alarming numbers. One corn-field of twelve acres had not a blade of fodder left on it, and many of the young ears were destroyed. In Carroll Co., a very destructive kind never be- fore seen, had made its appearance. They may have been the Calpptcnus differen f talis. They were of various colors, green, yellow and striped, and they had put in an appearance in seven other counties. The caloptenus spretus were des- troying the crops and depositing their eggs in Minnesota ;. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 287 they had ruined thousands of acres of grain in Iowa, and the entire grain crop of Montana, and all the corn crop of Da- kota ; were doing more or less damage in New Mexico, and Colorado, and caused great .destruction in parts of Kansas and Nebraska. In Minnesota they deposited their eggs in the fall, which were hatched in the following spring, or early summer. In the north-western States the grasshop- pers are identified with the Caloptcnus sprdus, which visits only regions west of the 1 7th meridian. At Osage, Nebraska, the incubation of these eggs in a field of oat stubble having been carefully noted, the average number of deposits to the square inch was estimated at fifteen ; reckoning thirty eggs to each dejDosit, the number infesting one acre would be im- mense. The C. femur rubrum, is the scientific name given to some grasshoppers damaging the corn crops in Pennsylvania and Tennessee ; they chewed tobacco in Virginia and Kentucky. The hetcroptcm^ including the plant-louse &c., feed on the juice of growing plants. In the U. S. P. O. Report, 1868, is given Prof. Glover's report on the food and habits of beetles i^Coleopkra.) The American works he refers to are those of Dr. Leconte, Say, Harris, Fitch and the American Entomolo- gist. Dr. Leconte's classification (the first part only, being then published,) reaches forty-five families of beetles. The second family^ Caralndce, or ground beetles, vary greatly in size, form and color ; are of so firm a make as to creep under stones, bark &c. Most of the species are very insectivorouf;. ,. The larva of our native Oinophron laliatum.i^i) ^ /\ small beetle of black color, bordered with brownish yellow, is said to be very destructive to young maize in the southern States. The fifteenth family NitiditUdce, are usually small beetles of an oval, or depressed, or slightly convex form, sometimes almost globular or elongated. They live on de- composing substances, both animal and vegetable. The 288 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. second tribe of this family, Carpophilini, are usually flattened in form, and have the last two or three dorsal segments of the abdomen uncovered by the somewhat short wing cases; as the Colastus sciiiitcctus, (2) in the decayed ears of maize in the field, where they probably form minute fungi. Ca?-- ,2) pophilus hemipterus, (3) a brownish black beetle, having four light spots on its short wing covers, is also found in similar situations. The insects of tribe three of the same family, Niti- dulini, are mostly small, with bodies oval, sub- depressed, tho rax margined, and their bodies covered with wing cases. Ipsquadrisignatus, (4) a small black beetle with four yellow spots or marks on the (■i) wing covers, is said to burrow into sweet corn. Of the seventeenth family, Trogositidx, insects having the body more or less depressed, with short club shaped antenna, the Trogosita dubia eats maize, beech nuts &c. Of the twentieth family Ciui/jidcv, (small insects almost always of a dejDressed, and usually of an elongated form,) a species, the Sylvanus Surinamcnsis (5) is a very minute beetle of a chestnut brown, and having several teeth or spines on the outer edge of the thorax ; is found in wheat and maize. Sylvanus qitadricollis (6) resembles the others in general appearance,' but has a quad- rate or .four square thorax. The egg is laid near the germ, in maize; the larva feeds on the substance of the grain. The thirty-second family contains insects, the hind legs of which are placed so near the extremity of the body as to give the beetle a most extraordinary appearance while walking, and is called Scaraboeidae after the Scarabocus, the sacred beetle of the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 289 Egyptians. A sub-family Melolonthidoe, feed wholly on vege- table matter. It includes the rose bug, Macrodactylus subspino- sus; (7) the perfect beetle appearing in May and June, on roses and other flowers, and maize does not escape its attacks. - The Euryomia (^Erirhipis) Inda, (8) is a very common beetle of a brown color, check- ered or mottled with a darker tint, which feeds on the sap of maize and cotton bolls. The wire wortn has been for a long time a pest to corn fields. It has been, described as /gx a yellow, hard worm, about one inch long, and of the size of a knitting-needle. It works itself into the heart of the corn before it is up, and afterwards around the roots, keep- ing back the growth of the plant. It was very destructive in some parts of Maryland in 1847. ^n Ontario Co., N. Y., farmer wrote to the U. S. P. O. in 1853, that fall plowing generally prevented its ravages. A Berkshire Co., Mass., farmer, (1853) in reference to worms generally, wrote that fall plowing did not prevent them ; he had^seen cases the previous season, of fall plowed fields where their ravages were horrible, while in others of similar soil, plowed in spring, no bad effects were visible. The cut worm is said to be more injurious in spring. Many years ago, in some situations, it was thought to cease its rava- ges before late corn planting. A Bradford Co., Pa., farmer, in 1853, stated that some planted their corn about June ist, to escape it. Mr. Klippart, in the Ohio Agricultural Report, 1858, said the only way to get rid of these pests in green- sward corn-fields, was to kill them outright in their hiding places, with sharp sticks, early in the morning; but they could be prevented by plowing the sward in August of the previous year. It was also stated by an eastern farmer, that fall or 290 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUKE. winter plowing was the only chance to escape them. The crow is said to eat them. Many farmers say that the young corn destroyed by these birds had ahnost invariably a cut- worm or insect preying on its roots. Others think the crows do more harm than good. It has been advised by some to soak the seed corn in cop- peras water, or a solution of copperas and saltpetre, tar it and roll in lime, as a preventative to the cut-worm and most other devourers — but the grub worm was excepted out. This was worst in summer. A Niagara Co., N. Y., farmer, (1853) wrote that the most successful tillage had been found to be plowing a highly manured clover ley in the fall, that the frost might destroy the grub-worm. Another from Troy, N. Y., that sod plow- ing in the fall was more apt to kill it than spring plowing. It seems probable, from the report of the entomologist for 1866, that the large white grub worm so destructive to corn crops in some parts of Michigan, was the larva of a beetle, the May bug. A Virginia farmer gave as a reason for leaving only one or two stalks in the hill, that birds and insects at- tacking a hill of a dozen stalks generally destroyed all; but he generally destroyed the worms by grazing the land in- tended for corn, during the previous fall. The larvae of some beetles feed on the army worm, which has infested certain eastern corn-fields. The hunter weevil was an eater of corn leaves, and the larva of a similar insect in South Carolina so fed on the corn-stalk, as to destroy the ])lant; the only known remedy then being hand picking and burning of the infested plant. At Washington, Miss., in 1 849, it was found necessary to plant hard , flinty corn to head the weevil, with which not only the cribs, but the heads of corn in the field were infested. This was Inownasthe "black weevil," or true rice weevil, distinguished from the European by two reddish spots on each wing cover. D. L. White of INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 291 Gadsden Co., Fla., in storing his corn, threw a quantity of the berries and leaves of the China tree into each load, as it was deposited in his corn house ; having from several years experience found it a good preventative of weevil and rats. It is very important to destroy parent insects before they have time to deposit their eggs. For one in April, there are thousands in autumn. Some of the beetle tribe are beneficial. The first family ' includes the tiger beetles, which in both the larva and per- fect state destroy all the insects they can. Of the second family, the Calosoma Calidum is very common in Maryland and Virginia, and the larva was caught eating the caterpillars of the common army worm ; great numbers of the larvae were seen destroying all that crossed their path. Some became so bloated with this food as to be unable to move, and became the prey of their lean and nimble brethren. Dr. Fitch, in his report on the injurious insects of New York, in 1856, says that in Europe insects most destructive to grain are so preyed upon by their internal parasites, as to be en- tirely harmless, and recommends the importation of these parasites to keep down the grain pests. Every insect is thought to have an insect enemy ; and when these last are destroyed, the first riot in destruction. Wilson's Cyclopedia recommends as against the wire -worm the sprinkling of hot lime from a bag, after dark or immedi- ately after a rain. A species of uredo is referred to as a parasite on the flower of maize. The ovules of the phaloena forficalis are some- times deposited in the culms, and their larvse in feeding, en- feeble or destroy the spikes. The grub-worm has been spoken of as one of the most destructive insects in the United States. A Jay County In- dianian, (Cincinnati Weekly Gazette, 1873,) describes its ravages as far exceeding those of the cut-worm, because ex- 292 IMDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. tending beyond the season of repair by re-planting ; its coil- ing around the main root cuts ofif light and heat from above and moisture from below. In a field of Indian corn infested by him, this being his especial delight, many hills are seen be- hind their fellows in growth, though not deficient in color ; the leaves being erect and pointed, sometimes tinged with red, dark or pale green ; and the plants do not mature, but struggle on uselessly Avhile the grub gnaws their vitals. Another Indianian in ditching in the fall a corn-field where the grubs had been very bad for the two previous years, and especially the first year, at the depth of eighteen inches dug up the shell or skin of the grub-worm ; close to it was a June bug, and further on was one partly out; this was supposed to lay the egg from which the grub is hatched. The worm is small when it first appears, and only works on the corn two years ; in the first all the year, in the next only till June ; and the following year the bugs come. A Wayne County Indian- ian found manure freely applied to corn ground a good remedy against grubs; throwing it out of the stables into a wagon and going right to the field with it. A Highland County Ohioan in 1872, had found from three years ex- perience, that this worm did not injure his corn when he hauled on horse manure from his stable as it accumulated. The importance of the study of entomology to the farmer is apparent from the above statements. Insects are to a large extent gleaners of vegetable and animal matter going to waste, or scavengers of unhealthy or dead matters, and naturally prefer such. If this supply fails, they may devour one another, or healthy and firm growths, such as maize ; though much depends on the habits of the special insect. If the parasite does not destroy the insects in sufficient numbers to keep them in check, there are the birds, which from the necessities of their intensely active nature, generally prefer animal food, to do this as effectually ; and if insect food fails, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 293 the birds that feed on them attack the grahi. The bat is also insectiverous. Certain small quadrupeds that infest maize fields and grana- ries, as mice and rats, we have seen, find enemies in the weasel, cat, dog and the larger birds — not excepting the owl. The rabbit and hare, which might be great maize eat- ers, are too highly prized as game to be troublesome on a large scale, unless in a newly settled country. One hare has been known however, to tip off in one night forty or fifty rods of a row of corn. It is very necessary to put all these facts together, to see why apparently there should be contradictory statements as to certain prescribed remedies. Some of the diseases of the maize plant mentioned as pre- vailing in Mexico are La raquittc, a kind of wastmg con- sumption, where the plant is grown on barren soil, and soon after planting is exposed to moist, cold weather. El ca7'bon, a vegetable carbonaceous growth in the ears, or one which makes the buds abortive. El hango forms itself in the ear and destroys it. Others are mentioned in the U. S. P. O. Report, (1847 s) one as prevailing in Maryland, attributed to drought in the early part of the season, and the rains which succeeded in August. Dr. Muse describes the cap of the injured ear as discolored ; and when opened, a few grains near the apex 0/ the ear, and one side of it mark the commencement of the disease, appearing sickly and shrivelled. This increases in space and intensity till the whole ear is a black rotten mass, while the parent stem has a healthful and vigorous appear- ance. Solar influence is probably wanting to aid the vitality of the plant in the elaboration of juices — to decompose the carbonic acid, fix its carbon, and restore to the atmosphere its oxygen. Smut in corn is a common disease. Probably the best thing 294 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ' that can be done to prevent it is to spread the manure sup- plied from the barn-yard carefully, and put in the hills only well rotted manure, and watch the field about earing time and remove the ears inclined to this disease as fast as they appear. A correspondent of the New England Farmer in Vol. VII, thinks the cause is the exuberance of the fluid that forms the kernel ; that "the vessels are surcharged, and burst before the aliment can be fully concocted and disposed of." He had cultivated a field eight years before, and obtained the premium. To a liberal supply of strong manure, he added the usual quantity to the hill ; the season was very favorable, growth rapid and vigorous, the stalk large, and prolific in suckers. As the ear formed, the smut appeared; he did not dislodge it until it burst ; fifty wheel-barrow loads of it to the acre were consigned to his hog pen. Still his field produced the largest crop of corn he ever raised. He grew corn in the same field the season of his writing the above, with no varia- tion except in dre^s^ng. His coarse stable manure was spread and plowed in as before, the hills manured from com- post made the previous year in his yard, carted in autumn and thrown into large heaps and covered from the weather. The season was equally favorable, and the product nearly the same, and not the fiftiedi part of the loss by smut; what there was was severed, but there was too little of it to be worth taking to the hog pen; the suckers also were too few to do any harm. The lessening of the smut seems to have been due to tiie quality of the manure put in the hill. To prevent shelled corn from becoming musty, it should be carefully shielded from damp ; should be spread on a floor to dry not over sixteen or eighteen inches in depth, and frequent- ly turned, and if still inclined to be damp, should be kiln dried. But corn is best saved in the ear. A more thorough system of draining, carried cut on a widely extended scale, may greaUy diminish the diseases to INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUEE. '29S which the maize plant is subject, and improvements in modes of cultivation and in farm building, may lessen them much more ; and immunity from disease might be a great protection against its other enemies. How far the grasshopper plague is connected with the vast scale on which the Great West has been suddenly opened up by the plow, or how far it is the result of the destruction of natural enemies, are subjects which may perhaps be better understood when the mountain regions are more compactly settled. CHAPTER Xn. LARGE CROPS OF MAIZE PER ACRE. Large crops are valuable as showing what can be done on the richest soils, in the most favorable seasons, and with high culture. A general average of good crops is of more im- 1-ortance to the country than a few extraordinary ones where the average is very low. They are most valuable where they indicate the use of the best fertihzers and the best modes of cultivation capable of being generally adopted. Those to which reference is made herein will be chiefly those noticed in the Reports issued by the U. S. Government, or the State of Ohio. (a.)— One of the largest general crops of maize was raised in Jessamine Co., Kentucky, a very rich agricultural district, and was referred to at the close of chapter ix, herein. It was a premium crop ; five acres being measured by a com- mittee of the Agricultural Society of that County, and the whole crop pronounced the same average. A full account of the mode of culture was given in the Louisville Journal at the time ; and the following items are stated from recollection, the account being read in that journal at the time of pub- 29C INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTCBE. lication with much interest. The same system had been ibllowed up for a considerable time by the same cultivator, and it was stated that he never failed to raise one hundred bushels of shelled corn to the acre. The year of this extra- ordinary crop of 196 bushels to the acre, was a very favorable one for corn. The sod of eight years in grass was plowed deeply in the fall, the winter freezing and thawing making it very mellow; in the spring it was re plowed with a smaller plow, harrowed out three feet each way, and planted between the 20th and 25th of March, from four to six inches deep; the latter depth much preferred ; six to eight kernels in the hill. When it was fairly out of the ground, the large tri- angular harrow was dragged over the rows (the front tooth being taken out.) by two horses, one walking on each side. When the corn was about a foot high, the small plow was run twice in the rows with the bar next and very close to the corn, throwing the earth from it, and the stalks in each hill reduced to four. It was also plowed in the same w^ay crosswise. Shortly after, for fast working was the rule, the plow was run through the rows twice each way with the mould board towards the plant, throwing the earth to it. The corn grew so rapidly that little more working was required, and when four feet high, it completely shaded the ground ; the weeds stood no chance, and excessive evaporation was prevented. From its early start, it had the benefit of the best rains, and reached an early maturity, sufficient for cutting up at the ground in the usual way. It is evident, on comparing this method with others commonly followed in similar latitudes, that it is only practicable as to time of planting and depth of covering, where the situation is unusually warm, and the soil favorable for very rapid growth. The rich grass ley plowed in the fall and re- plowed in spring, so as to disturb the decay- ing sod as little as possible, and the rapid culture after plant- ing, have been recommended by others. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 297 (l>.) — In the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1862 it was stated that there were annual applications to the State Board of Agriculture for premiums on corn crops. These set forth under oath all the details of culture, expense and product ; and these statements were annually forwarded to the State Board of Agriculture, and published in the annual Report. Since 1850, sworn statements of the following crops had been received viz: Nine crops over 150 bushels to the acre, eight between 140 and 150 bushels; nine between 130 and 140; thirty-four between 120 and 130; twenty-three between no and 120; sixteen between 100 and no; nineteen be- tween 90 and 100 ; twenty-one between 80 and 90 ; in ail 139 crops producing between 80 and 160 bushels to the acre. (c.) — Two crops of corn in Fairfield Co., Ohio, competing for the premium for the largest yield on one acre, offered by the Agricultural Society of that County in 1862, were de- scribed as follows : S. Barr took the first premium — 99^ bushels ; bottom land ; first crop after grass, plowed in the spring; marked out both ways; corn harrowed and plowed three times. — W. Graham, a competitor, raised 92 bushels to the acre on soil, black mould meadow ; sod broken in March, under-drained ; planted about May 5th in rows three and one- half feet each way ; from three to five stalks in the hill ; well attended with cultivator and shovel plow. (d.) — In 1869 S. R. Humes of Champaign Co., Ohio, took a premium for 85 bushels on one acre, awarded by the Agri- cultural Board of that County, and described the soil pro- ducing it of that kind known as "barrens," composed largely of yellowish sand and clay, one to two feet deep ; then a stratum of lime, gravel, clay and sand mixed, two to four inches thick, and very hard, which dug up and pulverized, looks like a mixture of sand and lime. Underlying this a bed of limestone gravel of indefinite thickness. The corn- field was the oldest on his farm, and had been in cultivation 298 INDIAN CORX AND ITS CULTURE. over sixty years ; was near the barn ; during the previous win- ter cattle and horses were fed on it, till it was thickly covered with cornstalks; was plowed in March with a three horse yilow, eight to ten inches deep, turning all the stalks nicely under, was well harrowed and rolled, and marked out forty- four inches each way, with a double shovel marker ; planted May 14th and 15th; and worked four times with a double shovel plow. Robert Belt took a premium from the Union Co., Ohio, Agricultural Society in 1869 for 81 bushels 361bs., on one acre; soil second bottom, sod plowed for the first time ; no manure used ; planted with a drill, three and one-half feet wide, on May 25th; plowed through twice with a double shovel ; husked November 4th and 5th. (e.) — At the nineteenth annual exhibition of the Carroll Co., Ohio, Agricultural Society, premiums were awarded to W. S. Easterday for 160 bushels of shelled corn on one acre, and 132 shelled per acre, on three acres of corn, and to Jas. McCausland for 114 bushels shelled on one acre; modes of culture not given. (/) — One of the most remarkable crops on record was raised by a farmer in the northern part of Hamilton Co., Ohio, — 172 bushels of shelled corn to an acre, on white oak upland, part of a farm considered run down; it being a clover and timothy sod of three years standing. In the fall and winter of 1846 some thirty head of hogs were fattened on corn scattered over the worst part of the field. About March 1847, it received a moderate dressing of barn-yard manure; was plowed from six to eight inches deep; corn planted in rows four feet apart and averaging about one foot distance in the rows. Its first appearance was unfavorable amongst the large pieces of hard clay ; but by degrees the yellow patches disappeared, and as soon as the roots pierced the clay to the sod, the plants had a healthy color and rapid growth. During INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 299 the whole cultivation, care was taken to disturb the sod as little as possible. Two loads of turnips on the same acre came off with the corn. This crop shows the value of hog manure in bringing up corn land. (g.) — In the same year a crop of 122 bushels two quarts on one acre in Harrison Co., Ohio, took the premium; soil black limestone, plowed late in the spring, cultivated three times, and hoed twice; it being the third crop in succession taken off the land. It must have been a first rate soil to have worn so well. In the same year a Lorain County farmer took the premium for 160 bushels per acre raised on land always pastured till 1846. Plowed eight to sixteen inches deep and planted in corn. In May 1847, plowed two inches deeper, and ridged about three feet apart, the rows the other way three and one-half feet apart. Used the cultivator first, twice in a row, once one way, and once the other, and hoed. Second time, twice in a row one way, and once the other, not hoed. Used the Michigan or Harmon's improved cultivator. Cut and shocked October 8th. Lorainis one of the Lake coun- ties whose moistand equable climate has been spoken of herein. (//.) — To show what can be done on Ohio bottoms after forty- seven years cultivation without manure, one of the premium crops grown by Ohio County Societies is noticed in the U. S. Agricultural Report, 1868, as follows: H. N. Gil- let, of Lawrence Co., raised on one acre 99 bushels i2^1bs corn, soil one-fifth white oak, sandy clay loam, balance alluvial with blue clay subsoil ; land broken about a foot deep, harrowed once, and laid off three feet nine inches each way ; planted with Gillett's improved corn; worked each way, when quiie young, with cultivator ; hoed once, and thinned to two stalks, plowed twice, and just before the tassel appeared, worked by running the cultivator across the furrows of the last plow- ing, holding up the side of the plow next to the row, so as to barely scarify the surface near the corn. 300 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, Some of the prize corn crops of north-western Ohio from 1849 to 1870, as tabulated in the Ohio Geological Report for 1870, were, in Crawford Co., 1849, three acres, 87 bushels totheacre;in 1851,88^ bushels; in 1852, i26;in 1853, i2gj^; in 1S59, 128 ; in i860, one of 160 bushels on one acre, one of 152^, one of 131 and one of 138. Allen Co., in 1852, iio}4 bushels to the acre, in 1853, 94; and in Auglaize Co.. in 1870, T^22,}{ bushels on one acre. Henry Co., in 1853, pro. duced 137)2 ; Mercer, in 1852, 97^ ; and Putnam in 1859, 109 bushels. This part of Ohio was more recently settled, much of it being swampy. (/.) — Large crops are not so common in the southern States. One in 1845 was mentioned as taking the prize in Buncombe Co., North Carolina, of 113^ bushels to the acre. Several cases of large ears are recorded. Two ears were left at the office of the Savannah Republican (nearly fifty years ago) for inspection, which grew on the same stalk; one had 11 40 grains, the other 1020 ; said to be average ears of a fourteea acre field of corn, three miles from Savannah, Georgia. — An ear of corn measuring sixteen inches in length and seven in circumference, grown in the State of Tabasco, Mexico, was presented to the Editor of the New Orleans Picayune. Ohio has grown some large ears. The Western Herald, (Steuben - ville.) mentions one thirteen inches long and ten in circur'*- ference, with forty rows, each sixty grains, total 1200, left at the Herald Office. New Jersey grew a cornstalk more than six inches in circumference, and thirteen feet nine inches liigh. The only manure used was eighty bu.shels of stone lime to the acre. (7.) — Pennsylvania is not generally so remarkable for ex- traordinary crops as for very good averages. A very good description of the method of raising 100 bushels to the acre is given by a farmer of Venango Co , in the U. S. Agricultural Report for 1S53. A meadow, clover field or old pasture is INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, SOI chosen ; if wet or spouty, is thoroughly drained ; twenty-five to thirty loads to the acre of ^jd manure, or more of inferior, are added ; one load spread at a time, and immediately plow- ed under ; a handful of plaster being dusted on each heap as deposited in the field. Old lands are mostly plowed nine inches deep and subsoiled ; new lands plowed more shallow ; the furrows are so well turned that no grass will harrow up. After a few days drying, the field is harrowed till there is enough loose soil to cover the corn ; but not enough to make the ground very smooth, lest the rains should make it heavy. The furrowing is shallow enough not to disturb the sod ; wider apart for the large varieties, three feet for eight rowed yel- low. For planting, settled weather and warm soil in good condition to receive the seed are waited for, say for latitude 4i}i°, from the middle to the last of May. A variety adapt- ed to a colder climate should be at hand, when an unfavor- able spring makes the usual time unsuitable, or for second planting when the first fails. The ground being well pre- pared shortly before planting, the most careful hands drop the seed, four or five grains in a hill to be distributed over a space six or eight inches in diameter ; followed by others with hoes to cover every grain away from the birds. If these begin taking up the corn, a bushel sown broadcast over the field will protect the whole crop. Plaster may be applied at planting. As soon as the plants are fairly up, the rows are dressed thoroughly with the corn harrow or cultivator, fol- lowed by hoes, killing every weed and every particle of grass ; those in the hills being removed by hand. A little plaster is dusted on each hill at this stage, or a larger quantity sown broadcast ; if ashes were not applied at planting, they are ap- plied now. The crop to be kept clean with the shovel plow or cultivator, finishing with the common plow passing three times in a row ; the third time very deep, and a thorough hoeing without hilling. This working is finished about July 302 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 4th, the field being entirely clear of weeds. Thus tilled the land yields at lea^t one hundred bushels of sound shelled corn per acre, costing but a trifle more than a crop of fifty bushels. A crop in south-eastern Pennsylvania was reported about the year 1845, of loi^^ bushels to the acre on old grass sod of twenty years standing. Seven years before it received a dressing of lime, fifty bushels to the acre. It was broken up in the spring seven inches deep, with a Prouty plow, marked out four and one-half by four feet, six grains planted in the hill between the ist and 5th of the 5th month, May, which were thinned to four. Corn up two or three inches high, each hill was plastered — the only manure used. The after cul- tivation was with the corn harrow, and once with the shovel plow, the weeds not reached by the harrow being subdued by the hand hoe. Much was due to deep plowing with the Prouty plow, which was very effective in pulverizing the sod as it was turned over. This was in about latitude 40°, show- ing an earlier planting than the last named crop by nearly two weeks. Another Pennsylvania crop was reported in 1845 of 1820' bushels raised on twelve acres, or 151 bushels to the acre, on a field originally the poorest on the farm. It was more or less a re-planting after the first had been cut off by the cut- worm and blackbirds. A compost was made of twenty-five bushels of leached ashes, ten of plaster of Paris, sixteen of lime, and about fifty of fine sheep manure, well mixed on the barn floor, and the lime dissolved with beef and pork brine. A handful of this compost was put in each hill of corn till it was found insufficient for the whole twelve acres, and then divided between two or three hills for the balance. (k.) — Chemung Co., New York, in 1845 had five premium crops, the samples of corn exhibited being all good, and the product per acre being respectively 123, 121^4^, 113^4^, 1 19 14 and 107}^ bushels. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 303 An experiment reported (1845) from Waterloo, New York, shows what can be made out of a peaty swamp — 140 bushels of sound corn per acre. After the second hoeing, in the height of the summer drought, when the ears had commenced forming, the whole of the loose peaty mass was found full of moisture, probably due to its fine state of decomposition. The year 1847 seems to have been prolific in premium crops. Different County Societies in New York reported prerriiums on the following yields per acre, 143, 140, 137, 129, 127, i24j 116, 112, no, 107, 100, and so on down to fifty bushels. (/.) — Connecticut about the year 1844-5 fi-irnished reports of several large crops; one to the Middlesex Co. Society of one-fourth acre producing at the rate of 151 bushels to the acre on sward ground highly manured and planted three feet apart each way. Another in Middletown, on sward rolled after plowing, and two coats of fine hog-pen manure placed on top and harrowed in, about sixty-five cart loads to the acre ; planted May 20th, four kernels m hills three and one- half by two and one-half feet apart. Soil gravelly loam ; the seed was rolled in plaster ; the suckers were all removed from the hills at the last hoeing; produced 108^ bushels to the acre of corn with ears well filled with large kernels ; the quality very superior. Bridgeport furnished the following account of highly suc- cessful croppings: Old meadow land turned over in early November with a heavy subsoil plow, followed by a heavy roller over the furrows ; cross plowed in the spring and har- rowed twice. Is manured wilh a mixture of one-third creek mud, or decomposed vegetable matter, one-third stable or barn-yard manure, one-third unslacked lime taken from the bottom of the kiln. Five grains of the best selected corn are planted in hills three to four feet apart, and as the corn shows Itself, unleached ashes are placed on the outside of the young 304 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. ])lants, the rain or atmospheric moisture carrying it to the roots of the plants. The field is kept clean Irom weeds, and hoed three times. In the summer of 1842-3, nine acres of corn were planted, one-half L. I. yellow, and one half J.ong l.Uand white, two acres of the resulting crop were measured, one white and one yellow — the white gave 236 bushels of we.l grown cars, the yellow, 224. The atmosphere in that neighborhood being too salt for the use of plaster, its appli- cation to land was given up. (;;/.) — Massachusetts has an early record in respect to large yields per acre. John Andrew, of Salem, in 1827 raised 166 bushels of corn from one and a half acres, more than no bush- els per acre. A Berkshire Co., correspondent (1845) says that more than twenty pieces of land in corn were reported as producing one hundred bushels to the acre and over. From the U. S. Agricultural Report, 1869, it appears that the an- nual increase on the crops of this State was slight for the pre- vious twenty years. It only needed the timely application of wood ashes to the hill, and careful stirring of the soil to produce seventy-five bushels per acre.. In Dukes County, an island off a bleak coast, three farmers raised respectively 109^, jo8}4 andio2i/( bushels of maize. Vermont, (Windham Co.,) in 1845, reported a premium crop of 106 bushels to the acre, from the use of muck. An old number of the American Farmer gives a sketch of the possibilities of corn raising as follows : It might be possible to make some fraction of an acre of ground so perfect in its soil as to produce and maintain to maturity, one stalk of In- dian corn upon every twenty-four inches of square surface. If we allow one good ear to each stalk, and half a pint of grain to each ear, the product would be about at the rate of 168 bushels to the acre. It would be a very easy matter to try the above experiment by making the hills of corn two feet apart each way, planting three or four kernels in a hill, and INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 305 leaving at the first or second time of hoeing, but one stalk in a hill • each kernel to be planted at such a distance from its next neighbor, as to be pulled out "without deranging the economy of the hill." Higher yields than this have already been mentioned from seed planted at distances apart common at the east and fre- quent at the west. («.) — As an offset to the large crop from peaty soil in the north, above referred to, we give a recent one from swamp land in Georgia on 1.012 acre (210 feet square) which took the premium at the State Fair at Macon. It was "branch land" (creek bottom) black mud, or a muck swamp five feet deep, mixed with sand, and before reduced to cultivation was covered with brush and cane. The plot was bounded on three sides by a small running stream or "spring branch," formed by cutting into the ditches five feet deep, and making a ditch of the same depth on the fourth side. By the time the drainage was completed and the swamp cleared of its growth, the season was far advanced. The land was then broken up with Bloodworth's iron plow with subsoil attach- ment, and the soil bedded up, leaving water furrows forty- five inches apart ; three hundred bu.shels of fresh horse ma- nure were then distributed in the furrows, by the side of which the plow was again run, covering the manure. Red cob gourd seed, previously soaked in water till in sprouting con- dition was drilled iu the last made furrow, ten inches apart, on June ist, 1869. Midway between these drillings and in the same farrows, Dickson's guano was dropped, a spoonful at a time; direct contact of the corn either with the guano or the horse manure being thus avoided. The land being warm, tlie corn appeared in a few days. A turn plow was then run each side of the row, throwing the earth away from the corn, which was then hoed and thinned. Ten days after a shovel plow was run around the corn, followed in a week after by a 2G 306 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CCLTUKE, turn plow throwing the earth to the corn. This process of throwing to, was repeated after ten days. Another ten days elapsing, the earth was drawn up around the corn by a hand hoe, ten inches high. About August ist the drought set in, and for the purpose of irrigation a dam was thrown across the outlet of the ditches and the water backed upon the soil. The crop obtained was 1377- bushels of corn, or 135^ bushels per acre. Net profit S136, 07 per acre. ((?) — What an acre of prairie soil can be made to yield of maize is shown in one of the reports of competitors for the premium offered by the Coles County, Illinois, Agricultural Society. 10623 bushels per acre were produced, or 1,066-3 bushels on ten acres of old prairie ground, twelve years in meadow, plowed early in April, seven inches deep, harrowed well, and planted in May, three and one-half feet each way, and covered with hoes; plowed five times with cultivator or shovel plow, and hoed twice, thinning to three stalks in the hill. Another entry was made of ten acres prairie loam, barley stubble, plowed ten to twelve inches deep widi a three horse team, and planted two and one-half by three and one- half feet, cultivated three times and shovel plowed once. Yield 10631^ bushels, or an average of JoSy'i bushels per acre. (p.) — The hilly county of Washington Ohio, produced in 1847 a premium crop of 144 bushels of corn to the acre, and another on high hilly land of 1 1 7 bushels. In the same year the Trumbull Co., Agricultural Society reported a crop of corn on two acres measured and producing 200 bushels on upland, sandy and gravelly soil, which had been in spring wheat the year previous, })lowed in the fall and again in the spring and manured with barn-yard manure, planted about May 25th in hills four feet apart one way and three and one- half feet the other, attended with the cultivator, and hoed twice. The same farm -r exhibited to the measurers another INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE 307 field planted ia rows three and one-half feet apart each way, lacking a little of two acres, of which they adjudged the pro- duct to be no bushels to the acre. {q) — An experiment was tried near Columbus Ohio, an account of which was published in 1S58, on bottom land which for forty years previous had never been plowed to a depth exceeding six inches, and which had been cultivated carefully in corn during the entire period ; plowed 1 1 3/^ acres eight inches deep, subsoiled eight inches deeper, and jjlanted corn May loth. Adjoining this a tract was plowed to the usual depth of previous years, and planted with corn May 7th. On the shallow sod the corn came up and looked for a few weeks as well as on the deep plowed land, but when the heat of July carne round, the corn omthe shallow plowed land came to a stand still ; the leaves curled and drooped, and gave unmistakable evidence of suffering from drought; while that on the deep i)lowed land was growing vigorously, and found no lack of moisture; the result being 120 bushels to the acre on the latter, while the shallow plowed tract produced less than forty bushels. (r) — The heaviest yield on one acre on this list is men- tioned in the U. S. Agricultural Report, 1870, as being re- ported by J. W. Parker to the annual Convention of the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Society, for 1869. The mode of culture which produced this yield, together with the one preceding it on the same ground, is thus de- scribed. A quagmire was selected, grown over with rushes, willows and sour grass, abounding with snakes and malaria, and traversed by a winding sluggish stream. "Thorough drainage was attained by the construction of a canal and underdrains, and during the summer the land was cleared, leveled and broken up with a two horse plow." In Novem- ber a heavy coat of cow-house manure was plowed under, and the process repeated in January, and again in M mh 308 INDIAN COR\ AND ITS CULTURE. wiih subsoiling. In April a heavy growth of weeds was limed and turned inider. In May another coat of manure was plowed under^ and the land harrowed perfectly level, and laid off in rows three feet apart. In the furrows were applied Peruvian guano, salt and plaster at the rate of 200 lbs. of each per acre. The seed corn, soaked in a solution of niter and rolled in plaster, was dropped ten inches apart in tlie rows, and covered with rakes ; after which the land was rolled. The corn was up in five days from planting, and as soon as it was sufficiently large, a long narrow plow was run round it, followed by the hoe. The corn was kept clean by shallow, level culture till it began to shoot and tassel ; the field was then irrigated by conveying from a reservoir, gently flowmg water through every alternate row. The yield on two acres was 147 bushels per acre. The following year the experiment was repeated in like manner, except that the rows were laid off two and one-half feet apart. One acre yielded 20033 bushels, as attested by a viewing committee. Mr. Parker attributed much to irrigation in the above re- sults. His conclusion from these and previous experiments v/as, that successful maize growing depends greatly on deep fall and winter plowing; underdraining of moist land, fol- lowed by judicious manuring ; deep early and shallow late working ; the roots not being disturbed after the corn begins to tassel. {s.) — Sufficient examples have been adduced to show the importance of selecting for a corn field a sod of several years standing, and in most cases of plowing it deeply ; and if the subsoil is stiff clay, or otherwise impervious to moisture, ex- cept in the case of rock bottom, of treating it with the sub- soil plow; of applying, in the case of land long cultivated, a liberal coat of barn-yard manure, either on the sod before plowing, say in the fall or winter; or on the plowed land in spring, and harrowing it in well; of furrowing out so as not INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 309 to disturb the sod, from three to four feet apart in hills accord- ing to the height of the stalks and the fertility of the soil, in the middle and northern States, and wider apartfor the largest varieties at the south, or in drills distant apart according to a similar rule, with an average of one foot apart in the drills; of planting in average seasons from the ist to the 25th of May in the northern, middle and western States, and earlier going south; of leaving but four stalks in the hill at most, and gen- erally but two or three ; of beginning the process of culti- vation as soon as the corn is fairly out of the ground, with harrow, cultivator, or double shovel plow, assisted with hoes if necessary to effect a perfect weeding at the start ; of apply- ing ashes or plaster in small quantities to old lands in the neighborhood of the young plants ; of plowing deeply close to the rows only when the corn is quite young and the roots are not widely extended, being careful in all cases to disturb the sod as little as possible, consistent with thorough pulverization of the soil ; of leaving but short intervals between the several stirrings until the stalk is about four feet high ; and of watch- ing the earing time, to remove all ears affected with smut as fast as they appear. (/.) — In looking over the above list of large crops to the acre it will be seen that they have been raised mostly on lands which have been for a considerable time under culti- vation ; some on bottoms, some on uplands ; some on clayey, some on sandy and gravelly tracts ; some on peat soils, and some on reclauned swamps. The heaviest crops were raised either on a sod of long standing, in the most favorable location for growth, and deeply plowed ; or they received an abundant manuring. As little has been said in these statements on the proper depth of planting the seed, we extract from the U. S. Agri- cultural Report, 1868, the result of experiments by a Penn- sylvania farmer who planted corn with a pointed stick at SIO IXDIAX CORN AND ITS CTJXTOKE. depths of one, one and a half, two inches &c., up to six inches. The grains planted at one inch came up in eight and three-quarter days. Those at one and one-half inches came up in nine and one-quarter days. Those at depths from two to five inches came up in periods ranging from ten to eighteen days, proportional to the depth of the seed. Of those at five and one-half inches, only ten grains came up. Those at six inches did not make their appearance at all. Of those at five inches only forty-two grains attained a height of six to eight inches. Those planted at the depth of four and one-half inches, produced no ears of full size. Those atone and one- half inches produced the best corn. Those at one and two inches gave sound ears, but inferior to those just mentioned. He concludes that the proper depth for planting corn is from one and one-half to two inches. This mny stand as a gen- eral rule, but it cannot make an "absolute guide, in view of the conditions of diverse soils." CHAPTER Xni. FERTILIZERS SECTION I. Substances which promote the growth of the maize plant, applied by human skill or industry, are called either fertilizers or manures. The former from its derivation seems the most comprehensive term. Some of nature's fertilizers are more essential. Solar light is necessary to the action of the leaves in the decomposition of carbonic acid; carbon being retained for the upbuilding of the plant, and oxygen returned to its great reservoir. Solar heat is one of the most important aids of growth from germination to ripening. The atmosphere is a great fertilizer, supplying not only carbonic acid but oxygen, which the plant takes up at night, while it gives INDIAN CORN ANB ITS CULTURE. Sll out carbonic acid, and also such combinations of nitrogen as ammonia and nitric acid, formed, it may be by electricity, or taken up by evaporation. (i?.) The atmosphere is a great laboratory for vapor, visiting the plants with dew or rain ; it also acts as the receiver and transporter of sundry volatile matters held in suspension, in- cluding particles of solid bodies, besides immense numbeis of minute living creatures on the wing. That electricity is also a fertilizing agency may be inferred from some experi- ments detailed in U. S. P. O., 1844, although the profita- bleness of its employment as such is questionable. Enough has already been stated herein to show that water in motion is one of the greatest fertilizers, and in some cases its natural action has been a grand substitute for all the fertilizers of ari. Water answers nearly all the purposes of a manure, it forms from -^j to I of the maize grain, and an increasingly large proportion of the stalk, going back to its first appearance above ground. It is a carrier to the maize plant of its food, from higher levels and especially from the clouds. It also distributes the plant food through the soil, making it accessi- ble to the roots ; but this is dependent on the finely divided condition of the soil, as produced by cultivation. But in percolating through the soil it tends to open it up ; it holds the food of the plant in solution, and thus fits it for easy and rapid absorption of fertilizing elements. On the other hand it may be supposed that water leaches away from a soil its more soluble substances. But this may be to a grea.t extent prevented by deep and thorough cultivation. A sponge open- ing freely holds a great deal of water, which is forced out by compression. So if the soil is kept open and spongy, it retains all the water it needs. This soaks through a deeply stirred soil, which takes from it, as it passes, the needed fertilizing mat- ters it has in solution, but from a shallow plowed soil havii g much of a slope, it runs off, making channels of its own, and 312 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. carries with it portions of the soil in suspension. Masses of water, to aid plant growth, must be in motion ; stagnant water chills the plant and hinders growth. {b ) The word manure from the Latin matins, a hand, seems the better term for substances applied in aid of plant growth by the hand of man. Other fertilizers, including water, may operate directly on the plant without the intervention of the soil. Manures properly speaking are applied to the soil. Some thirty years ago experiments were made by which a substitute for the manuring of the soil was supposed to be found in the soaking of the seed with special manures. Tes- timonies to remarkable results from the process were quite abundant in certain quarters. Stalks of Indian Corn were made to produce four or five ears, and some eight or nine ears. It was claimed that enveloping the seed with the man- ure was a better security against leaching and waste, than the application of it to the soil. The stimulus given to the growth of the seed by imbuing it with manurial substance, has been generally acknowledged and frequently taken advan- tage of, especially by those whose crops are endangered by early and late frosts, as in the more northerly latitudes; by those whose planting has been delayed by a wet spring, mak- ing timely plowing inadmissible; and by others to insure an early and rapid growth as a protection against worm destroy- ers. It is probable that the rapid development of the stem and roots enables them sooner and more effectually to ex- tract fertilizing gases from the atmosphere, and to take up manurial substances from the soil ; that is if the tillage is deep and thorough. But after the first year or two, there is risk of a light grain crop from heavy stalks, unless the soil is too fertile to need manuring. To make the crop reasonably certain in soil crop- ped for a long time, the spreading of fresh manure, or putting that well rotted in the hill, is usually necessary to satisfy the IHDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 813 appetite of the plant stimulated by soaking the seeds. The ability of the soil to take up and retain all the plant needs of its proper food contained in the manure or otherwise absorb- ed, is dependent on the soil being in good condition. {c) The uses of manure are to feed the plant, or assist its digestion, or to present the food to the roots in a soluble form, or put the soil in the mechanical condition required for absorbing and retaining fertilizing substances, or for correct- ing its injurious acidities or other faults. Some manures answer nearly all these purposes. (d) Manures have been classed as organic and inorganic. Organic manures may be of vegetable or animal origin. The inorganic substances having existed before the organic, may be first considered. In the order of material creation, lifeless forms are older than living ones. As to all manures, it is highly important, in order that the soil may get the full bene- fit of them, that as fast as wanted they should be finely di- vided, or in a soluble state. To make combinations or mix- tures complete, atom should meet atom; it is the office of some manures, however, to promote this. But as the manu- rial properties are not all in demand by the plant at once, and some varieties of maize and other plants are longer growing than others, the most soluble manures should be applied to those of quickest growth, and -vice-versa. ( 6) 7 ye3.rs according to nature of land. As manure it is best in small quantities applied frequently and composted wiih earth, clay and other matters. Most varieties of sub- soil strata make good compounds with lime. Except to new land, it is much the safest applying lime mixed with earth, sand, clay, turf or vegetable mould. As quick-lime sets free the ammonia from guano and fermenting manures, it should be applied a little before or after the application of these, or on the surface, so as to prevent their admixture. Lime that has become mild from exposure to air on or under the surface hurts no manure. Burned oyster shells aired a few hours, to slake, are the best lime for the land. 300 bushels of lime to an acre will cover the surface jYo^o of an inch deep; 100 bushels looo '■> 9° bushels j oJo > ^° bushels .027 ; 70 bushels .024; 60 bushels .021 ; 50 bushels .017 ; 40 bushels .014 ; 30 bushels .010; 20 bushels .007. Crude limestone crushed, is applied with effects slower, but more lasting than quick-lime ; but is not an active solvent, or absorber, nor so finely powdered as the hydrate, or chalk. The fine powder made by slaking burned lime, is more equally diffused in the soil, combines quicker with the acids, and touches more nearly the roots of grass, straw, leaves, &c ; promoting their decomposition. Beds of impure limestone for the manufacture of cements and hydraulic mortar, when burned and ground to powder, cannot be applied so as to improve land like the purer lime- stones as they harden to stone by combining with the water or moisture of the soil. Limestone countries often in hollows and hillsides, exhibit banks, and heaps of sand and gravel, containing rounded particles of limestone, called limestone sand and gravel; being carried down by water from decaying limestones and other rocks. These greatly improve boggy land. {h ) Chloride of Calcium: common salt and slaked lime be- ing mixed, the salt is decomposed, the soda becomes caustic, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 819 and the lime a chloride of calcium, containing 6^ -^^^ pr ct. of chlorine gas, very deliquescent, bitter in taste, and dissolv- ing in one fourth its weight of water at 60° F. Chalk or quicklime dissolved in muriatic acid produces the same. It is found in the sea water, the refuse of salt pans, and the waste of bleacheries; improves vegetable growth. It may be more convenient to use common salt, 100 to 300 lbs to acre, with slaked lime say three times those quantities. The salt may be dissolved in water, and thrown on the lime. It is a great help to maize, if spread on land mixed with leached ashes, charcoal, saw-dust or gypsum. (/.) C/i/or/de, or Oxy muriate of Lime, when dry, is pale and greyish white; a good article has 25 to 30 per ct. by weight of chlorine gas. It is a hydrate of lime mechanically mixed with chlorine. Its partial solution in water evolves chlorine; the freed lime becoming an insoluble carbonate in the bot' torn of the vessel. Kept in a dark place, or exposed, when dry, to heat, it loses its chlorine. It is not known as a neces- sity of plants; but some suppose it to operate like gypsum in fixing ammonia, and aiding the germination of seeds. Much of it has been thrown away in the refuse of bleacheries. (y.) Gas lime is the refuse of gas works, Some analyses by Prof. Johnston show in 100 parts, from 56 to 69 carbonate of lime ; from zVj^ to 29^^ gypsum ; from 2^^ to 14-1^0 sul- phite and hyposulphite of lime ; (the latter being soluble 'n\ water) from 9^^ to 12 -^-^ water and coal tar ; and small quan- tities of caustic hydrate of lime, prussian blue, alumina, oxide of iron, sulphur, insoluble matter, and sulphuret of calcium. There is some risk in applying it to growing crops, unless the components are well understood ; but having very little caustic lime, it may safely be mixed at once with barn-yard manure, but not in too large quantities. Mixed with guano, it would tend to fix the ammonia; exposed to open air it gradually absorbs carbonic acid from the atmosphere ; most slowly in damp situations- 320 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. {-('.) Nitrate of Lime, (lime 34.46, nitric acid 65.54), is a result of chalk or limestone dissolved in nitric acid; is often produced naturally in compost heaps to which hme has been added; is found in rocks and in the soil; effloresces on the j)laster of old walls, and is abundant in the mammoth cave of Kentucky. It is very soluble in water and deliquescent, decomposed by fixed alkalies; with potash forming saltpetre, and with soda cubic nitre; is contained in hard water, which, according to Dr. Home, is much more promotive of plant growth, than soft water. (/.) Oxalate of Lime, (oxalic acid and calcareous matter) is a white powder, very insoluble in water, but soluble in muriatic and nitric acids, is hardly plant food ; may be de- composed by sulphuric acid, forming gypsum and oxalates of magnesia, and other salts, which are soluble and highly favorable to vegetation, when not superacidulated. (7;/.) Phosphates of Lime are the results of variable propor- tions of phosphoric acid combined with lime, of which, the most abundant and the most useful in agriculture, are the earthy parts of bones, and the native phosphorite. They are less abundant in corals, oyster shells, and shells of other fish ; in the teeth, horns, nails, hair and other parts of animals, and in the horny wings and covering of numerous insect tribes. The phosphate of lime is a minute part of nearly all lime- stones and marls, and most fertile soils; it is found in the stalk and grain of maize. The bi-phosphate of lime isiorxned from burnt bones, pow- dered and dissolved in sulphuric acid, diluted with once or twice its weight of water ; the remainder of the lime form- ing gypsum with sulphuric acid. Tt has 28^ in 100 parts of lime, and 71^ phosphoric acid. Liquid manures from the urine of animals contain it. One of the best liquid manures for grain crops is the above superphosphate, mixed with gypsum and largely diluted with water. Pearl-ash added to IN'DIAV CORN AND ITS CITLTURH. 321 the solution till it begins to turn milky, will produce a mix- ture of the phosphates with the sulphates of lime and potash ; if soda added, the phosphates with the sulphates of lime ;aid soda, both being improvements on the bi-phosphate. Simply- adding potash and soda to the solution of bones in sulphuric acid, and drying it up with charcoal powder, a vegetable mould, Avill make a good top dressing for hand sowing or drilling in. Bone earth: the ash of bones contains 51^^ parts of lime, to 48^ phosphoric acid. Apatite, or phosphorite, in masses and veins abounds throughout the world, and when pure has 54^2 parts of lime, and 45% phosphoric acid. Dr. Daubeny from a bed in Spain six or seven feet thick, of unknown depth, one en- tire white, radiating, silky mass, obtained samples nearly as fertilizing for grass and turnips, as bone manure ; and inferred that the rich manure of bone was chiefly due to the phos- phate, and not to the oil or gelatin. Phosphorite has been mined in the United States, at Crown Point, near Lake Champlain, and in Morris and Sussex counties, New Jersey. It may be ground and spread on old grass lands, or dissolved in diluted sulphuric acid, for grain crops, i.ooo to 1,200 lbs. per acre. It mixes with the rocks where it occurs ; and must be analyzed to find how much acid will dissolve it. Car- bonic acid water i gal. dissolves 30 grains of bone earth, driv- ing off part of the phosphoric acid, and combining with what lime separates from it, and the phosphoric acid combines with the other portion of the phosphate of lime, making a super- phosphate soluble in water, and a carbonate of lime found among its sediment The phosphorite of Morris Co., New Jersey, is first' ground, then heated with sulphuric acid, to produce the superphosphate, then mixed with wood ashes and thrown into the compost heap, or otherwise distributed on the land. In some cases the pulverized mineral has by it- self been mixed with the compost. 322 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. Wherever vegetable matter decays in the soil, the water carries to the roots of the maize plant, carbonic acid, with common carbonate of lime, and some of the needful phos- phorite dissolved in it. («.) Silicates of lime: the glassy salt or mixture of two or more silicates from silicious sand, mixed with quicklime — abounds in granite, trap and other rocks — is found in the ash and probably in the leaves and stems of plants. The moist- ure and carbonic acid of the atmosphere, slowly decompose these silicates, freeing the silica and forming carbonate of lime. Rain and dew, full of carbonic acid, dissolve the car- bonate of lime, arid some of the silica, and diffuse or carry them to lower levels. Soils on decayed trap, or on masses of a wholly rotten rock, owe much of their acknowledged rich- ness to this long drawn out liming process. Around iron furnaces, the first slag obtained, which accumulates greatly, is largely silicate, which may be laid on boggy or peaty land in large quantities, giving by their slow decomposition to growing crops, a long lease of lime and silica, and to soil, solidity and firmness. (^.) Gypsum: sulphate of lime, (water 21, lime 33, sul- phuric acid 46; calcined, lime 41^^^, sulphuric acid S^/2), is white and crystalline; deprived of water at low red heat, forms Plaster of Paris, which, made into paste, with water, unites chemically with it, and in a few minutes forms a hard sub- stance used for casts, &c. A ton of pure gypsum crushed yields about twenty-five bushels. It is found in nature as selenite and alabaster, and almost free from water, as anhy- drite; is seen in peat, and is an element of lucerne, sanfoin, ray grass, red clover and turnips, aijd in the excrement of most, if not all grazing animals. It is often found in springs. Plaster was used in agriculture by the ancient Romans, Bri- tons and Lombards ; but not much in modern times till after its discovery as a manure by a German clergyman in 1768. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 323 Its use gradually spread in Germany, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and the United States. Dr. Franklin sowed in large letters, in a clover field in Washington City, in pow- dered gypsum, the words, '• this has been plastered." Near Philadelphia and elsewhere it has been successfully used ever since 1772. E. A. Kendall's travels (1807) mention it as very highly prized, as restoring vigor to exhausted soils, and making up for inferior husbandry in the farming district be- tween Litchfield County, Connecticut, and the Hudson River. It was imported from Nova Scotia, and sold for ten dollars per ton on Hudson River, but has since been found near Niagara Falls, near Cayuga Lake, at Martha's vineyard, and other places in New York, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, &c. Gypsum is thought to extract ammonia from the atmos- phere, and retain it for the use of plants, and to fix in the soil, this and other soluble essentials to plant growth. This fixing of ammonia is also thought to take place when gypsum (plaster) is scattered over stable floors, dung heaps, and manure tanks; sulphate of ammonia, and carbonate of lime being formed by its sulphuric acid uniting with the ammonia, and the lime with the carbonic acid of the volatile carbonate of ammonia. This last comes down also with rain water from the clouds, and when it fails to meet gypsum in the soil, is quickly volatilized. The sulphuric acid of the gypsum decomposes and stimulates the humus and insoluble matter in loams or peaty soils, and this humus is needed in the soil to make gypsum an effective fertilizer. Too much humic acid will combine with the lime of the gypsum, forming hu- mate of lime, and the freed sulphuric acid may corrode the maize roots. There may be an excess of gypsum in a soil very rich in humus; but in proper quantities it makes the delicate and juicy leaves better absorbents from the atmos- })here. Powdered raw, it does not swell in water. Heated first below redness, and wet with its bulk of water, it hardens 324 I.\DIA\ CORX AND ITS CULTURE. in five or ten minutes; another dose of water, and when beginning to harden, a third dose given, and so on five or six times, and the mixture grows weaker; then divided into clods and left to air, it is easily powdered fine. The plaster has now more surface to water, and is more soluble for the roots of plants. The particles acquire five or six times their original bulk from repeated additions of water. Over-roast- ing prevents this thorough expansion. It is y-, stronger for expelling the water. When aired it takes up chemically as much water as it lost by burning, without being weakened as a manure. Its solubility enables it to enter plants entire. Strewn over young growing crops, it stimulates the leaves most when the dew is still on them. For clover, it is best strewn over the field before winter and harrowed in with the seed; being thus more evenly exposed to the action of the roots. It is in wet, warm seasons, that the water carries it to the maize roots, and the leaves will only de-oxidize the sulphuric acid when aided by the sun's rays. Gypsum will not always succeed unless applied discreetly and alternately with other manures. In America its use helps Indian Corn, buckwheat and rye, and most on light, dry and sandy soils. It is said to want considerable moisture to make it active. It has proved beneficial to chalky and limestone soils, especially soon after marling. It fails when vegetable matter is exhausted, and should not be too often repeated on the same soil, especially it very rich. Most soils require a change in manures as well as crops once in five or six years. Maize at planting, or at first or second hoeings, is best plastered in the evening or morning on dew, or in calm and cloudy weather just before or after a slight rain ; very rainy weather lessening or destroy- ing its effect. It has been applied in fall and winter, so that the rains of the season might dissolve it. Some writers say, apply five or six bushels per acre to corn, but the correspond- ents of the U. S. P. O. from 1849 to 1853 give variouij INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. amounts, from one to two bushels, and from five to one hun- dred lbs. per acre as the usual application. They speak of beds of plaster in Onondaga and Ontario Counties, New York, and of others at Sandusky Bay, and Grand Rapids; Onondaga and Sandusky plasters were considered nearly pure sulphate of lime, . The price in Hillsdale County Michi- gan, in 1851, was Sio to $12 per ton ; at Adrian, $6 per ton. Plaster was used more or less in the New England States, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan and Ohio, and gener- ally with great advantage. Some correspondents from New Hampshire and Vermont were exceptional in stating that in some cases it Avas of little benefit. Several spoke of it as beneficial on all soils, others that it was mainly useful on slaty hillsides, and dry sandy soils, and those resting on felspar and hornblende, and on soils suited to clover and winter grain. It was so suited to red clover, that like man and wife, they were not to be divorced. Some thought that previous liming neutralized the plaster, and that the lime found sulphuric acid m the soil and formed gypsum. On corn land it was often used with ashes in the hills at planting, the corn being dropped on the mixture; but much oftener a handful at the first hoeing, soon after the corn was up, or half a spoonful, some say a table-spoonful of plaster alone, or if put in the hill with barn-yard manure, a gill. It has been mixed with guano, 133 lbs. per acre, to plaster -g'^- of a ton. Plaster entered into various composts with lime, ashes, muck and barn-yard manure, which were successfully applied to corn land. Seed corn was frequently rolled in plaster, with or without previous tarring to hasten its growth. The sprinkling of plaster once a month during winter on the manure heaps, increased the crops greatly and gave greater action to the manure through the subsequent season. As the geology of the United States becomes better known, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, new beds of gypsum and other fertilizers will be laid open. In U. S. Agricultural report for 1868 is an account of the chief beds in West Virginia, including 40 miles along the valleys of North Holston and Walker's Creek, between Walk- er's and Clinch Mountain. The gypsum is in boulders em- bedded in clay ; only a beginning has been made in working and transporting it. From analyses it appeared fully equal to the Nova Scotia plaster. {p.) Marl contains not less than one-fifth its weight of carbonate of lime; with less than this it becomes a marly clay or soil ; lime mud, more and less pure, is the result of deposits in low levels by the latest great floods of the globe. Weather beaten rocks containing much lime, when exposed to air, and especially to frost, have furnished in a few cases, carbonate of lime, which, in the marl thus formed, is sometimes 70 or 80 per cent. Quicklime, by long exposure becomes a very rich marl ; so finally does lime applied to the soil. Marls are white, gray, yellow and blue, and differ in coherence and composition. Clay marls have the appearance of stiff clay, but are pow- dered by immersion in water, or long exposure to air. Like lime, they prepare the food for the rootlets ; give the plant a wide field to feed in; and make the soil an absorbent from the atmosphere ; having usually 60 to 80 per cent, of clay, and 20 to 32 of calcareous matter, silicious sand, &c. Stony fuarls, often more calcareous than clay marls, have less power of neutralizing acids and producing salts, and require a larger quantity for the same effect. These and clay marls make light sandy soils more solid. Sandy marls make stiff soils more easy to work. Shell jiiarl helps all soils greatly, it drinks water and swells like a sponge ; is said to attract acids more strongly than clay and stony marls, and to require six times the quantity to satu- rate it. It is not exhaustive of the vegetable matter of soils, and INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURK. 327 may be applied to soils exhausted by lime and the other marls, or may be repeated. It dissolves sooner than the other marls and operates quicker — is slower than lime, but more lasting. Limed land, exhausted by cropping, is not restored by other than shell marl, and marled land so conditioned is not re- ; stored by liming, but may be by a muck composted with dung. Marl should be applied to light, barren land, i,ooo or I 2,000 bushels per acre; to soils in good condition one-fifth / or one-sixth of this, once in six or seven years. ((7.) Co7'als are marine polypifers of various colors, with stony or horny axes; are mostly carbonate of lime; may be shrub like or rounded. Coral Sand is of the same nature, and in France has been much used in the same way and with the same effects as marl. Its saline and animal matters are weakened by long exposure to air, and so it is preferred fresh. The Normans compost it with farm -yard manure to great advantage. Coral and other shells abound in Florida ; the reefs and shoals of the Keys of Florida and Bahama Islands are often entire masses of broken coral shells and infusoria, and could manure all the cultivated land in the United States for thousands of years. (T. G. Clemson, U. S. P. O., 1856.) (r.) Coprolites are cone-like fossils of ancient calcareous formations, and are said to be petrified excrements of extinct animals. They are found in Maine, and many limestone formations in other States, with other fossils; mostly in layers of rocks; sometimes as pebbles, coarse gravel, or more com- minuted particles. A sample analyzed by Herepath had of phosphate of lime, magnesia and iron, 53 7 ; carbonate of lime 28.4; gypsum 0.7; silica 13.2; water 3.4; being about as rich in phosphate and carbonate of lime, as recent per- fectly dried ox-bones deprived of their fat. Though intensely hard, they are readily dissolved by sulphuric acid, into an excellent manure. 328 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. (s.) Magnesia, (protoxide of magnesium), an important element of maize, and of the muscles, tissues and fluids of most animals, abounding in nature with lime as a carbonate, and in soapstone and serpentine as silicates, is a very light, white, odorless, tasteless powder, and very insoluble in water. Carbonate of Magnesia rarely occurs pure in nature, but is precipitated from the sulphate, (Epsom salts) or calcined from the impure natural or artificial carbonate. Its properties re- semble those of calcined magnesia, Jiaving 51.7 carbonic acid, and 48. 3 in 100 of magnesia. One of its chief sources is magnesian limestone or dolomite, found in various Euro- pean localities and in Canada, in parts of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Virginia; abounding on the banks of the Hudson, in Niagara and Onondp.ga Counties, New York. Among its out-crops in the United States were noticed in 1868, specimens from Sullivan County, New Hampshire, containing 46 6 per cent, of car- bonate of magnesia ; from Addison County, Vermont, with 44-)^ ; from Worcester, Hampshire and Middlesex Counties, Massachusetts with 27 to 43.35; from North-East Rhode Island 32.5 to 40.6 ; from Niagara, Dutchess and Westchester Counties New York 20.70 to 4589; from five Counties in New Jersey 17.4 to 20.3 ; from Newcastle County, Delaware 46.6 ; and from three Counties in Maryland, with magnesia 17 to 18 per cent. Limestones abound in Pennsylvania and Virginia, some of which are magnesian; in Madison and Buncombe Counties, North Carolina, are found magnesian limestone. In 1869, analyses were published giving Lawrence and Marion Counties, Arkansas, limestones with 35.05 to 42.3 per cent, carbonate of magnesia ; Pike, Benton and Franklin Coun- ties, Missouri, others, with 20.02 to 42.05 ; the Silurian limestone, chiefly magnesian, occupying nearly two-thirds of the width of Missouri, East and West, reaching the Missis- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 329 sippi River in Cape Girardeau County, and extending North- ward. Thick beds of dolomites were found in East Tennessee ; analyses of Kentucky limestones in fourteen Counties gave carbonate of magnesia a percentage from 15.59 to 45, the highest in Jefferson County; of Illinois mag- nesian limestones in nine Counties, 16.08 to 60 per cent; in seven Counties of Iowa, from 15.72 to 43.93 per cent. ; in five Counties of Wisconsin, from 27 49 to 41.70 ; in nine localities of Minnesota, from 13.75 to 42.43 per cent; in six localities of Michigan, from 12.21 to 44.39. Magnesian limestones are said to abound in the Trenton formation in Pennsylvania, and the Trenton lead bearing limestone of Wisconsin and other adjoining Western States ; among the Niagara lime- stones extending from New York beyond the Mississippi ; and among the carboniferous rocks on the sides and tops of sev- eral of the Great Western mountain chains, and about the head waters of the Missouri, and in the Colorado basin. Opinions somewhat contradictory are held as to the injuri- ous effects on plants, of the lime containing it, when the mag- nesia is in large quantity. Three samples from New York State gave on analyses respectively, 27^, 12^^^, and 4 in one hundred parts of magnesia ; the last (Onondaga), said to be as pure as chalk and most agricultural limestones. Common limestone containing carbonate of magnesia, highly heated in the open air, loses its carbonic acid ; the carbonate of mag- nesia more readily, and at lower temperatures than the car- bonate of lime. That is, it sooner becomes caustic ; it slakes when water is poured on it, and falls to powder ; the hydrate of magnesia swelling with less heat than lime. Burned and slaked lime containing magnesia, has two hydrates : the magnesian hardening under Avater, and in a wet soil, in about eight days, forming a hydraulic cement. Though the hydrate of lime will not do this, a mixture of the hydrates of lime and magnesia will form a solid mass; 28 330 INDIAN CORN' AXD ITS CULTUKE. and the particles in wet soil, or during rains, falling first after application, will become gritty. The supposed injurious effects from caustic magnesia are ascribed to its remaining longer caustic, and not uniting with carbonic acid so readily; to its forming a harder mortar with water, and so being apt to cake about the stems and roots of plants. Mild magnesia, where calcareous matter is deficient in the soil, helps vegeta- tion, being found in the ash of the maize plant. Some deny that the magnesian carbonate is injurious to land at all. It is said on the other hand of the various acid substances in the soil, both of organic and inorganic origin, which lime applied to land makes innoxious by combination with them, that they unite rather with the caustic magnesia, and form salts, more soluble in water than compounds of lime with the same acids ; so that the water carries through the rootlets into the circulation, too much magnesia for the health of the plant. Limestone rich in magnesia, but not containing it in excess, yields the most powerful and lasting fertilizing effects. The ashes of various grains give a percentage of magnesia, ii.i, against lime, 3.4. In maize and millet, magnesia is to lime, as eight is to one. Magnesia is essential to the seed and herbaceous structure. Caustic magnesia applied to richly manured land, so as to be not over one fifth the animal or vegetable remains, soon becomes mild, but on land where a portion of quicklime already occupies the surface, the mag- nesia remains caustic, and the quicklime grows mild. Caustic magnesia destroys woody fibre as quicklime does, and with strong peat helps to make manure. If the peat is equal to one-fourth the weight of the soil, and the magnesia does not exceed one-twentieth, the proportion may be con- sidered safe. Chloride of Magnesium is the white mass resulting from evaporating to dryness a solution of calcined or carbonated magnesia in muriatic acid (chlorine 73 65 magnesium 26.35), INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 331 — is often found in ash of plants. It forms three and a half per cent, of the Atlantic water, and twenty-four per cent, of the Dead Sea ; abounds in the mother liquor of salt pans. It might be applied to the young plant from a water cart, dissolved in a large proportion of water. Nitrate of jna'gnesia, (nitric acid 72.38, magnesia 27.62,) attracts moisture from the air very rapidly, and only wants cheapness to be highly beneficial. Phosphate pf Magnesia, (phosphoric acid and magnesia), is probably in most soils in minute quantities, and helps the action of urine and most manures. Silicates of Magnesia are components in part of hornblende and augite, and in chief of serpentine and talc, and so abound in soils they form, but are apt to decompose and the mag- nesia to leach away from high ground. Sulphate of Magnesia (Epsom salts), a very volatile salt, was proved by Sprengel to act on growing plants like gypsum, but is too costly to supersede it. (/.) (U. S. P. O., i860.) Hydrate of oxide of potassium is an impure compound of all the soluble salts leaclied from wood ashes and dried. Pearl-ash has fewer impurities. Pure or caustic potash is solid, white and fusible, and not decom- posable by heat, but is deliquescent, and when exposed to air, absorbs its carbonic acid, and Avill effervesce with sulphuric, nitric or muriatic acids. It is one of the strongest of the the bases, and so caustic as to alter all organic substances it touches ; it dissolves many animal substances, and changes the nature of vegetable products, especially when aided by heat. In nature it is always combined with acids, as the carbonic, sulphuric, chlorohydric, nitric, oxalic, tartaric, &:c. That from vegetable ash is mixed with divers other salts, varying according to the vegetables from which the ashes have been procured, the nature of soil and manure used in production. The tartrate of potash reduced to ashes, makes 332 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. the purest caustic potash. Potash is a component of animals, plants, and soils that support vegetation, and of such rocks as granite, mica, the schists, sienites, lavas and basalts. To soils formed from rocks, not containing it, (quartz and many- chalks), it must be supplied. Silicate of Potash is one of the constituents of feldspar and mica, which are constituents of granite. Greertsand is found along our Atlantic coast, and largely in Delaware and New Jersey, where it is extensively used as a fertilizer, and con- tains seven to thirteen percent, of potash. Commercial pot- ash comes from the ashes of plants. Ashes have been long known as a powerful fertilizer, and much of their power is due to the potash contained. Nitrate of Potash (saltpetre), has 53.45 nitric acid, and 46.55 potash; is soluble in water, especially at high tempera- tures. Of tried value as a fertilizer, it wants cheapness. It is used for soaking grain as a protection against insects. It only occurs native as an efflorescence on limestones, marls, chalks and rocks, containing lime and potash. For the formation of saltpetre, besides the presence of lime, magnesia and. potash, a certain degree of humidity is essential. The temperature must be favorable; the formation of nitrates being very feeble at or about the freezing point; the sunlight is unfavorable. Gay Lussac in 1825, published instructions as to artificial nitre beds in Paris, to the effect, that all the nitrogen necessary for the formation of nitric acid was yielded to it by animal matter, and nitrate of potash is never gen- erated from the air, in substances adapted to its formation, without the co-operation of animal matter. There were twenty-two nitre beds in Ceylon — caverns increased by suc- cessive extractions of material, Bowles states that there is enough nitrate of potash in Spain to supply all Europe to the end of time. The action of the salts of potash will be shown by the remarks on those of soda. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 333 (?/.) Sodium and its salts, are like potassium and its salts, abounding in nature, and in being always combined with some acidifying principle. Sodium is soft and ductile, silver gray, waxy, and lighter than water. Soda, (oxide of sodium) is the result of quicklime depriving the carbonate of soda of its acid. It absorbs greedily the humidity of the atmosphere and deliquesces, but exposed to air, absorbs carbonic acid and effloresces. The Chloride of Sodium, (table salt), gives the ocean its bitter flavor. Rock salt is found in all sedimentary rocks throughout the world, from the transition to the tertiary ; it is supposed to be a deposit from sea water. The atmosphere contains all the salts of sea water. Common salt in moderate quantities is not only food for the plant, but makes the phos- phates and other substances available for nutrition. But where rain comes from the ocean saturated with salt, as in certain parts of Great Britain, no marked results may follow its application. For cereals, two to three hundred weight maybe applied to an acre in moist weather, one-half of that quantity at first, and the other half a fortnight after. Silicate of Soda is found in some varieties of feldspar. Car- bonate of Soda, (soda 58.57, carbonic acid 41 43), crystallizes from a concentrated solution by cooling, and when exposed to air, effervesces. The strongest heat does not decompose it, unless in contact with water. In the desert of Thiat, in Egypt, a lake fills up during rains with the carbonate and sulphate of soda ; the carbonate is separated. Sea weeds con- tain soda with vegetable acids. In Spain and France soda is obtained from various weeds and cultivated plants, and also from the chloride of sodium, (common salt), by evapora- tion ; it being first treated with sulphuric acid, and the resulting sulphate of soda then heated in contact with carbonic acid and charcoal ; the residuum being lixiviated, evaporated and crystallized. 334 13DIAN CORN" A.'.) The ash resulting from the combustion of an organic substance in contact with the air, is exclusively the mineral portion, varying with the nature of the plant, the port on con- sumed, the geological formation and other characteristics of the place of its growth. The leaves, branches, trunk and roots all differ in ash. Assimilation is most active in the leaves, which use more mineral food than any other part. In all organic vegetable matters, the mineral portions of the ash are differently conditioned from those of the plant. In the 29 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. latter they are more or less combined witn combustible organic acids, which are destroyed in the burning of the ])lant, leaving the minerals more or less altered, or differently combined. Silex, in the plant, minutely divided and soluble, becomes insoluble by the effect of heat ; and the alkalies may form insoluble compounds with silica, indefinitely inert. ]<^xcessive heat in combustion may diminish or destroy the fertilizing properties of an ash. Charcoal, resulting from imperfect combustion, is a condenser of gas, absorbing when powdered ninety times its volume of ammonia. Ashes are impoverished by lixiviation. The ash of plants yielding much phosphoric acid, potash or soda, is more valuable than that of plants containing less of them. Soils without organic matter are little helped by ashes. Peat ashes divide stiff soils. Peat ashes are said to differ materially from those of wood, and to have three times their manurial value, but this probably depends on the circum- stances of the peat formation. If the bogs lie in calcareous formations, their ashes have a special value in the salts of lime, for top dressing of swards and clover. See analyses in U. S. P. O. i860, pages 71-72. A writer in the New England Farmer thinks them better for winter than summer grains. Charred peats from Holland give English soils a warmer hue ; lightens clays and helps them in their absorption of ammonia. Sprengel says a good dressing will last five or six years. The bottom layer of a peat bed yields the best ashes. Coal ashes in some respects have the properties of peat ashes. Coals are metalliferous, containing much sulphuret of iron, or copper; others abound in various earths. Combustion in contact with air, dissipates the sulphur and leaves the oxide of iron. Prof. Norton's analysis of anthracite coal, (white ash), gives matter insoluble in acids, 88.68, soluble silica, .09, alumina 3 36, iron 403, lime 2.1 1, magnesia .19, soda .22, potash .16, phosphoric acid. 20, sulphuric acid .86, chlorine .09. INDIAN COKN AXD ITS CULTURE. 339 Berthier found in bituminous coal of St. Etienne (France), alumina insoluble in acids, sixty- two parts; do soluble five; lime six, magnesia eight, oxide of manganese three, oxide and sulphuret of iron sixteen. Coal ashes have long been used with night soil, and are of great use around slaughter-houses, as absorbents of the blood and liquids, manures of the quick- est action. They take the stiffness out of clay, and introduce the absorbed nitrogen. More than one-fourth of the one hundred and fifteen correspondents of U. S. P. O. from 1849 to 1853, who speak of fertilizers, refer to the use of ashes, either at planting or before the corn is up, or when it gets up, or at first hoeing, wilh or without gypsum, or generally as top dressing ; unleached is preferred. One refers to the prevalent use of coal ashes, two mention potash; a few speak of apply- ing ashes to general composts, others protest against its use with ammoniacal or barn -yard manures. Of the mineral com- posts applied, three are mentioned as one-half plaster and one half ashes, one as two parts of ashes to one of lime, one of one-third plaster to two-thirds leached ashes, another three parts leached ashes to two of slaked lime and one of plaster. At planting, a gill to the hill of mixed plaster and ashes was sometimes applied. These were mostly in the Middle and Eastern States, where the value of ashes for manuring maize crops was very generally appreciated. At a discussion on mineral manures, referred to in the Re- port for 1870 of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, Col. Wilder said there was nothing so much wanted as potash on old soils of New England that have been long cultivated ; he considered ashes at fifty cents per bushel for manure the cheapest for any crop. Mr. Thompson of Nantucket said that on land so poor that it would not spindle corn, he had applied coal ashes two or three inches deep, mixed with a little loam; then plowed and harrowed, and in three years the land was so much renovated that he cut a ton and a half to acre of best clover. 340 I^'IlIA^• corn and its cultuke. (z ) Sulphur is mostly obtained from volcanic regions, from sulphurets of iron, copper, &c., or combined with oxygen as sulphuric acid, forming with bases sulphates of barytes, lime, strontian, &:c. Putrefying organic matter owes part of its odor to sulphuretted hydrogen. It is seen on the sur- face of stagnant pools, and is deposited by certain mineral waters. It is a non-metallic combustible ; its specific gravity 1.99, melts at 216°, crystallizing as it cools. Is insoluble in water, but in special cases makes water milk-white. The acid is one of the strongest known. The proportion of sul- phur in plants has been shown to be greatest in straw and leaves. (6^.) PJwspJwrus has been shown to be found where its presence was formerly not even suspected. Many of our accepted analyses ignore it. "All the requirements of vegeta- tion exist in the air and soil ; the want of phosphoric acid and ammonia is more imaginary than real ; the former is found in all rocks, oceans, water, air and soils, and in ample supply for animated nature ; its not having been detected by chemical experiment in the air, is not conclusive proof of its non-existence ; there are higher evidences than the results obtained by chemical reagents and balances ; the omnipres- ence of phosphoric acid and the known presence of ammonia in the air, water and soil, are natural consequences of the order of creation. Chemistry has setded the question that phosphorus is a constituent of organic substances; it exists uncombined in the brain of animals ; it will not be extraordinary, considering the solubility of phosphoric acid, if it exists dissolved in atmospheric humidity." Some re- marks on the dosage of phosphoric acid are given in U. S. P. O. i860, page 78. Considering the extent of its uses in the animal and vegeta- ble creation, phosphoric acid is probably the most important substance in agriculture. Phosphorus is an essential to the life IXBIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 341 of animals and vegetables. It was first discovered by an alche- mist of Hamburg, by evaporating urine and calcining the resi- duum. Afterwards it was obtained from the bones of animals. The simple phosphorus is yellow, tough and wax-like, and may be solid, liquid or gaseous. Its luminous character, when exposed to air, is due to its burning slowly with oxygen. When inflamed in the air, or in oxygen gas, it emits white fumes, and collected free from humidity, is white and pulveru- lent, and absorbs the humidity of the atmosphere (deliquesces) and liquefies. It combines with oxygen in several propor- tions ; one forming phosphoric acid contains five atoms of oxygen, and one of phosphorus, and forms phosphates with lime, magnesia, manganese, iron, &c. That of lime is called apatite^ and is found granular, fibrous, compact, friable, or crystallized in stalactites. It is colorless, or yellow, blue, violet'or green; transparent, translucent, or opaque; is found in granite, gneiss, chlorite and talcose slates, in trap and ba- salt; in metalliferous deposits with copper, lead, &c.; in coal slates and chalk; in tertiary formations, and in sedimentary and tufaceous deposits now forming. It is associated wilh fluoric acid in mineral, vegetable and animal matters, such as the teeth of animals. Though very widely diffused, phos- phoric acid is less abundant than silica, lime, magnesia, and alumina, except in special deposits. Phosphate of lime is a fixed salt, neither soluble nor volatile, and when removed from the soil must be replaced by manures. The amount returned from the barn-yard is very much less than that carried away in grain, hay, milk, bone and flesh, on the most economically conducted farms. This results from continued cropping, loss of jihosphoric acid, faulty culture, and leaching streams. Lands naturally irrigated or formed from rich phosphatic rocks, may hold their own unaided. England now grows largely by cmigra- t'on, and imports of bones, and other fertilizers from Holland, 342 INDIAN CORN AND 1T3 CULTURE. Germany and South America. In 1842 bones were exported largely from Hamburg, Rotterdam, Bremen, Lubeck, Kiel, Rostoch, Stettin, Elsinore and Dantzic. In 1837 bones im- p )rted into Great Britain were valued at ^254,600, the home supply fully ^500,000. Mineral matters, a small item in young animals, increase with age. The bones of children have more water than those of adults. Muriatic acid dis- solves out the mineral part, leaving the gelatin or cartilage with the original form of the bone. Glue is thus made. The dissolved part consists of phosphates of lime and magnesia, fluoride of calcium, carbonate of lime, and a little salt of potash and soda. The following analyses of bones are from Berzelius : Gelatin, (soluble matter) . Gelatin, (vessels) Pliosphate of lime Carbonate of lime Snlphateof lime Fluoride of calcium Phosphate of magnesia.... Soda and muriate of soda, Sulphate of soda Man. Ox. Pike. 32 17 ) 1.13/ 510-1 11.30 83 30 5.3.4.3 3.t;5 -37.36 55.20 C.15 2.00 1.16 1.20 2 90 2.03 2.43 and loss 1.23 Whale. *78.4G 14.20 2.61 0.83 0.74 ""2"46 0.70 '•Organic matter. One hundred parts of Gelatin of bones fermented make twenty-two pounds of ammonia, together with carbonic acid. Phosphate of lime is soluble in acids, and all phosphates in an excess of acid. The phosphate of lime in bones hid in a manure or compost heap, is dissolved in the humidity by the carbonic acid evolved, and more or less rapidly according to the activity of the fermenting mass. It is slower in the large bone, than in its powder; in coarse powder than in fine. Bones are crushed on a large scale in steam mills. Steaming or boiling takes out the gelatin for glue, and the grease for soap, after wliich they are easily powdered, but have less INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUEE, 343 fertilizing power. Burning the bones destroys the organic matters, except a part of the carbon, (animal black). Charred bones are a great deodorizer, and antiseptic, and condenser of gases. Charring them, in ire n cylinders or other air-tight vessels, saves much of the carbon driven off by burning in the open air. If the bones are treated with sul- phuric acid, without being powdered, insoluble sulphate of lime is formed, which surrounds the part of the bone not already acted on and prevents the further action of the acid. The use of muriatic acid carries the decomposition to com- pletion, but the phosphates and muriates will be in solution, and less conveniently applied. For other reasons also the sulphuric acid is preferred, if not diluted. This added to crushed bones, forms a sulphate with part of the lime, and the effervescing carbonic acid escapes, and it also frees phos- phoric acid from part of its lime, which combines with the phosphate not decomposed and forms a super-phosphate. Sulphates of potash, soda and magnesia are also formed. The result of a well conducted operation is a dry powder; the gelatin of the bone becoming more easily assimilated. Any farmer can make his own super-phosphate and save the risk of buying a humbug. The proper density of the sul- phuric acid is about I 85. The finer the powder the more acid is required, and the more complete the action. Bones burnt in contact with the air are said to yield an average of fifty per cent, bone ash, for every one hundred pounds of which eighty-seven or eighty-eight pounds sulphuric acid will be required. These well mixed in a hogshead with fi\e or six gallons of water, with a paddle, will foam up to 212** Fahrenheit, or higher. The acid may be added in two ])or- tions successively. In handling the acid, care must be taken for eyes and clothes, which have sometimes been the forfeit. The mass mixed till it stiffens should be covered and left for a day, then thrown out in a dry place till ready for pow- 3-14 IXDIAX COE.V AND ITS CULTURE. dering, or mixed with dry peat, charcoal, calcined plaster of Paris, dry mould, or saw-dust, and powdered. The work may be done on a tight floor, on the ground, or in the field, where the powder is used, as well as in a hogshead. A Westchester, Pennsylvania farmer got bone dust (1870) in the cheapest possible way by putting the bones in fresh horse manure. Others have recommended putting a layer of bones broken to a convenient size, on a layer of peat, muck or mellow soil in a molasses hogshead, covered with four or five inches depth of ashes — when the layer of bones is ten inches deep, covering with ashes and again with muck and soil, with a sprinkling of plaster; the whole mass being now and then wet with soap suds. The alkali of the ashes is said to dissolve the bones, and the muck and plaster will, of course, absorb the gases. Mix- ing the freshly pounded bones with carbonate of potash, or wood ashes produces carbonate of lime and soluble phos- ])hate of potash, and after six weeks or two months the mass may be used. If the commercial super-phosphate of lime is suspected of being mixed with old plaster, the hair will be seen ; if Avith oyster shells or chalk, the effervescence and particles of shells will invite closer scrutiny. Sulphates of barytes and lime increase the weight of the mixture. Little is said by the correspondents of U. S. P. O., on the use of phosphates of lime, during the earlier years of the series. In 1853, from Dover, in Delaware, it was stated that the phosphate of lime Avas used by a few farmers the previous spring for corn, and the result was even better than that from Peruvian Guano. From Berkshire County, Massachusetts, it was stated that the super phosphate was a new article there, but an establish- ment for its manufacture had been got up the season previous, and it promised to rank among tlie most effectual fertilizers. It was said to be fatal to all insect tribes above and below INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 345 ground, and to give a cleanly and luxuriant growth, which could not be realized from any other manure. A statement from Mason, New Hampshire, was that the best effect for Indian Corn was found from mixing it with guano in equal quantities. About one hundred pounds of each were applied to a field of corn in the hill, after a light dressing of animal excrements, composted with vegetable matter, had been spread and plowed in ; it was a decided success. It was also applied broad cast to a piece of ground for Tuscarora corn without any other mixture. It appeared very beautiful, and where there was a good supply of old vegetable matter in the soil, its growth continued exceedingly fine ; but where there was little old vegetable matter, the kernel was not well filled. Another patch nearly destitute of old vegetable mat- ter, but in all other respects well conditioned, was selected for the super-phosphate alone. The growing corn had a healthy color, the growth of stalks was fair, but the grain was not worth harvesting. Not a single well-formed ear could be found. The super-phosphate was also applied to a corn field planted for fodder; one row was left without any; a light manuring of compost had been plowed in; the result in weight was as thirteen and a half to one, and in height, four to one and a half — in favor of the super-phosphate. A Ver- monter during the same season applied it to hills of corn before hoeing, with a gain of one-fourth to one-third. Various commercial manures under the name of super- phosphate of lime, have since from time to time been thrown upon the market, some of which have been analyzed. See Reports of Chemist for U. S, Agricultural Department, 1866 and 1S71. In the Department Report for 1871, are ex- tracts from the Massachusetts Agricultural Report, contain- ing some remarks of Dr. J. R. Nichols on frauds in the sale of commercial manures, which are said to be enormous. He presents a formula for a compound fertilizer easily pre- 34G IXDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. pared, which he has found highly valuable. He used bone charcoal from the sugar refineries, as a cheap source of phos- phoric acid, but says, that burnt bones may be used with fully as good results. Take nine hundred pounds bone charcoal, four hundred and eighty-six pounds oil of vitriol, and one hundred and seventy-one pounds of water; mix water with acid and gradually add bones, stirring the mass that it may be fully acted on. This affords super- phosphate dry enough to be ground as soon as cool, and it can be ground in a plaster mill. To this add four hundred pounds nitrate of soda, and one hundred pounds muriate of potash in powder, and the result is a ton of fertilizing matter, giving on analysis 14.39 parts in one hundred of soluble phosphoric acid, 27.47 parts soluble phosphate of lime, 2.8 of potassa, 3.14 of nitrogen. Cost of materials at market rates about $44 00. In U. S. Agricultural Report, 1868, is an account of experiments by Mr. Bartlett, of Warner, New Hampshire, on super-phos- phates and other concentrated manures for corn, which resulted in a better showing for four of the seven super-phos- phates tried than for ashes and bone-dust, hendung, Peruvian guano, fish guano, Cuban, Alta Vela, and Baker's Island guanos, and very much better than for sulphate of ammonia and the French liquid fertilizer. He found that where a fair dressing of manure was applied, phosphates sown broad cast and applied in the hill, increased the crop and very much hastened its ripening. J. W. Clement of Warner, New Hampshire, in 1868 applied the super-phosphate to corn in the hill, one hundred and fifty pounds to acre, after barn- yard manure harrowed in, in spring, on cold, wet heavy land, fall plowed, and raised sixty-two bushels of sound corn to acre, at a profit of $43 50 per acre. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 347 SECTION 11. Organic manures necessarily include most mineral ones, which are plant food. They are either of vegetable or ani- mal origin. The former contain more mineral manures than the latter. Vegetable manures decompose more slowly than those of animal origin, and are more lasting in their effects. It has been seen that several of the mineral manures hasten the decomposition of vegetable matter ; so does a mixture of animal matter. Certain vegetable as well as mineral matters are of great value in and out of the soil, as preservers of the manurial properties of animal matter. Sub-section i. — Manures of vegetable origin: (a) The most practicable fertilizer for general use in maize culture, throughout the United States, is a green crop plowed in. This is meant to include old pasture and worn out meadows, or rather bound out, and the natural grass sod as well as the cultivated grass, grain and leguminous, and some root crops. Quite a variety of plants are used in this way in the old and new worlds among grasses; timothy, red top, and the various others mixed in meadows and old pastures; among forage crops, clover, especially the red, is a very general favorite ; and in Europe, sanfoin, lucerne, and the yellow lu- pine, and others. Among grain bearing crops, buckwheat is probably foremost, then rye, oats and maize sown broadcast; of leguminous crops, beans, peas, in the South the cow pea especially, and vetches are highly esteemed for this purpose; among weeds spurry is said to grow so fast on sandy soil that two or three crops can be secured in a season ; and of root crops, the turnip is good on all soils, fed out on the land or plowed in. Mr. Wolfinger's article in U. S. Agricultural Report, 1864, is very full and complete on the subject of green manuring. For the maize crop, the mixed grasses and other plants, from long mowing or pasturage very densely 348 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. interwoven with the sod, in clay ground plowed under in the fall, and in loamy or sandy soils in the spring, are probably the cheapest and best manure, at least of this kind. From tables of analysis, V, VI and VII, herein, and in U. S. P. O. i860, pages 53 to 65, it will be seen that these plants contain all the elements of the maize plant in varying proportions, and when decomposed in the soil, abound in food for its growth. They afford most plant food plowed in when in blossom, and it is then most equally distributed through the vessels of the plant, and when turned under will be most equally distributed through the soil ; making it spongy and receptive, and retentive of moisture and fertilizing gases, and especially giving it the power of absorbing ammonia from the atmosphere, and perhaps of forming nitric acid. Plants with large leaves like maize itself, and a large system of leaves like clover, buckwheat, peas and beans, draw largely on the atmosphere for ammonia as well as carbonic acid, and these go into the soil when turned under. The New England Farmer, Volume X, describes three fields (in Delaware) worn out by cropping, plowed up in 1818 and thirty bushels of lime spread to the acre, and two bushels of corn sown broadcast. Early in September the corn was rolled down with a heavy roller and plowed under, harrowed immediately after plowing, and wheat harrowed in early in October, and the crop was nearly equal to that from the fields prepared with stable manure. In Volume V, (1S27) a Long Island farmer recommends for farms in the interior, where manure is not easily obtained, the sowing of buck- wheat, three bushels to the acre, immediately after the spring frosts, and plowing it when in flower; then sowing a second time, and plowing in when in flower, and if the season admits of it, sowing thick the third time, and the following year putting on the most advantageous crop. The result would probably depend much on the nature of the soil, and it INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 349 would be best to ascertain this by experimenting on a small scale. A farmer in 1825, is said to have turned in successively on the same land, a silicious sandy soil, three green crops, rye, oats and buckwheat, and the after crop was very light. In U. S. P. O. 1 86 1 Report, the fertilizing qualities of the yellow lupine as plowed in, two bushels to the acre in North Germany are highly extolled. It grows three or four fett high, and is crushed down with a large roller, or by a strong broom made of twigs before the plowing in, which is during or just after flowering, if sown to grain in fall; but for a spring crop (say maize), it is thought best for it to lay over winter in the field before plowing in. Deep and long-rooted plants like clover and lupine, where a deep and originally fertile soil has its surface worn out by continual cultivation, bring up fertilizing matters from the sub soil. The root of the lupine absorbs rich phosphates of iron and ammonia of the soil, more energetically than other plants, and dissolves the chemical constituents of min- erals, by the evaporation of its root. The lupine commu- nicates its oxygen as ozone, forming in the surrounding air, ammonia containing nitric acid. Succulent plants like clover and buckwheat, make larger veins of carbonaceous matter when decomposed. Among the host of testimonies to the manurial value of clover, is the following from U. S. Agricultural Report, 1870. T. D. T. considers a good clover lay worth as much as five cords of common manure to acre. To insure a good lay, not less than ten or twelve pounds of seed should be sown to acre, on land thoroughly prejiared for its reception. Clover not only imparts fertility when plowed under, but its roots divide and break the soil while growing, and cause it to pulverize as they decay. The thicker the plants, thefirmerand better the herbage ; the more numerous the roots, the greater the benefit to the soil ; both as to pul- verization and fertility. On wet low grounds, or very light, 350 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. sandy soils, the endeavor to make clover a fertilizer sufficient to redeem them and place them in good condition for corn or wheat would fail. The cow-pea has been the clover of the South. Planted early in May among the corn crop, and an extra working given, after the corn is laid by, the grass does not overrun it; it yields a heavy crop of vines, and is the best fertilizer ap- plied to clay lands. In old pastures or meadows bound out there is usually so complete a net work of roots, stems and leaves of various grasses and weeds, as when turned under, to divide up the soil to the best advantage, and fill it with the needed fertilizing matter, developing according to the re- quirements of the growing corn. Hence the very general resort to this preparation for the maize crop. Turned under in the fall or winter, it is most thoroughly ready for the young plant, and may give it the best start. Turned under in spring, it may make the complete filling out of the grain more certain. The former is said to be the best for clay soils, and for ridding the ground of the cutworm; the latter for soils warmer and more easily penetrable. Prairie sod plowed shallow at first, is said by some to decompose in better time, but most soils are better turned under deep. In new and very fertile soils, this system of manuring is usually sufficient for full crops and often for the largest ; on older settled or long cultivated farms, and especially on up-lands, barn-yard manure, plaster, lime or ashes are frequently added. (/;.) The stubble and weeds of a small grain crop are sometimes turned under very early in the fall, with advan- tage, as well as those of a maize sod crop. This gives an opportunity, on land comparatively level, for a fall top dressing of barn-yard manure. The weeds of a maize crop, during after culture, may also help out the manure, and those hoed out, if piled in the passage ways and sprinkled with quicklime, may swell its bulk to advantage. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 351 (c.) Waste straw and stalks, spoiled hay or fodder, pea and bean vines, potato vines, cabbage leaves, and refuse of other plants, forest and other dead leaves, pine shatters, rotten wood, refuse chips from the wood house, carpenters' and turners' shavings, saw-dust, (hard wood saw-dust is the best absorbent), and other vegetable refuse matter should be carted in the fall and other spare times to the barn yard or hogpens, or sheep pens, or stables for horses and cattle, and spread over the floors as a bedding, as well as absorbent of the liquids and gases from the droppings of domestic animals. In this way they will be of great service in increasing the carbonaceous and saving the nitrogenous matters for the soil. {d.) Muck or peat \^ formed mainly by the accumulation in sunken places, especially in hilly countries, of waste vegeta- ble matter, (not taken up in basins and meadows), mixed with insoluble earths. The elements vary with the vegetable growths in the vicinity; also with the prevailing soil of the bog and its surroundings. Rains and streams are the car- riers which supply the material. When forest leaves, dead brush, weeds and decayed wood are the sources, it is mostly carbonaceous. A stream passing through the bog is apt to leach away the more soluble fertiliz- ing matters, unless there is sufficient humus in the soil to de- tain them. If the soil is clayey, or has a clay sub-soil, a greater accumulation will be apt to take place. Where there is standing water, vegetable acids, such as carbonic, humic, crenic and hypocrenic, are often formed, and often combined with minerals. The wash of clay beds frequently contains iron as bog ore ; and the sulphate of alumina is decomposed, setting free the alumina, the basis of clay, while the iron combines with the sulphur as sulphuret or pyrites; and it may so abound as to injure the fertilizing qualities of peat. An abundance of any of these acids in a manurial substance makes lime or some other alkali necessary as a corrective. 332 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. Mixed with quicklime it rises into a light and pulverulent mass. The lime also takes away the acids from the iron, forming salts of lime, the elements of many plants. Muck, with little or no acid, may be used advantageously on sandy soils, or such as are deficient in organic matter. It makes a very effective compost with barn-yard manure, guano, ashes or animal matter. It absorbs the gases evolved from these substances when putrefying. It is a good deodorizer and diluent of night soil, retaining all its fertilizing qualities and making it easily and safely applied. After being dug up in autumn, (if practicable in large quantities), muck should be exposed to the winter frosts ; for composting with lime or ashes, ma)'' be used the following spring ; for composting with stable manure or night soil, it should be taken from the heap in autumn, after laying a year, to the barn cellar for periodi- cal mixing with the droppings of animals, and in sufficient quantities for free use as a deodorizer about the premises. Good muck may be applied in corn culture, equally mixed with barn-yard manure. Carbonaceous manures are largely derived from vegetable composts, animal excrement and muck. They are mixed and compressed into commercial manures. Marsh mud is one of the mucks. A full discussion of the value and uses of swamp muck will be found in U. S. P. O. 1856, pages 182 to 198. (e) Charcoal, powdered fine, is nearly pure carbon, and one of the best deodorizers of night soil. Peat charcoal is highly antiseptic, operates very readily in disinfectmg vaults, and absorbs enormous quantities of ammonia and other gases. In 1856, it was said only to be made at the North. Wood charcoal dust is very effective in the same way, though said to be inferior to peat charcoal. Scattered in stables as an aijsorbent, it is very useful. DeSaussure found by direct ex- periment, that the charcoal from boxwood absorbed in twenty- four hours and retained in its pores ninety times its volume of amnion iacal gas. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 353 (/.) Soot has long been highly esteemed as a powerful manure. Davy describes it as possessing ammoniacal salt, empyreumatic oil and charcoal capable of being made solu- ble by oxygen or vital air. It may be sown dry with the seed it fertilizes, but goes farther mixed — six quarts of soot to a hogshead of water. One hundred pounds of soot are said to contain as many valuable manurial elements as a ton of cowdung. Common salt combined with soot is a great fertilizer. (^g.) Seazveed is much used on the Atlantic coast. From Barnstable County, Massachusetts, it was reported in 1851, that taken from the shore and turned under, it was a most valuable manure, but its value was greatly increased by cart- ing it into the barn-yard or hog-pen, mixed with mud or muck, and leaving it a few months before application. (Ji ) Cotton Seed'xs extensively applied to corn fields in the Southern United States. A South Carolina correspondent in 1850, describes it as being dropped in the furrow, on both sides of the grains of corn, at planting, and covered with one shovel and two small scooters, or harrow. Another, vv^riting from Marion county, Mississippi, advises to sow it on the land in January, twenty or thirty bushels to acre and plow under; thus sown it will be sufficiently decomposed to supply the crop as soon as the corn is up; he states that in the hill it only gives good crops in fine and uniform seasons. (/'.) Spent tanbark has sometimes been used as an absorb- ent, but it is probably better as a mulch. (/) Tobacco dust, from the alkali contained in it, was, at a discussion by the Institute Farmers' Club, in 1869, stated to be a good manure, worth to the farmer S20 per ton. Sub- SECTION 11. Manures of Animal Origin are a very extensive class. {a.) Bead animals. Of those floating in the atmosphere as insects and birds, which die fast, and help to cover the 30 354 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. earth with graves, the number is immense ; but the scaven- gers are so abundant, that ordinarily but a small portion of them find their way into the manure heap. In well developed agricultural regions wild animals are scarce, and are gener- ally shot down and consumed as game. Most dead animals that help out fertilization are domestic, or at least tame ones. Horses and cows, hogs, sheep and chickens, are often drawn or thrown out, where their decomposition will be least injuri- ous to the health of the community, and the dogs devour them because their owners have no use for the manure, into which, by proper management, they might be converted, or because they want the skill or conveniences for thus disposing of them. Sometimes poisonous matter from a dead animal proves fatal to the person employed to remove the hide. Thick gloves should be worn in the act of handling the car- cass, or the hands smeared with something that will prevent contagion. If the carcass were cut up in moderately sized pieces and buried a foot deep, with a covering of muck, finely pulverized clay or garden soil, and these deodorizers mixed from time to time with the decomposing mass, there would be some probability of converting it into a good fertilizer. Among the gases evolved during this process of decomposi- tion, are ammonia, and sulphuretted and phosphoretted hydrogen. Where muck is obtainable, it has been recom- mended to cover the dead animal six inches with it, and let it go on decomposing six months or a year, throwing out the bones after summer is over, and giving more earth and some l)laster to the over-hauled mass, which after another month or two may be worked mto corn land with great advantage. (p) Certam kinds of fish on the New England and Long Island coasts, not valuable for human food, are used fresh ; one or two in a hill of Indian Corn, being slightly covered with soil and the seeds dropped on it. So fish offal is carted inland from Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and from the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. C5j fisheries on the Potomac, Delaware and other rivers in large quantities by the farmers. The New England Farmer for June i6, 1826, stated that at River Head, Long Island, nine millions of moss bunkers were taken in three weeks for manure. Fish deodorized by composting with peat, during putrefaction, are capital fertilizers. A writer in Ohio Agri- cultural Report 1862. gives an extended account of the fish guano manufacture in Northern Europe, and recommends the same for the Lake Erie Coast, there being a great abund- ance of unsalable fish in that lake. The method of an English firm was to place the unsalable fish and offals from herring fisheries in a large basin, where it was decomposed and reduced to jelly-like substance, by pouring on it sul- phuric acid, and then in a centrifugal drying machine de- prived of its fat, and completely dried and ground to powder. Pulverized charcoal might be added to absorb the manurial substances in the watery parts thus removed. Steaming may be substituted for the use of sulphuric acid. Experiments have been made in Germany with the Norwegian fish guano with marked success, and Dr. Vohl in Bonn states, as the result of his own analyses, that the bones of fishes are a rich source of phosphatic and mineral matters, and their flesh and gelatinous tissues are rich in nitrogen. The ammonia is not ready furnished in fish guano, but is gradually produced from the albuminous and nitrogenous tissues during its putrefaction in the soil, and at the same time it loosens up the soil by de- veloping carbonic acid. Menhaden fish at certain seasons are taken in large quantities, steamed and subjected to strong pressure, which forces out the oil, and the residuum, being nearly as dry as seasoned wood, is ground and barreled for market as poudrette. (t .) Blood and other matters as well as night soil are dried and deodorized by mixture with absorbents of ammonia, phosphoretted hydrogen and other gases and moisture, pow- 356 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. dered and sold as poudrettes. These are very rich when rightly made. Applied in the hills of corn, sprinkled over a surface of ten or twelve inches square, and covered deep enough for the retention of the gases evolved by their rapid decom- position, they give the plant a fine start and early growth, warming up cold soils, and making up for backward seasons. {d.) The manurial value of bones in connection with the phosphates has already been discussed, but ground bones or bone dust have another fertilizing element in their gelatin and other organic components. Two hundred and sixty pounds of bone-dust, less than six bushels, have been said to supply phosphates enough for an acre of ground, in crops rotating for four years, as turnips, barley, clover and wheat. These may be saved also by immersing the bones, till softened into a paste, in a mixture of one pint of sulphuric acid with two pints of water, and then mixing them with dry muck or something that will take up the adhesive particles. Or a strong steam box hung on a frame, so as to be easily turned over, has a square hole cut through one of its sides, and a cover tightly fitted with clamps and a screw ; through this hole the bones are crowded, the cover closed and super-heated steam admitted for several successive hours. Part of the separated gelatin is conducted away to ferment in contact with dry muck, and with the addition of some dissolved bone, forms avimoniated super-phosphate of lime. From the well soaked mass in the steambox, the cover is removed, and the over- turned box emptied on the floor; the contents carried by machinery, to a steam heated room above, and dried and ground. Bones are sometimes decomposed by being thrown into a hole with fermenting manure, or decaying dead ani- mals from three to six months. They are too valuable to be wasted. (e ) Waste feathers and hair, waste of hides and scraping*?, leather parings, old shoes and rags may all be economized for INDIAX COR-\ AND ITS CULTURE. 357 manure. Rasped horn is decomposed in the ground without further preparation; but more effectively by softening it in caustic lyes without raising the temperature, and adding di- luted sulphuric acid to neutralize the alkali. Of woolen refuse, ten or twelve hundred weight per acre have been applied to grain crops on light, chalky soils in England. (/.) Excrements cf domestic animals. Those applied t > maize crops are chiefly cow, horse, mule, sheep, hog and hen manure. The first five are not essentially different from those of the rarer domestic animals. Rabbit dung and ex- crements of deer, are among the recorded fertilizers of Eng- land. Those of the buffalo are a well known article of fuel on the Great Western plains, and no doubt do help to fer- tilize their grasses. By far the most important sources of excrementitious manures are pastures and barn yards of farms, and stables and streets of cities. Guano beds are more excellent in kind than in quantity. The higher animals are fed, the richer is their manure, especially in nitrogenous properties. The following table (U. S. Agricultural Report, 1861), shows the results found by Boussingault as to manures voided in twenty-four hours (in grammes): Fre.sh. Dry Matter. Kitrogenous. Salts and Ejxrth-s. Urine. 1,330 *(,200 30.S0 1,200 E.\cr't. Urine. Excr't Urine. fcl.xer't. Urine. Excr't Horse Cow Swine Man 14.2-fl 28.413 1,3S0 150 302 9l>0 . 6 30 5.71 L'.'gi 0.98 0.23 4.20 62.,i4 'i'm 13.00 53.00 10.00 ii'ob 8. so 2.03 'i'.w 3.44 89 4.9.) 13.19 1.15 1.34 13.64 1.33 07.20 11.21 .00 4 06 '^6 46 10 tA Votash 6 10 5 07 ConiTiion Salt 4.3;} 3().03 0.00 Sulphuric Acid Eartliy Phospliatgs 3.15 Dr. Voelcker's researches as to barn-yard manure in Eng- land proved, first, that the manure exposed to the weather loses the principal part of its assimilable plant food ; second, that the washings from it contain a very large part of this food. American farmers are liable to greater losses by wash- ing, because their rains are more violent, and their buildings less skillfully arranged. As barn yard manure has usually a large element of waste vegetable material, fennentation, either before or after application, is required to make it ready for plant food. The composition of street and road manures and the sweepings of houses, is the result of a mixture ot various substances, and these are usually applied unfernnented ; modern roads in and near cities being very generally covered with comminuted limestone, which would probably be a sufficient solvent, especially when incorporated in the soil. Barn yard and pig manures are very extensively used in tl^e agriculture of the United States, especially for maize culture. The correspondence of the U. S. P. O from 1849 to 1853 shows how large a part it takes in keeping up the fertility of soils, especially in the older agricultural States. They seem to have become more of a necessity from the application of other manures. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUBE. 859 First as to the modes of saving manures from domestic animals. The simpler modes of pasturage, especially with sheep, and the hogging down system, have been referred to herein; also the carting of horse manure from the stables di- rect to the field intended for corn to kill the grub-worm. Where one has not the better conveniences for saving ma- nure, this method has other advantages. Deposited on corn ground in large heaps in the fall, and these covered with muck or soil, they lose but little of their fertilizing qualities during the winter months. la spring early, as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and before the heaps get hot, they may be overhauled and sprinkled with plaster or other ab- sorbent of ammonia. Plowed in just before planting, the decomposition will be sooner completed, giving the young jjlant more of a start; harrowed in after plowing, the manure operates more as an absorbent of ammonia from the atmos- phere. Plowed in, in the fall, on clay ground, the winter's freezing and thawing would so pulverize the soil, that the manure, as it became decomposed, would be too thoroughly incorporated with the soil, to suffer much from leaching, even on hillsides, if deeply turned ni w^itli a side-hill plow. An early planting and rapid working would seem important in this case, to realize the full benefit of the manure. Where the surface is tolerably level, it might be better to spread long manure on plowed ground in the fall, if the soil is somewhat porous. Replowed shallow, or harrowed just before planting, it might feed the plant better in its later growth. Many farm- ers find an advantage in so arranging their buildings, that what manure, solid or liquid, is carried off by running water, ■wiW pass over the fields intended for tillage. These will take up most of the fertilizing matters. A broader economy may be the result of so excavating the barn or cattle yard, that all the liquids may run into it towards one centre, where refuse straw, corn stalks, and other vegetable v/aste may be 3G0 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. deposited to take up the fertilizing liquids and gases, and the moisture that softens the woody fibre. After being worked up by the feet of the cattle, it may be removed to a pile under cover, or carted (plaster or muck being sprinkled as it is loaded), to well protected heaps in the field. When the pile near the yard is roofed over, a few sheep or hogs may be kept on it as it is gradually increased ; it being thus saved from overheating or freezing; absorbents being periodically sprink- led or spread over it. In the winter it may be sledded out to large heaps in the fields, or in spring hauled out to where it is wanted. But the best arrangement, if it can be afforded, is probably the barn cellar. This should be right under the stables, so as to catch the fertilizing liquids ; should be of adequate height; have a water-tight floor, to be covered five or six inches deep with prepared muck or other absorbent ; the walls should be of stone or brick well pointed ; it should be sheltered if pos- sible from high winds, and be secure from winter freezing. The excrements of cattle, mixed with litter, daily strewed over the floors, and sprinkled with plaster or other absorbent of ammonia, are regularly thrown down, and the liquids find their own way there, to keep the mass sufficiently moist for gentle fermentation all winter long. It is very important to stow away in summer and fall, enough of muck, where it can be mixed daily with the fresh dung, for the whole winter. To prevent excessive fermentation, the temperature must be well regulated. When spring makes all ready for another maize crop, the ripe contents of the cellar are hauled out to the fields and spread on sod or stubble and plowed in, or on the furrow, and harrowed or worked in with the cultivator ; the best rotted manure being by many reserved for the hills' at planting, a shovel-full, more or less, in each. In some places, if the seed is drilled in, the drill furrow is filled with manure, which with the seed is covered with a light plow. INDIAN CORN AND IT3 CUI.TI7RE. 861 The quantities applied, as stated by correspondents of U. S. P. O. 1849 to 1853, are variously estimated in ox cart or wagon loads, say ten to twenty, twenty or thirty, or more; or ill cords, six in one instance being equal to twelve loads. In a few cases the number of bushels to each load is given. Hen manure, properly saved, is one of the most powerful in its effects, being a combination of the urine and excre- ment of fowls. Like other bird manure it contains uric acid; gives out carbonate of ammonia by distillation, and dissolved in water, yields soluble matters. It is very apt to ferment. The instinct of hens to roost in the same place makes it very convenient to save their droppings. Roosting poles under cover should be extended for them; and muck, dried clay powdered, coal ashes, or garden mould, should from time to time be thrown underneath to receive the droppings. The mass should be left undisturbed till shortly before it is applied, when it should be turned over and well mixed ; or if it must be disposed of sooner, the mixed mass may be deposited in boxes or barrels. In one case where thirty loads of other manure were applied to the acre, the droppings in each hill, as much as one could take up in his fingers, of hen manure made during the year, caused a gain of sixty per ct, for a potato crop. What has been said of hen manure is probably applicable to that of domestic fowls generally. (: Delaware, Ohio, Richmond, (Indiana), Four Corners, (Huron County, Ohio,) Moline, (Illinois), Enon, (Clarke County, Ohio,) Hamilton, North Fairfield, (Huron County), Troy, Ohio, Peru, Indiana; and the following other places in Ohio, Sidney, Toledo, Bucyrus, Xenia, Yellow Springs, Lithopolis, Zanesville, Malta, Salem, Alliance, Akron, Alpha, (Greene County), Bryan, (Williams County), Monclova, (Lucas County), Willoughby, (Lake County), New Paris, (Preble County), and Monroeville ; and Rochester in Pennsylva- nia, and Whiteford in Michigan, &c. Plows from vari- ous places also received second premiums or commenda- tion. The Report of the Committee on Plows at Ohio Fair, in 1872, required cf plows competing at ti'ials, a furrow thirteen inches wide, and seven deep ; for sod plows, those were pre- ferred which turned the sod without breaking, evenly and so far over as to hide all grass or other green stuff, and thus pre- vent its growth interfering with the tillage crop, and at the same time crushed the soil turned up and lying below the grass roots so as to make the best seed bed. Those were pronounced best for stubble, which most nearly covered all the litter, so that it would not interfere with tillage; a good seed bed being provided. Lightness of draft tested by the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 383 dynamometer, good material and workmanship, durability, and fair prices were also considered in awarding the pre- miums. Among the plows described in Ohio Agricultural Reports, is that of J. Ball & Co., Canton, Ohio, 1870; the beam being the basis of all attachments; the wearing parts, mold-board, share and landside, have steel and cast metal duplicates, admitting of change from general purpose to stubble plows, and vice ve?-sa. The Heiser sod plow, (1871), has a rotary cutter and a rear mold-board of a shape to save friction. The Aughe plow, (Dayton, 187 1), for sod, &c. , is said to be especially fitted for bottom land. Trials by the dynamometer in 1862, showed a Springfield plow cutting eight inches deep by thir- teen wide, with colter, as drawing four hundred and thirty- eight and one half pounds; a Cleveland double, eight by fifteen inches, seven hundred and seven and a half pounds ; single plow without colter, eight by twelve and a half inches, four hundred and forty-four and three-fourths pounds ; a Salem subsoiler, twelve by twelve inches, seven hundred and thirty-seven and three-fourths pounds. ((?.) At the opening of the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia in 1876, there was a good show of English plows, and one of the points observed was the long mold- board with the rear lower edge curved in, suggesting a diminished friction from the furrow slice after it is lifttd up, and while it is being turned over. Mold-boards of somewhat similar construction have since been observed at farm houses in Southern Ohio, said to be very effective in stiff clay. Steel plows have been rapidly coming into use ia this sec- tion ; many farmers preferrmg the cast iron points, as being more easily replaced when worn. The following were among those receiving awards on plows at the Centennial as stated in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, near the close of September 1876 : Moline Plow Company, 384 INDIAN CORN ANP TT9 CULTURE. Deere & Co., Moline Illinois; Skinner & Bro., Des Moines, Iowa; South Bend Iron Works, Indiana, (chilled plows); Richmond Indiana Plow Works ; P. P. Mast & Co., Spring- field, Ohio, Buckeye Plow, &c.; A. Spear & Sons, Pittsburg, Pa , (hillside or turnwrest plow.) (/.) Steam plows had made some progress in England in 1858, when Fowler's took the prize of ^^500 at Chester. Mr. French describes the plow as arranged in two gangs of three or more, one gang at each end of a heavy frame work balanced across an axle supported by two large wheels, and drawn with the plows across the field by a stationary engine. Two men sat on the machine, one to guide its motion, the other to make signals, &c. The plow was drawn toivard the engine by a wire rope passing across the field, round a pulley made fast at the opposite headland. This pulley was held by an anchor — a four-wheeled car heavily loaded with stone ; the sharp edged iron wheels cutting down nearly to the axle ; the anchor being drawn along the headland by a windlass worked by a man in a direction at right angles with the fur- row. It was of practical utility only on large, level, clear fields. The force working it, as seen by Mr. French, were five men and a boy ; it plowed one acre an hour. Six Eng- lish plowmen and twelve horses would, for six hours, do the same work as the five men and the boy, engine and ma- chinery. The engine would need no rest, but would be liable to accident, and it would cost time and money to place the machinery in position. Boydell's Traction Engine met with less favor. It drew six plows, opening six furrows across the field, drawn by a locomotive, laying down an endless railroad track for its wheels, and taking it up in its progress. It came to the field from a common road, drew its tender with coal and water, and carried the extra clothing and dinner of the laborers. It turned readily at the end of the furrow, and could, it was n?DIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 885 claimed, do most of the farm work instead of Uorses. The driver sat on the fore-part, the engineer rode behind —Smith's steam cultivator did not turn over, but stirred and smashed up the soil; it was worked with a stationary engine. At the Chicago Exhibition of the United States Agricultural Society in 1S59, J, W. Fawkes of Pennsylvania took the gold medal offered for a machine to supersede .the plow as then used, and most thoroughly disintegrate the soil with the great- est economy of labor, power, time and money. It was a locomotive running on a large drum, six feet in diameter, and six feet long, drawing a gang of eight plows, turning over three and a half acres per hour; the work said to be excellent. James Waters' steam plow competed with it, its machinery being more cumbrous and expensive. An extended descrip- tion of other American steam plows appears in U. S. Agri- cultural Reports, 1S67, 1869, 1870 and 1871. Plows and attachments patented by United States in 1869 were two hundred and fifty-five; in 1870, one hundred and eighty- two, and steam plows four; in 1871, plows and attachments one hundred and sixty, steam plows, thirteen. In 1867 it was stated in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, that three thousand steam plows were at work in England with stationary engines capable of driving three to six plows, and doing better and deeper work than formerly, with a reduction of one-third of the horses and one-half of the laborers. An agricultural writer says that a team of four horses plowing a furrow ten inches wide, will leave two hundred thousand foot prints on an acre. This packing process might be obviated by steam. In England, including interest on investment, depre- ciation and repairs, the average yearly cost for maintaining a set of steam cutting machinery for breaking and cultivating two thousand acres, ten to twelve inches deep, is said to be not more than ^300, or seventy five cents per acre. But the conditions of American agriculture are so different 33 386 INDIAN COKN AND ITS CULTURE. from those of England, that time alone can determine how far steam culture can be made generally practicable in the United Slates. CHAPTER XV. PLOWING FOR THE MAIZE CROP. {a., Farmers frequently consult their convenience in plowing. In the fall after the crops are harvested they are apt to have most leisure. During that season there are usu- ally dry spells, when the plow on common soils will run very easily ; stiff soils which plow badly when wet, plow very hard when very dry. Probably the fall more than any other season, finds clay soils in the right state for plowing; besides the freez- ing and thawing of winter effects their best pulverization. Winter plowing produces similar effects. An Illinoian m U. S. Agricultural Report, 1863, describes the result of win- ter breaking prairie ground with the double Michigan plow as excellent. He sets the upper plow (on the same beam), within two and a half inches of the lower one; it cuts the turf from one and a half to two inches thick, and it is rolled iip like half of a stove pipe or scroll, over which the lower furrow is thrown, thus making air space under the turf, Avhich kills the grass and aerates the inverted soil. The plowing can be done during open spells in the winter, or early in spring when the ground is saturated with water. Three horses will then break two acres per day. Mr. Dunlap says he never had the turf so well and quickly rotted as with this winter breaking, and that prairie can thus be broken at a time of comparative leisure with less teams and in all respects better than in July. Fall plowing finds many advocates in a very different region — Northern New England. Correspondents of U. S. P. O., 1853, ^''^"^ different parts of the United States, INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 387 are about equally divided as to the eligibility of fall and win- ter, or spring plowing. Fall plowing for sod has probably more advocates than for stubble, except where the latter is a stiff clay. One would suppose that the greater length of time the sod was turned under, the more complete would be the decomposition, and in many sections it doubtless is so; say where the long lying winter snows keep the soil in some- what of an equal temperature; but if the process is disturbed by great changes of heat and cold, we may well believe, with some, that spring plowing is the most effective in thorougli decomposition. Rapid decomposition, while it continues, is apt to make the soil more spongy. Many farmers make a great point of not disturbing the sod turned under, as being the chief store-house for feeding the roots in the niaturer and later growth of the plant. {b.) When stiff, heavy and adhesive soil, especially if clayey, is plowed wet in any considerable degree, it is apt to cake, and is injured by treading. Only sandy or light loamy soil will bear plowing when considerably wet, unless it is sod, which must not be plowed miry. Very dry, sandy land is in danger of drying up too fast for the growth of seeds, and IS safest merely stirred to prevent the growth of weeds. A dry season is required for plowing marshy, moory or peaty ground already under tillage. Clay soils once well and thoroughly plowed, are made better absorbents of moisture by replowing in dry seasons, which is easily done. (c.) Deep plowing is the rule, and shallow the exception. In some prairie lands, where the sod of centuries has become very dense, thin slices are said to decompose so much faster as to yield better crops the first year. If the soil and subsoil are rich, deep and similar, deep plowing is not so necessary as where the surface of such soil is considerably worn, in which case if greatly ameliorates the crop. But it is unsafe for a farmer used to plowing only six inches deep to double 388 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CCLTUKE. the depth at once, unless he well knows the character of the undersoil, and that matters unwholesome to vegetation will not be brought to the surface. If the top soil is thin, and the subsoil hard and poor, it is safer to go very little deeper than the good soil, unless the plowed ground is thoroughly manured and harrowed. Many farmers have successfully tried going one inch deeper every year, till the required depth was attained. Wherever deep plowing is feasible, as in re- tentive soils, it largely increases the stores of moisture and plant food, and goes far towards nullifying the effects of drought. Deep plowing requires wide furrows. A writer in the Ohio Agricultural Report for 1863, maintains that deep plowing is most effective in autumn, not only pulverizing the soil for the passage of the roots into the subsoil, through the influence of frost, rain and air, but so acting on its mineral ingredients as to render them available to the succeeding crop; that it is most beneficial to stiff clays; and that as a rule we may plow deep when the subsoil is of the same char- acter as the surface soil, provided both are tenacious ; or when the subsoil is of good clay, only requiring atmospheric influences to sweeten it ; that deep plowing should be avoided on nearly all very light soils, and in plowing for crops after a large application of manure, or in turning under clover or other green crops, if it buried them too deeply. He claims- that deep plowing in autumn on most clays is equal to half a dressing of manure. Mr. Holbrook in the New England Farmer says that when land is of close texture, with a strong compact subsoil, it is not unusual to find a better underneath than that which has been worked so long and shallow on top. By breaking through this artificial hard pan and bringing up a portion of the undersoil to the light of day and the influ- ence of manures, the crops will be considerably increased, even though only the customary quantity of manure per acre is applied. He would have greensward ploweJ in Novem- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 389 ber nine or ten inches deep, according to the quality of the subsoil, and in spring a good coat of manure spread on it; if fine, to be mixed with the soil by the harrow and cul- tivator ; if coarse, to be turned under, say four inches by light cross plowing without disturbing the sod underneath ; green manure at that depth decomposing readily with more benefit to the succeeding corn crop than if turned under the sod. (d.') The subsoil plow makes the undersoil penetrable by the roots of the growing maize, and gradually prepares it for acting the part of the true soil. Where the top soil of river bottoms has been worn down by long cropping, subsoiling enables the long roots to bring up fertile matters accumulated below. Going down sixteen to twenty inches below the surface, it provides for the ''surplus waters which might have washed away the surface soil, a retreat where they will not stagnate so as to hinder plant growth, but become a reservoir of moisture in times of drought A deeply mellowed soil and subsoil becomes a storehouse for the carbonic acid and ammonia absorbed from the atmosphere ; it economizes dews and light showers, and diminishes radiation, being safer against frosts. A writer in U. S. Agricultural Report 1862, says, that a soil already deep and loose does not need a subsoil plow. A grav- elly botto.ai to the furrow would be little better after its pas- sage. A sterile subsoil with a rich top soil would only serve asaregulator of moisture ; a heavy and undrained soil would only be benefitted temporarily; the first heavy soaking it received would settle it back again to its original compact- ness. But for any hard subsoil, whether sterile or not. if naturally or artificially underdrained, the benefits of subsoil- ing would last some years without the process being repeated. "When both surface and subsoil are naturally fertile, it is eminently advantageous, and the trench plow, (a substitute f jr the subsoil plow) may be used to its full depth without fear. 390 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. The subsoil plow or attachment, is run in the furrow left by the common plow. Writers differ somewhat as to the frequency of its use; the earlier recommendations being once in five or six years ; it being often difficult to go down more than a few inches at first subsoiling ; one or two inches might be added at the second, and so on till the greatest possible depth is obtained. Others advise more frequent subsoiling. The single subsoiler follows the common plow in the same furrow, if there are two teams working at the same time; if only one, the plowman first strikes the common furrow, then changes the team to the subsoiler, and stirs the bottom of the same furrow. The subsoil attachment provides for combining tlie two operations. The importance of underdraining in connection with subsoiling will be readily understood. (i^.) The width of the furrow depends partly on the depth, and partly on the nature or object of the plowing. A furrow six inches wide, and six inches deep, would not easily turn over, but would rest on edge. If nine inches wide and six inches deep, it would turn over either flat, as many of the English and Americans prefer it, or so as that the furrows will overlap, according to the Scotch theory and practice, fol- lowed in some parts of the United States. A wider furrow in proportion to depth, will be more apt to turn over fiat. The best theoretical proportion as determined by English agriculturalists for overlapping or ridge furrows, standing at angle of 45°, is the width to depth, as three to two. In practice even for good ridge plowing it is not necessary to adhere strictly to that angle or this proportion. Some raatii- tain that, if the object be to loosen the soil, a narrow furrow should be taken ; if to turn over grass or turf, a wide one. But a wide working plow can be easily made to work narrow. The medium depth of good plowing has been reckoned at seven inches; say the average lies between five and nine. Of sixteen farmers in different sections of Southern Ohio INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 891 whose testimony as to the depth of breaking up ground was written out between 1872 and 1S77, one working high table clay land plowed four inches deep, another on mixed loam plowed shallow; another on elevated and level land plowed ten inches if the team would bear it, but his neighbors gener- ally from four to six inches ; others on varied hill and run bottom, from five to six inches: others on hill land rather ... . j loamy, six to eight mches; one on clayey hill land, eight inches; two on bottom, river and creek, eight inches; one on old Muskingum bottom, six to nine inches; one on Ohio bottom and adjoining hill, red and yellow clay, eight to ten inches ; one on sandy plain, second Ohio bottom, eight inches for sod, and ten for stubble ; one on dark red clay hill land, deep as he could plow, and another deep on both hill and bottom. (/) Most farmers inquired of in the section alluded to, turned the sod over flat, and the recorded statements of large numbers throughout the United States, are to the same effect. Ridge plowing on the other hand, has many advo- cates, and they are probably increasing. Southern English farmers claim that flat plowing smothers the weeds; and others that it better secures the decomposing sod from dis- turbance during after tillage. Flat plowing may answer well for light soils ; and dry sandy soils should be kept as level as possible to prevent their scorching, washing and excessive draining. Many of the Flemish farmers used the binot, eleva- ting and depressing the sod into small ridges, which leave more surface to air and frost. Ridge or lap plowing has a similar advantage in stiff, hard soils, especially if fall plowed. When the furrows lap, it is claimed by some that there is less chance for weeds, &c., to come up between the furrows. But probably their greatest advantage is in moist regions where they act as covered or open drains between the fur- rows, making, after fall plowing, early spring work more 392 INDIAN CORN AN» ITS CUlTlfRE. practicable. I,ap furrows will be more effectively harrowed and yield more mold. They are made by turning two furrows together on an unplowed surface, so that their edges will touch each other, leaving the land in alternate furrows and ridges. A more scientific method has long been practiced in Europe, the first operation of which is striking the furrows. The usual breadth of the ridges is from fifteen to eighteen feet. The plowman takes three or more poles shod with iron, eight or nine feet long, and divided into feet and half feet, and first lays off headlands, say eighteen feet wide, ridges parallel to the side of the field on which the horses are to turn, (fig. i) A B G H, and C D E F,hy running the fur- rows EFa.v\6 G H. He then measures dH Ea. J b, and Mc, G f s c € I F I, U u a i It LFiii i.\ D seven and one-half feet each, and setting poles at a, h and e (if these are enough to guide him in running a straight fur- row), he enters his plow at a^ and then measures off fifteen feet to d, planting there the pole taken up at a. He then drives the plow to b, and measures off fifteen feet to e, plant- ing a pole there ; then finishes the first furrow in a straight line to c, and measures off fifteen feet to /, planting a pole there. He then turns short about and returns by the furrow c b a, throwing the earth in an opposite direction, correcting as he returns, any irregularities from unsteady motion of the INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 393 horses in the first track. The poles being now in the line d e /, he enters his plow at d and measures off fifteen feet to g, fixing a pole there; then plows Xo f, repeating the previous operation with the poles, and returns with a back furrow to d, and so on through the field forming open parallel furrows fifteen feet apart, the centres of future ridges. He then plows out the ridges : beginning at the left hand side of the open furrow, he throws his first furrow slice towards it; then returning on the opposite side performs the same operation, making the two first furrow slices rest on each other, and by always turning to the right, and laying his fur- row slice towards the centre of the ridge till he has reached its boundary on one side JS H, and the line o s, half way be- tween c a and ^_/, on the other, he forms the first ridge HE OS, of which c a '\% the crown or centre; and in like manner the whole is formed into ridges, of which the first marked furrows are centres. However, when the plow has moved from a to c, he may turn his horses left about and return from y to d, and so on, always laying his furrow slices towards a c and f d respec- tively; thus plowing the half of adjoining ridges and ending at s, half way between them. This is said to be the most convenient method in practice. The headlands A J3 G H, and C D E F, are formed into ridges after the previous ones are finished. The ridges thus become slightly curved, and by plowing the earth away from the intervals, the ground is hollowed there, forming open furrows or drains for the surface water. The ridge may acquire a greater curvature and elevation by plowing the whole of it a second time in a similar manner. Other changes may be made in the ridges, such as plow- ing two ridges together, called casting, or laying together the half of each adjoining ridge, called cleaving. In the original laying out of the ridges, their boundaries have' been con- 301 INDIAN CORM ANP ITS CULTURE. sidered straight lines; but irregularities of surface and other causes often require a change of direction of the ridges in some parts of the field, to carry off the water. Where the direction is to be changed, the plowman runs a furrow straight or curved; the one set of ridges end here, and others are laid off from it in the new direction. The sloping of the fields, or situation of the ditches and fences, must generally regulate the direction of the ridges with reference to surface draining. If there are hollow places where water stagnates, suitable outlets must be opened by the plow or spade. The ridges are best North and South, for if East and West, the north side lies somewhat less to the sun than the south side. (g.) Where ridge plowing is not needed, the plows may either follow each other round the entire field to the centre, or the field maybe divided up; long parallellograms being most convenient when the shape of the field or surface will admit of them. Great accuracy in laying out the lands will add very much to the ease of plowing; if the same width is not preserved, but the plow cuts too wide here, and too nar- row there, some of the surface will be left unturned, and some turned a second time. Where ridges are laid diagonally across steep slopes, to lighten the labor, and weaken the tor- rents wasting the surface, they should slope upwards, as in [Fig. S.] A C figure eight, from A to the right hand to B ; and not from C to the left to Z> ; for in the former case, as the cattle ascend the steep, the furrow slice is thrown down-hill; whereas in the latter, as they ascend, their labor is greatly increased by INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 805 raising the furrow slice up hill. The advantage of the sidehill plow which works horizontally, always throwing the furrow down hill, is here apparent. Somewhat modified as the swivel plow, the team drawing it alternately gees and haws, turn- ing short about at the end of the furrow, and plows level land very effectively. (//.) A good plow is very important to successful plowing, sharp and bright, and of a shape to effect the special purpose ' intended ; also a good strong team, so Avell trained that their guidance will not prevent the plowman from giving full atten- tion to the movements of the plow ; the plow horse should be broad in chest and on the back, and not be encumbered with unnecessary gearing. Very much d^^ends on the plow- man, who in England, is born and bred to his business, and turns a furrow with the greatest precision. To run straight, even furrows, but slightly differing in depth, is far more im- portant to the crop than to get over a large quantity of ground in a day. The closer the horses are harnessed to the point of draft, the less exertion will be required to overcome the resistance. Plowing with a pair abreast, the strongest horse should work in the furrow ; with the team harnessed in line, the tallest should be foremost, if fully equal to the others. Jt is stated in U. S. Agricultural Report, 1862, as the opinion of an experienced stage proprietor, that three horses abreast draw as well as four with two leaders in advance in the ordi- nary way; which agreed with the correspondent's experiments. As the right hand horse walking in the furrow, necessarily places the other two so far to the left as to create a new centre of draft, a special contrivance is necessary to enable the common plow to run as with two horses. Some plow makers place an iron arc between the handles, to which the rear end of the beam is screwed, and along which arc it can be moved, till the right centre of draft is attained. "Another way is to construct a clevis bent several inches to the left 396 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTCRE. side of the beam. Three horses are driven by the plowman with the same faciHty as a two horse team, and do not re- quire an additional driver, as becomes necessary with four." A correspondent of the Cincinnati Weekly Gazette, (1870), describes a treble tree as consisting, first of a double tree four feet long; the outside horses are attached to this in the usual mode; for the middle horse a single tree is attached to ani equalizer, standing erect, attached to the plow clevis; the lower end of this is attached to the two horse double tree, five inches below the plow clevis; while the single tree of the middle horse is attached to the upper end ten inches above the clevis. The horses will then walk steadily as if only two were plowing together. An excellent way to plow deeply in breaking up sod ground. The plow team is easily managed, and draws easier for being kept in as regular and brisk a pace as the work will allow. Breadth and depth of furrow being known, " the plow should be held upright, bearing equally all along on a straight-sole, and be made to move forward in a regular line without swerving to either side, and the edge of the colter should be set directly forward, that the landside of it may be in a parallel line with the landside of the head. The plow- man should walk with his body as nearly as possible upright, without leaning on the stilts, and without using force to any part, other than may be absolutely necessary to keep the im- plement steadily in a straight line. He should also be sparing of his voice and of correction to the team; of the former, because much cheering and ordering only confuse the cattle, and of the latter, because punishment often repeated, ceases to have due effect, and thus leads to unnecessary beating." (/'.) Where the plow has not the special adjustments for regulating the pitch, it may be made to go deeper by lower- ing the back bands, or increasing the distance of the team, by setting the muzzle higher up in the inde.x of the beam, IXDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 397 and by giving the colter a greater rake forward ; and the re- verse will make it go shallower. Hooking the traces into notches of the muzzle more towards the unplowed ground, you narrow the furrow, and widen it by shifting them to the other side, or pressing the handles towards the right. Some plows have adjustments for taking more or less land. (/) The line of draft, when the horses are properly hitched, follows the traces from the point of draft at the shoulder, through the notch at the end of the plow beam, to the point of the share. The shoulder is nearer the ground in the act of pulling, and allowance must be made for this in selecting the notih suited to the animal's height. The higher the beam above the bottom of the furrow to be plowed, the longer and the more need for lengthening the traces. Priest's experiments with a furrow nine and a half inches wide, and three and three-quarter inches deep, when the traces were ten feet five inches, from the point of draft on the horses' shoul- ders, to the point of the share, made the power of draft only two and one-fourth hundred weight; with the traces length- ened to fifteen feet six inches, the draft force was three and a half hundred weight. In corn tillage, deep and thorough plowing, so as to put the soil in the best condition for a seed bed, is at least half the battle. This is most easily accomplished where the land has been underdrained. As Mr. Klippart in Ohio Agricul- tural Report, (1858), remarks, " corn delights in a loose, dry, warm soil." 398 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. CHAPTER XVI. HARROWING, ROLLING AND PLANTING. (a ) The earliest harrow is thought to have been a com- mon hawthorn or other stiff, spinous, woody plant, so pruned as to lie flatly on the ground, and make numerous deep, parallel scratches ; the like is still used in some cultivated parts of Asia. Another early form was a wooden frame of bars and cross bars with projecting wooden teeth. Most modern harrows have the teeth of iron, and some of them the frame also. To adapt them to special soils, and special conditions of soil, the materials, weight, size and mode of traction have been greatly varied. The rectangular form is still used more or less; one recently patented having the cross bars set with teeth in such a manner as when drawn straight forward, to make a series of equidistant and parallel scratches. But the rhomboidal form, to some extent, and the triangular to a great extent, have taken its place ; and the changes in the forms of the frame and teeth are intended to make the har- row act more uniformly and steadily in tearing up the broken surface, leveling as it pulverizes. For grounds free from obstructions, the teeth should be small and numerous, say about fifty teeth, three-fourths inch square; where the soil abounds in roots and stones, the teeth must be fewer and larger, say thirty to a harrow. The teeth will do better work if the edges, instead of the flat side, are to the front. Some- times the teeth are rhombic ; and for very hard soils, flat, sharp edged steel teeth are used. The harrow is very effec- tive in distributing manures. On plowed sod, it is usually run in the direction of the furrows; on stubble often both ways in turn. Fall plowed ground is frequently harrowed in INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 399 the spring, previous to planting or replovving. If lumpy, a light shower makes it crumble down easier. When the front tooth is taken out, it very thoroughly weeds and smooths the corn rows just peeping out of the ground. The objections to this harrow is that it gets clogged with stubble or other ob- structions at the surface; and on uneven ground, its scratches are irregular and incomplete. These are remedied in the double A harrows, one triangle fitted partly inside of another, either by a single hinge, or by two hinges connecting two contiguous central beams running back from the front angle, so that the whole harrow folds up like the leaves of a book, and so that one part may be lifted to clear away obstructions, while the other does its work. Sometimes the two are bound together by flexible metallic springs. Shear's harrow has sharp flat blades, sloping backwards like a sled runner, and as they pass over the inverted green sward, they press down the sod, while they make powder of its upper face. A single passing is said to mellow the surface more than twice as deep as the common harrow ; meanwhile rolling the grassy part down in its place. Steel teeth are far belter than iron ones. A tooth has been patented with the front side steel, and the rear iron. Nishwitz's harrow has rotating teeth, which are described as circular disks, about one foot in diameter, concave on one side and convex on the other, and are said to make mince meat of the soil. Another harrow is the steel tooth expanding and self adjusting, cut- ting the sod both vertically and horizontally, and is claimed to cross harrow sod without inverting the furrows, and to ex- pand and contract to suit the wants of the farmer. One construction, for disintegration of soil, makes the underside of a harrow frame solid, and is provided with a series of ribs like those on a washboard. Double rectangular, rbomboidal, circular, rotary and revolving harrows of various forms, and harrows with frames of metallic pipe, have recently been pat- 400 - INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ented. In harrowing large fields there is often an advantage in yoking several harrows together ; three yoked together drawn by three horses, are said to do as much with one dri- ver, as four harrows, with four separate yokes, each having a driver. {b) Rollers are a more recent implement, of great use in certain cases for clod crushing, and in common use in many maize growing districts, on plowed ground just after planting, and on the rows just coming up. They were first made of a single log, two or three feet in diameter, shaped to something near a perfect cylinder, and fitted to a frame to which a team could be harnessed. This was greatly improved by sawing the log in sections, say one foot long, accurately . dressing them, boring through the centres say one and one- half inches, and stringing the block wheels on a round iron bar. The timber ought to season one year under shelter with the bark on, so that it will not crack ; white elm, or syca- more, is said to be good material. Each wheel, as the roller is drawn, turns independently. One writer says the best one he ever had was made with his own hands, of plank for the rolling surface, in two sections, four feet in diameter and eight feet long ; it drew with great ease and crushed more lumps than a smaller one. Iron rollers are often used for heavy work ; sometimes armed with points, sharp or other- wise, to make the clod crushing more complete. Some of them have been complained of, as torturing the team from the manner in which it was attached to them. The draft, it is said, should be from the centre of motion, instead of the top. A writer in U. S. Agricultural Report, ( ), recommends as the best now made, that cast in sections one foot wide and twenty-two inches in diameter, weighing one thousand pounds : it being of great value to prairie soils, and at corn planting, finely comminuting the surface. ' Rollers are chiefly useful on heavy soils disposed to be INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE, 401 cloddy. Land may be too dry for the thorough pulverization of the lumps, and then a shower is a good preparation, if it does not leave the surface too wet. A moderate wetting makes the clods crumble down easily. (c.) Furrowing out the prepared soil is the next process, according to the old system of maize culture. For this a small turning plow was most commonly used ; one object being to throw out sufficient mellow soil to cover the dropi)ed corn. For drills, the distance apart of the rows for the shorter growths, where the land was well cleared, and there were few obstructions to after culture, and the soil was rich, was three feet; in rare cases, say for sweet corn, a little less. Fur taller growing corn, three and a half to four feet, and in the South often five or six feet. Many experienced maize growers insist on an adequate distance between the rows, (three and a half to four feet.) for the better admission of the sun. For this a direction North and South would be pre- ferable. This distance is probably better for new beginners in maize culture, who wish to raise well developed corn rather than fodder. Cross furrowing for hills has been very common ; though many farmers use markers, running two or three cross rows at once. Where the same distance is not observed both ways, three by three and a half, three by four, and three and a half by four, are most agreeable to eastern and western methods ; some furrow three and a half wide on their bottoms, and four feet on hills; and some four feet North and South, and three feet nine inches East and West. Machine planters, driven by horse power, furrow as they plant. The depth of furrows usually bears a certain ] ropor- tion to the depth of plowing; say three to eight, or four to ten. Some furrow deeper on rolling than on flat land. (d.) As to the varieties of seed corn suited for planting, see chapter VI herein. The following method of saving it is described in Ohio Agricultural Report, 185S, as an Indiana 3-i 402 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. farmer's: the seed is gathered early in September, when about half the ears of the field to be gathered from, have their husks whitened with ripeness, showing ears that have matured. Be sure to have the seed corn perfectly dry before freezing weather comes upon it. Enough husk is left on each ear to tie two and two together, and hang on poles in a dry, airy place, two ears deep to each pole. The ears ripening first should always be selected for seed. A farmer near Dodson, Ohio, goes through the field in the fall, and takes the ripest from stalks bearing two ears, and from those ears best developed, selects ears perfectly filled to the point. Only choice grains should be used ; many use only those from the top end of the ear; others, those only from the middle. (.?.) As to manuring in the hill, see chapter XIII. Farm- ers differ in regard to soaking the seed corn. A Licking Co., Ohio, farmer, in 1849, found that soaking in copperas water, tarring and rolling in plaster, prevented the ravages of the ground mole, cut-worm, and various beasts and birds, but not those of the grub- worm. A Massachusetts farmer in 1853, found worms prevented by soaking in the above, or a solu- tion of saltpetre. A Pennsylvanian in the same year de- nounced tarring, and protected a whole crop against the birds by sowing corn broad cast on the field at planting time. An Ohioan used the latter remedy in 1874. Ohio Agricultural Report for 1858 recommends mineral soaks, tarring and plas- tering the seed to disgust worms and grubs, but not as hasten- ing growth more than water soaking. Several Southern Ohioans in moist weather, or in replanting, found soaking in water, nearly scalding, hastened growth. Another for re- planting, soaked in water ten hours, and laid out to dry ten hours till sprouted, and then planted. A Kentuckian in 1877 soaked in warm water, and rolled in tar and land plaster. Others have mixed the seed with coal tar, and rolled m quicklime till the grains became separated ; others still have INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 403 used soot as a coating. A large proportion of farmers have preferred not to soak. (/) Into the question of the best time of planting corn in any locality — a question which every farmer as far as prac- ticable, should himself determine by experiment — there enter the following elements among others: average temperature, average rain fall, exposure to sun, exposure to, or shelter from cold winds, wetness or dryness of soil, degree of fer- tility as regards the maize crop, general condition of the ground for tillage, and convenience in arranging farm work. A new hand at maize culture, or an old one in a new situa- tion, must rely more or less on the established customs of the district, if it has any, or on general principles. The climatic relations of maize culture have been hereinbefore discussed. Where the planting season is too uncertain to work according to any general rule, there should be two times of planting, early and late, with varieties of seed corn to suit. Even where the seasons are usually regular, there are occasional variations, and it is best to be prepared for them. Where there is a tendency to dryness of soil, early planting seems most advisable ; wet soils may be safer planted late. Very rich light soils bring on the crops so rapidly, that early or late, if they are well tilled, they are safest against drought and frost, but not always against floodmg before or after harvesting. The safest general rule seems to be to plant as soon as the ground is in good order for tillage, sufficiently warm;, and the weather is settled. A correspondent of U. S. P. O., 1848, stated that there was at least two months difference between the planting times of Florida and Texas, and those of Maine, Wisconsin and Iowa; February and March being those of the former, and May that of the three latter States. This general statement shows that the farmers of the North are driven to a narrower choice of times for corn planting, than those of the South. An analy- 404 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. sis of more than eighty statements of U. S, Agricultural correspondents, representing latitudes between 47 ° and 31^° North, shows more uniformity North of latitude 38° ; only about twelve of the number being south of that degree. Of the former about fifty were in May, five in April, and seven or eight in June. A Wisconsin correspondent stated that as far North as Sandy Lake, Beech Lake and Red River, plant- ing (early) was done about June 1st. In Arostook County, Maine, one of the most northerly Counties, corn was planted in June. In latitude 46°, (Maine), o.ne plants 20th of May. In Jefferson County, New York, from loth to 15th of May. More than a degree further South, in Wayne County, Michi- gan, near the lakes, early in May. The times for early plant- ing gradually approach the last of April as we go southward to latitude 39°. In the above list there were about thirty-five preferences for the first ten days of May, and twenty nine preferences for the remaining twenty-one days of May. There were nine statements in which June, and nine in which April was mentioned. The following are among the broader state- ments: April; 20th of April to 20th of May; mid April to May; 24th of April to ist of June; last of April to first of June; mid May to 5th of June. The plurality in favor of t!ie first ten days of May is in accordance with a statement made many years ago by one ot the most successful farmers in latitude 39°25'. Of the twelve statements south of 39°, we have Madison County, Illinois, near first of May; Buck- ingham County, Virginia, April; Cabarras County, North Carolina, ist to 12th of April; Jackson County, Alabama, March till May; Milledgeville, Georgia, February; Barbour County, Alabama, March; in Washington County, Mississippi, corn would most probably ripen if planted in July; at Ft. Fill- more, New Mexico, planting was done early in April. On the whole, May seems the preferred month for maize planting INDIAN CORN AND ITS CDLTURE. 405 in the great corn growing States. A well known Journal, however, said in 1865, in substance: do not fear to plant corn till tenth of June. Better plant after this with ground i 1 good order, than to have planted at any time previous with ground in bad order. If an earlier variety of seed can be procured, plant, to be sure of ripening j old Dent will proba- bly ripen if planted before the tenth of June. (g.) Hand and Machine Flanting. The ground being fur- rowed, and perhaps manured in the hill, it has been usual to drop the corn by hand, and cover with hoes. A first rate dropper will so distribute the grains as to make the firmest built hill of corn. Hand Corn Planters make the hole, or place of deposit for the seed, and drop the right number of grains. See note on page 410. They are coming into extensive use, but are charged with dropping the grains too close together. When it is necessary to replant, they would seem to be, as compared even with steam drawn planters, both labor and seed savers Quite a number have been patented; one of them being described as having a boot piece, a seed reservoir pivoted at its heel, valves, and a spring. Patents for wheel jilanters are much more numerous. Some plant two rows at once, and rows can be made with them at any distance apart, and the number of kernels regulated. Some of them are said to plant, in favorable situations, with great rapidity and exactness. (A.) As many grains are imperfect, and the seed planted is liable to be destroyed by insects or otherwise, it is safe to plant six or eight in a hill, and pull up ail but three or four. If the soil is not in the best condi ion, only two or three should bcleft to attain full growth, unless the hills are very wide apart. If the plants cannot obtain their nourishment below, they must spread out. The quantity of seed planted on an acre for general crop, has been averaged at one or two gallons; some drill one half bushel to the acre. Many 400 INDIAN COE.V AND ITS CCLTCHE. farmers prefer to plant just the number ihey wish to remain in the hill, being very careful to have the selected grains per- fect. Where the hills are three or four feet apart, it is com- mon in the Middle and Western States to drop three kernels in a hill for permanent plants. Where the corn grows very tall, as in the Southern States, it was formerly the practice to make the hills from four to six feet each way, and drop, orj leave permanently, two grains in a hill. When the soil is naturally very rich, or is made so, being rich and mellow, well developed grains may be planted thicker, as will be seen in the statements connected with large crops. If the planting is in drills, say four and a half by two feet; four and a half by one and a half feet; or four feet by one as the custom is in different southern or western localities, or three and a half feet by nine or ten inches as more common further North ; only one plant is usually left in the hill. Mr. Ludlow of New York, (see New England Farmer, 1829,) raised ninety-eight bushels of corn on an acre, in single rows, eight inches apart in each row. The better opinion is that more corn can be grown to an acre by drilling, though at a greater cost of time and implements. Some maintain that the riches of the soil can be more fully economized by hav- ing the plants stand singly. Where they are somewhat spread in the hill at planting, it is not unlikely that they help to brace one another. (/) As to the depth of planting or covering, something has already been said under the head of "Large Crops." In cases where successful planting has been very deep, say four to six inches, either the climate was warmer and the planting very early, and the ground put in the best condition for growth by the retention of sufficient heat and moisture ; or, if the soil was cold, the seed was enclosed in some material such as sifted coal ashes, to keep it warm and thrifty. Ex- periments on a small scale were made with the latter in 1877 INDIAW CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 407 on corn grain planted from three to four inches deep, some on 28th of March, some on 7th of April; eight or ten grains of small roasting ear corn being thus put in a hill. A few hills came up entire, others in part; scarcely any of the hills wholly failed, and more or less corn was ripe for boiling by the second of August. This, however, would be an expensive way of planting on a large scale, and the general rule favors a depth of one and a half or two inches. The fine soil wants to be pressed round the planted grains, either by the hoe at the time of covering, or by the roller after the field has been planted. One object is to bring the earth closer to the germinating grain, and another to prevent radiation, and keep it from drying up ; the first reliance of the germ being on the grain and not on extraneous matter. CHAPTER XVII. AFTERCULTURE OF MAIZE. (^.) Scattered throughout the United States are large numbers of small corn fields in villages and large towns and in their suburbs, from one-fourth acre upward, which re- ceive more or less culture with other implements than the spade, hoe or rake. It is very common for some one in the neighborhood who owns or drives a team and a plow, to do up by small jobs, the larger cultivation in these small fields. A one horse plow on light sandy soils suitable for gardens, frequently does both the breaking up and after cultivation. The double shovel is better for clayey and other stiff land ; the old-fashioned shovel plow is sometimes used, throwing the earth both ways, stirring instead of fairly turning over the soil. 408 INDIAN CORN AND 1T3 CULTURE. For very mellow deep garden soils, the garden cultivator was commended in Ohio Agricultural Report, 1869; being provided with wheels and pushed forward by the handles, and having several attachments, including a knife projecting from the beam into the ground at the bottom and center of the wheel, so as to cut the runners of strawberry and other vines when the wheel presses on them; a drill with pipe and wings for opening the ground, dropping and covering the seed, which can be removed when not needed; a share set angling with a wing to cover seed when desired, and throw dirt to and from the row; a common cultivator tooth, sharp at both ends, reversible, and wings attached to it ; a scuffle hoe with sharp sides for cutting weeds at or below the sur- face; and a rake to level and weed the ground; these to be substituted for the share when needed, and fastened with a wedge. The first cultivation with the turning plow is with the landside or bar next the corn on each side, very close to it; if the rows are straight, throwing the earth away from it. This, when the corn is just up, and needs a good deal of sun, admits it more freely; and it cuts up the weeds next the young plant, and loosens the contiguous surface. If the furrowing runs both ways, the second cultivation with the plow can be put off, say a week after running the plow in one direction ; and in another week the soil thrown away from the corn can be thrown back again with the mould- board to the corn; and in the fourth week the same in the cross rows. By this time, if the season is favorable and the soil is in the best condition, the corn will have attained a height that will shade the ground; and if the weeds have been perfectly subdued, little more cultivation will be re- quired. Where clay is predominant in the soil, it is very important to plow deep at the start, and continue to do so at short intervals, so that when drought comes, the roots will find abundant moisture in the spongy soil; if this is neglected INDIAN CORN AND ITS CCLTURS. 409 at nrst. deep plowing may be hazardous in drought. The roots make the best of their situation in the tough clay, and when the rough plow tears them and breaks up their nests, they often die out, and the crop is sometimes ruined. But where from the first, the roots become accustomed to that kind of frequent disturbance, which opens new paths for them, and fresh sources of plant food, they recover very quickly from their wounds, and gain instead of losing vigor. {b.) The double shovel plow is better than the common one for stiff soils not plowed sufficiently deep ; two small shovels will, of course, pulverize the surface better than a single shovel or turn plow. It is generally passed twice in a row, and for repetition the same rule might be observed as for the cultivating plow. This implement will plow nearly four acres a day. Where a seven toothed cultivator can be afforded, it is very useful in the latter stages of cultivation, as it shaves the surface without interfering with the roots and keeps it very mellow. Cultivation can then be continued till the corn begins to set. A great variety of cultivators have been patented ; most of them improvements on the old horse hoe, so highly prized on English acres. The two-horse cultivator on large clear fields, has come into extensive use ; there are two small plow shares on each side, and the inner ones which come next the corn are somewhat in the shape of bull tongues. The arch connecting the right and left parts is high enough not to in- jure the tops of corn during the season of culture. On favorably situated land about nine acres a day can be tilled with it. (c.) One of the best methods is to commence, when the corn is very small, with the bull tongue plow, which usually has a curved iron beam and iron handles, running very close to the rows, and as deep as possible, three or four times in each row j thus making a complete bed for the reception and 35 410 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTCEE. retention of moisture and fertilizing matters. Afterwards the cultivator or other shallow working implement may be used to keep the surface clean and mellow. (d.) One reason why so many cultivating implements are yearly patented in the United States, is the fact that farmers frequently make their own. Differences of soil and special- ties of surface are constantly suggesting new contrivances for obviating difficulties in practical maize culture. It is for- tunate for the farmer that in so many cases he can make his own implements ; if, as a consequence, he touches less of gold and railroad stocks, he has the real kingship, independ- ence ; this, however, may be carried too far. There is a reasonable dependence, as well as independence, and if he gives others besides the blacksmith and wagon maker the opportunity of working for him, he will find more buyers and obtain better prices for his grain and pork. Some old fashioned implements have become a sort of necessity to the farmer; so the little corn harrow now and then turns up; the shovel plow is often a go between among later inventions ; and the hoe will keep its place sometime longer. The old plows and cultivators left the hoe to finish up the weeds; the recent close cutting knives, spades and shares chop fine the weeds and stubble as well as earth, and fender attachments keep the loose soil off the tender plants *<7. Some farmers remove the suckers as fast as they appear, others consider them fruitful and let them remain. Note n.— Brief statements, with partial drawings, in the Official Gazette of the Patent Office of the United States, show the claims of the patentees; the specitications, including: full illustrative drawinc;s, and describing the subject matter of the patent in detail, as well as its object and modus operandi are em- ix)died in large monthly volumes, containing full indexes of the names of pat- entees and classes of patents. Each of the monthly volumes of 1877, from .January to .Tune contains over one thousand pages of specifications, licsides several hundred pages of drawings. There are also nine or fen volumes of General Indexes, for looking up patent matter from 1790 to 1876. They are found in the Public Library of Cincinnati, and probably iu the other large public libraries of the I'nited States. Inventors, manufacturers, and others interested in the sale or use of the subjects of patents, visiting cities having such libraries, might fiud themselves amply repaid for a few days careful study in these vol- india:^ corn and its culture. 411 (eJ) The number of times corn should be cultivated is less for the greater thoroughness of the first plowing, and the greater skill in planting; less for the greater sponginess of the soil; less for a wet season, and in some cases less for early neglect and for the limited number of suitable culti- vating implements. In general it pays well for more fre- quent stirrings, if done skillfully in time. To determine the proper number often requires close observation and ripe ' judgment. For the following statements either the pens or lips of farmers are responsible : Beginning back in 1850, or thereabouts, an Illinois farmer, when corn was up, passed a heavy harrow over the rows, then plowed three or four times between them. A Missou- Times ; but it is difficult, from so large a mass of details, to generalize as to any special class of implements in extensive use. Something of the kind is done in U. S. A. R. 18G9and 1«70, from which the following brief abstract is taken : " Thirty years ago a man with a hand hoe could, by the aid of a hor.-e and plow, for plowing furrows between the rowsof corn, cultivate an acre in a day. is'ow, (1870), with a span of horses and one of our best riding cultivators, fifteen acres can be accomplished, and this with almost as much ease and comfort as a day's journey in a buggy." Nearly four hundred patents have been issued as to cultivators from 1872 to June 1877. It is stated in U. S. A. R. 18G9, that more than one hundred corn hand plan- ters had been patented before that year. Hughes' patent had two legs pivoted logeUier like the divisions of a candle snuffer, the lower end to be thrust into the ground to form an opening for the seed : the upper end having two handles. To the outside of one leg was securely fi.xed a seed box, into which extended a seed slide connected with the other leg. The lower end of the planter was thrust into the ground : the handles then brought together, enlarging the opening into the soil, and at the same time drawing out the seed slide with its charge of grain, which was dropped into the opening: the planter was then withdrawn and the seed covered and pressed down with the foot of the operator. In 1828 Starr's patent for planting grain had handles and a beam similar to a common plow, supported from the rear by wheels ; beneath and about the cen- tre <>f the beam there was a shovel plow to open the furrow for the reception of the seed, and to the rear of the machine was attached an iron scraper to close the furrow after the seed was dropped. On the top of the beam was placed a hopper, in which a sheet iron cylinder was made to revolve by suitable mechan- ism ; its edge perforated at suitable distances to receive pieces of metal, which acted as valves working upon a pin, and forced out by springs contained within the wheel, so as to project beyond its periphery, but capable of being forced in, when passing the ends of the slot in the bottom of ihe hopper. These valves contained the quantity of seed to be dropped in each hill, and might be more or less numerous, according to the distance at which they were to be dropped iu the furrow. Corn planters usually plant the seed in hills. A machine can easily be so arranged as to be changed from a grain drill to pi suit in hills, by diminishing the number of cavities on the dropping wheel. Then by removing the dropping mechanism the machine may be used as a wheel cultivator, a wheel plow, or a harrow ; or even a land roller may be attached. Some corn planters have a re- ciprocating slide, similar to that described in seed drills and used in connection with a cut-ofFor brush for sweeping back the giain, and connected with a hinged valve in the runner, which receives the charge of grain after it falls through the slide, and by which it is dropped into the earth. The cut-off chiefly employed is 412 INDIAN CORN AND 1X3 CDLTUKE. rian plowed three or four times with shovel or Carey plow. One farther South plowed three times, decreasing in depth. A Mississippian used first the narrow shovel, bull tongue or scooter plow; then thinned out; after rain used the shovel jilow from and toward the corn, and killed weeds and grass wiih an iron toothed harrow, &c. Further North, testimonies multiply; the after culture being three or four times with the plow, at intervals varying from a week to ten days; the first from the corn in the main furrows ; the second from the corn in cross furrows; the third to the corn in the main fur- rows; the fourth to the corn in cross furrows. A uses the a brush ; though an India rubber sweep is sometimes used. Generally one or two scrapers to throw the loose earth upon the dropped grain, are placed in the roar of the runners. The hand corn husker is described in U. S. A. R., lSfi9, as a small and simple instrument, designed to be grasped with one hand and to assist in tearing the hu.sk from the ear- sometimes a glove with teeth or liooks : sometimes a device to be used like a pair of tongs, having two pivoted arm.s between which the husk is caught ; often a little metal bar, with loops or rings for tlie fingers and a projection between which and the thumb the husk is caught. Their main object IS to save the fingers. Machine buskers are described as generally having a pair of corrugated horizontal rollers, with yielding bearings. The rollers bite off the ear from the stalk, which is presented to and drawn between them, the ear falling upon or being carried to the stripping rollers. The strippiug rollers arc geuerally ar- ranged transversely to the horizontal rollers, and in a slanting position, so that the ear, when stripped of its husk and silk, may slide down into any suit- able receptacle. These rollers are placed close to one another, and nip or catch hold of the husk and tear it from the car in a very rapid and satisfactory man- ner. The stripping rollers are generally covered with some elastic substance as India rubber, and have spiral grooves or corrugations. In some cases, hard rollers are employed, and they may be grooved or corrugated, or one of them maybe provided" with teeth, moving through annular grooves on the other rollers. In IT. S. A. R. 1869, it is stated that the improvements on corn shellers pat- ented in that year were chieliy variations on Houseman's patent, a hand im- plement. In its improved state it was composed of two iron bars about si.t inches long, pivoted together; the shelling ends or palms, which were semi-cir- cular in form, being kept in close contact by means of a suitable spring; the palms were made semi-circular in form, so as to embrace the ear ; and their inner sides bore ridgesor ribs terminating in claws, which served to remove the kernels; the ribs having a spiral inclination which served to draw the ear through, when the implement was operated. In operating it the sheller was seized by a handle provided for that purpose, and the small end of the cob iu- serte 1 between the palms: the instrument was then revolved, and the ear drawn through: the kernels being easily and quickly removed by the claws. In this connection may be introduced a brief statement from U. S. A. R. f Agricultural Patentsi, as to grain bins intended for use in great grain markets as Chicago. These bins are frequently constructed of some porous material, generally brick, intended to absorb any superfluous moisture, and thus prevent grain from spoiling. The bins are generally made of circular form and are arranged in series side by side, in a manner intended to economize space as much as possible. In grain dryers, the inventors seem to have mostly in view the drying of the grain by the introduction of currents of air. These currents are generally introduced through perforated pipes, which run through the l)ius. Sometimes performed partitions or walls are employed for a similar purpose. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 413 cultivator with the plow to keep down the weeds, and put the ground in better condition; say two or three times, laying by with the cultivator at knee high. B begins soon as rows are seen, with the cultivator ; then plows and hoes ; corn fifteen inches high, uses both cultivator and plow both ways, and finishes hoeing about the time the spindle top appears. C, corn fairly above ground, thins to three or four stalks, passes cultivator twice each way, and repeats this at regular inter- vals, pulling suckers, till the ear begins to shoot. D, when the corn is three or four inches high, passes the cultivator two or three times between rows both ways till near wheat har- vest. E runs it six times each way till near the time of ta^- seling. F, when the plants are quite small, uses the cultivator instead of plow ; thinning, when ten inches high, the plants to three or four ; supplies deficiencies by replanting, and stirs every three weeks or oftener, if weather dry, with plow and cultivator till ear sets. G works with cultivator till ten inches high, then with double mold-board and span of horses throws up a light furrow on each side. H keeps the ground loose and free from weeds with cultivator or double shovel plow, — stating that a triple shovel plow is fast coming into use. I, '(a Virginian,) drags the horse rake with front tooth taken out, over the young corn, which should be immediately dressed with the hand rake with large spike nails for teeth; after dressing with the hoe (in stiff land), he runs the plow first from and then to the corn, being careful to uncover, &c. J plows from and to the corn and then runs the cul- tivator till the ears begin to set. K jilows four times, breaking all the rows each time. L, when the corn is five or six inches high, has the best plowman running a furrow as near as possible to the plant, with the bar side next it. and another breaking up the intermediate space; both working deeply. M, with tlie subsoil or bull-tongue plow, drawn by two horses, one on each side of row, passes close to the young 414 INDIAN COEN AND ITS COLTURE. hills, then with cultivator to clear out the middles; in ten days, with wing plow one way in a row throwing dirt to the corn ; in a few days finishing with the cultivator. The old fashioned hilling has long ago, as appears from the records, given way to level culture. Small hills are sometimes made. The hoe was formerly in use largely between plowings, except when these kept the ground mellow and free from weeds; it is dispensed with in much of the later culture. One farmer found that by plowing late, and planting from 2oth to 25th of May, corn grew rapidly, and did as well with- out hoeing as the hoed crop did, planted in April. Rapid working is the rule. With reference to deep plowing in dry weather, an Ohioan remarks that if clay soil is first plowed only three inches deep, it could not be plowed again in a dry season, when the stalk is four feet high, because the soil would be so hard that the roots could not possibly penetrate the unbroken ground downward; whereas in clay ground, plowed ten or twelve inches deep, the roots go down in search of moisture, and if the soil is loose to that depth, descend even three or four feet. If only one side of a row is plowed at a time during drought, the roots on the other side can feed the stalk while the plowed side recovers itself. Many farmers do not plow at all in time of drought, others merely stir the surface; others who begin early with deep plowing and keep it up at short intervals, plow in clay soiU in very dry weather, all the deeper. But such corn ground plowed shallow, or seldom, or irregularly, before drought, is sometimes plowed deeply to the ruin of the crop when drought comes. Judge Buel passed the harrow at first dress- ing between the rows both ways; used the hoe little more than to destroy weeds; at second and last dressing plowed shallow, and earthed the hill slightly, not disturbing the roots or bringing manure to the surface. Many farmers inquired of, during recent years, prefer the double shovel plow, used from IXniAN CORN A\D ITS CULTUKE. 415 three to five times The two horse cultivator, with the bull tongues inside so as to run deep and close to the corn, has already been referred to, and is much used on large clear fields for early culture. (/) The proper time for cessation of culture is indicated above. While the plant is growing in stature or bulk, culti- vation that does not disturb the roots may aid it; but after tasseling begins, working in most cases delays the ripening. Some of the most successful farmers leave the plant to itself, when, after early and rapid tillage, it has reached the height of four oi five feet, and so shades the ground as to choke down the weeds Many cease at earing time, or when the corn is out of milk. Special ways of cultivating corn, {g') In gardens. Gardeners try to make the most of their square rods. Very heavy ma- nuring, and very deep tillage enable them to raise several crops in the same year off the same ground. Tomatoes ripen late from a comparatively early planting ; let the plants, early grown from seed in boxes, be set out in properly prepared hills, six feet apart each way; and then let hills of sweet corn two and a half or three feet each way be planted among them, not too close to the tomatoes. The young tomatoes grow so slowly that the corn will, when properly manured and tilled, go on to the roasting ear state without being materially hindered in its growth ; and is cut off just in time to give the tomatoes full scope. (Ji ) Corn and potatoes are sometimes grown in alternate rows with much advantage. Late potatoes require more shade than early ones, and sugar corn will not shade them any too much. Whether very tall corn will permit their full developement, is to be tested. It has been said that corn will grow in the same hill with potatoes, but records of re- sults of such an experiment are not very abundant. (/.) The habit of planting beans and pumpkins among corn 418 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUEE. has come down from the Indians. The beans should be of late varieties planted at the last hoeing, so as not co interfere with tillage. Pumpkins, with the same precaution, may be planted in alternate rows in every third hill. Beans may be l>lanted in the intervals in one direction, or at suitable dis- tances apart, in circles round corn hills. (/) The practice of listing was formerly resorted to in the West, where land was cheap and abundant, and time and money scarce and dear. One of the methods was to turn over shallow furrows at convenient distances apart ; a man following the plow with an ax to cut through the slices at regular intervals and deposit the seed. The intermediate spaces could be plowed after the corn was up; much depended on the season as to the results; sometimes only five bushels were obtained, sometimes twenty-five. {k ) Maize culture in rainless Western districts, in connec- tion with irrigation, has already been referred to; the general plowing being performed, irrigation is a substitute for after cultivation. According to the accounts given of this species of maize culture in New Mexico many years ago, the water was let in to mellow the earth, facilitate the plow, and bring the planted corn out of the ground. Furrows were then run three feet apart, to receive the seed, planted so close in the rows as scarcely- to admit the hoe. One plowing and one hoeing from planting to maturity, were given the crop which received in the meantime from two to four irrigations, accord- ing to the weather, and the supply of water. There were large settlements along the smaller streams ; each farmer took his turn in the use of water; the farmers were often restricted to a single irrigation during the summer, and sometimes a long drought caused a failure in this; but generally with the aid of chance showers fair crops were produced. The New Mexicans have found the necessity for irrigation diminished by deep plowing. The common shovel plow was then one of INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 417 their chief implements. Lands in those districts without running water had no agricultural value. The first watering was near the beginning of May. Deep furrows for planting were harrowed to prepare the surface for irrigation ; the corn was shovel plowed till half leg high, and watered about 26th of June, and again when the sprigs began to loosen the ear. At Dona Ana, there were four or five irrigations on the crop; at Albuquerque the crop varied from thirty to fifty bushels, at other places from seventy-five to one hundred bushels per acre. At Fort Fillmore the land was rarely plowed even once after planting, and never more than in one direction, but there was great labor expended in irrigation. Farmers com- menced gathering the maize by order of the Alcador all on the same day, and they gathered day and night. Irrigation in the recent settlements of Colorado, as de- scribed in 1870, seemed to have made the maize crop more certain, though the average product was less. The main ditches being on highlands made irrigation each way easy, the lands being divided by small ditches. Corn was planted in rows and irrigated by streams of water let in between the rows ; want of water was indicated by the curling up of the leaves at mid-day. Too much water in summer made vege- tation turn yellow. After a wetting, the ground being dry enough to work, the cultivator was passed between the rows to prevent baking. Standing water with no outlet was ruinous to a crop, but a stream constantly flowing on a crop did no harm if it drained off immediately. On side hills exposed to washing, little troughs made by nailing four laths together were laid near the bottom of the ditches, a rod apart, for the water to run in. Irrigation was not often required before the first or middle of June. Water moved more easily over the furrows of mucky soils, than those of light ones. Fall plowed lands required less irrigation than those plowed in spring. A citizen of Den- 418 INDIAN CORN AND ITS COLTURE. ver favored leveling the land, and the use of machines for making the water run in little channels ; he was for plowing deep, avoiding dead furrows, pulverizing the soil thoroughly, sowing pure good seed properly, running the ditches on a grade not more than half an inch to the rod, and from five to twenty rods apart, harrowing in the direction you would irrigate, rolling the young rooted grain, when the ground is moist, but not wet, at right angles to the head ditches; commencing irrigation before the crop begins to suffer from drought, and not quitting for a light rainfall. An address before the Greeley Farmer's Club, stated that as good corn was grown there as any where, but the average was only twenty-five bushels to the acre ; they could plant any time after the first of May; it would mature if planted by the twentieth; it could be put in and gathered when there was no other work, and after ripening might stand in the fields years without injury; it would not mature without water. From the San Antonio Valley in Texas, first settled by the Spaniards in 1718, where the soil is a rich deep black loam, it was stated that there was an irrigation once in ten days, the hours being fixed ; every man had his dam and gate, and when his hour arrived lowered his gate, (his higher neighbor having finished irrigation and raised his gate); the water over- flowed his land, while with the hoe he trenched here and dammed there, till all the ground was wet. Some skill was required to run the rows with reference to the ditch. Irri- gable land in San Antonio Valley was worth $100 to $200 per acre ; that with the same soil, but incapable of irrigation not $5. These Spaniards never manured. The best time to irrigate is early in the morning, or about sunset. It is a good time when a rising cloud gives promise of a shower. It was stated in behalf of a Colorado colony, that they would not, if they could, have rain as it falls at the East, instead of irrigation; there being no uncertainty in a crop raised by the latter if properly conducted. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 419 (/) The Navajoes, a powerful tribe of Indians, in West New Mexico, on the arid plains, drive stakes made of very- hard wood, and made still harder by exposure to fire, twelve to eighteen inches into the soil, and thus form holes, each of which receives at the bottom a ball of mud, about the size of a man's fist, enveloping one or more grains of maize, the ball being covered with two or three inches of light earth, and the grains left to germinate. Sufficient moisture is thus contained to enable them to spring up; early evaporation is prevented by the thin covering of earth ; the great depth of the hole shelters the roots from the heat and dryness of the superficial soil, and the plant is supported in its growth by the greater moisture of the subsoil. Good crops are the consequence. CHAPTER XVIII. CUTTING UP, HARVESTING, ETC. (a.) One of the old methods was topping. It was believed that after the stamens at the top of the plant had fertilized the ear completely and become dry, the upper part of the stalk was of no further use. The top was then cut off with a sharp knife a little above the topmost ear, and the blades stripped as near as possible to the stem; the ears were left on the butt stalks to ripen. Some of the advantages of this method were, an earlier saving of fodder as against frost ; less exposure of the grain and fodder to mould from wet weather at harvesting or soon after; less weight and bulk of fodder to house, and perhaps in some cases greater certainty of the grain being moderately ripe. On the other hand, it was a slow operation; less fodder was saved, often it was not so well saved, and the corn was more liable to waste from shelling out when gathered. 420 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. If this crop was followed by wheat, it could not be so sea- sonably put in. The experience of many farmers was that nothing was gained either in the quantity or quality of ripe grain, and that in the ordinary course of farm business, less and inferior fodder was saved. Some, however, still prefer this method. When fodder is high and labor cheap, and the butts can be economized for cattle food, by being chopped i fine and mixed with richer cattle feed, it may sometimes be most advantageous; so when the field is small as well as the working force, and the cultivator's circumstances or business do not admit of his keeping a horse, but only a cow or two, the time spent in topping and stripping is less of an object; while the comparative lightness of the fodder will enable him very promptly to put it under shelter by hand. He can turn the butts to good account as bedding for his cows or hogs. (b.) Cutting up at the roots or near the ground has become the prevailing practice; it being very generally believed to be not only labor-saving, but better for both grain and fodder. If rightly shocked in moderately dry weather, the curing goes on very well, while the grain fills out from the accumulated riches of the stalk. The indications for the right time have been variously stated, as the drying up of the lower leaves, the partial whitening of the outer husks, the glazed appearance of the grain, and the finding no ears young enough for boil- ing. Cut up then, if you want the best fodder ; some of the special times mentioned have been from loth to 2cth of Sep- tember, and the loth of October. {c.) Instruments for cutting up were formerly made by breaking an old scythe in two or three pieces, and putting handles to them ; the grass knife was sometimes used. A hand implement has been made expressly for the purpose, and also a rolling stalk cutter. Machines for cutting and shocking corn have been noticed, or have obtained premiums INDIA.N CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 421 at Ohio State Fairs at various times since 1853. Many have been patented in late years; one in 1873 is described as having disk cutters, one of which has a circumferential groove for the other to work in, for severing the stalks, which are con" veyed and delivered in rear of the machine in quantities sufficient for shocking. One in 1874 cut the corn by a re- ciprocating cutter, and received it on the platform in a stand- ing position, where it was gathered into a shock and removed by a derrick to the rear of the machine, where it was de- posited on the ground. (d) By the old process of hand cutting, a certain number of hills are put together, around four central ones, with their tops tied diagonally so as to make a firm nucleus; if the weather at cutting is moist, a small number, say twelve or sixteen are put together at first, and after partial curing are gathered into larger ones, or removed to long rows resting against extended and supported poles, or to a well ventilated barn. A shock of twenty-five hills is one of the smallest spoken of for permanent field curing; under more favorable conditions from forty-eight to one hundred hills are put together, and in some cases where wheat is sown on corn ground, one hundred and twenty or one hundred and forty- four in shocks placed so as least to interfere with harrowing or plowing. The beauty of the harvest field is much in- creased by having these stand equi-distant, and it makes the wheat field much more regular, but for this purpose it will answer, if the rows of shocks are parallel in the direction in which the land is to be plowed or harrowed. If the corn is to stand in the field any length of time, its security against mould is greatly promoted by the proper construction of the shocks, built, if possible, against standing hills of equal stalks, and well tied below the top with flexible bands of corn or rye straw, so as to stand erect amid driving winds and rains. Machine cutting and shocking may perhaps answer very well 422 INDIAN CORN AND ITS COLTIRE. Oil level land, but it is not easy to see how the difficulty of getting firm shocks on steep side hills can be obviated by most of the machines heretofore patented. {e. How long the shocks should remain in the field before husking and hauling in, must depend mainly on the con- venience of the farmer; unless the dangers that beset the field as a depository of harvests are imperative as to lis re- moval. One advantage of corn fodder as compared with hay, is the ease with -which it is saved, so as to answer some good purpose as coarse feed. Those who keep cows, but have no barns, can usually stow away corn fodder in yards where there is room to plant a sufficient number of stout forks to receive the long riders on which the fodder may lean, or where a stack can be conveniently built. In either case, after being well cured, it can be better saved than in field shocks, unless after husking, several shocks, bound up in bun- dles for convenient handling, are well put together. Stock raisers frequently prefer to haul the corn and fodder husked or unhusked to the feeding lots, and spread on the grass for the animals to dispose of; and this sort of feeding often ex- tends into the winter. Some farmers give one month to the shocks for curing, and then husk and haul in; others leave the corn in shock till the first or middle of October or Novem- ber, or even December ; some want a good frost on the shock before husking, as it dries the easier. (/.) Husking was formerly done by hand, with some very simple contrivances as aids, and this was enlivened by husk- ing bees which combined brisk work with sociality. Hand corn buskers of sundry patterns have been lately patented. By far the greater number of farmers, probably, still husk by hand, and generally in the field. Many are careful to leave the husks on the fodder. One of the corn husking gloves patented in 1873 is said to consist of metallic plates, provided with rows of teeth, used on the thumb, fore and little fingers INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 423 of the left hand, in connection with the common husking pin in the right hand Quite a number of inventors of machine huskers have received patents — one of the briefest descrip- tions is this : " rolls tear the ear from the stalk, and the ear falls on outer rolls ; the husk is torn from it on its descent." See page 412 Note. (g) The Indian deposited his harvest under ground, be- cause he seldom placed any permanent improvements above ground. The white man is a builder, and perhaps the sim- plest of his depositories for corn in the ear is the crib formed by putting fence rails with the ends crossing in a square, with a floor that will protect the grain from damp, and in some measure from vermin; and roofed with boards. Other cribs of the cheap kind are of logs unchinked. Some farmers spread the husked ears on the floors of their lofts. The im- proved crib is usually a building with a tight floor, resting on flat stones which rest on props high enough and so prepared as to make the climbing difficult for rats and mice ; the whole width about four feet; the two long sides covered at parallel intervals by slats of equal width, say three inches, placed so as to air the corn ; a suitable door being hung for putting in and taking out the ears. The height and length may be ex- tended to meet the wants of the builder; but some farmers are careful to put only two hundred or three hundred bushels in one bulk. Where corn is fed largely to hogs or poultry, it is convenient to have the crib near the pens or coops. Corn cribs are not entirely unknown to the Patent Office. One patent describes an inclined floor and other improvements, and another a rectangular structure with deflectors, which cause the ears of corn to fall centrally through a narrow aper- ture to the floor beneath, so that an animal may reach in and withdraw an ear, but cannot eat it within the crib; many animals being thus permitted to feed from the same crib. See note on page 412. 424 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. (/i.) There are so many conveniences about corn in the ear, that it is no wonder the price is sometimes higher than that of shelled corn. Its position is much more easily changed ; it can be loaded on a car and dumped ; it can be piled up in bulk on a railroad car or canal boat; the ear is convenient as a measure for feeding or small sales ; its quality can be better estimated, and it keeps better in masses, especially on sea- board. If grinding is wanted, the corn and cob meal may be preferred for some animals, and if the cob is not ground, it makes excellent fuel. The main objection to it is its bulki- ness; the weight is only one-fourth more than that of shelled corn; the latter is usually reckoned at fifty six lbs , the former at seventy pounds. In 1850, (see U. S. P. O ), fifty-six pounds was the standard weight of shelled corn in Vermont and Ohio, and the usual weight in Bristol Co. Mass., New Castle Co. Delaware, Buckingham and Amherst Cos. Virginia, and Iberville, Louisiana. Gourd seed corn in Delaware weighed from forty- nine to fifty two pounds, the more common kinds in Halifax Co. N. C. from fifty three to fifty-four lbs., the best variety, fifty-six lbs. Some estimates of the weight in Vermont and Pennsylvania were fifty-eight lbs , and in Massachusetts sixty lbs. Upland corn in Ohio over weighs that raised in the bottom. In 1853, in Vermillion Co Illinois, the season being good, the weight of a crop, fifty to sixty-five bushels to an acre, was estimated at from sixty to sixty-three lbs. per bushel; a crop of one hundred and thirty-six bushels to an acre in New Hampshire weighed seventy lbs. in the ear and fifty-nine lbs. shelled and dried. Another New Hampshire farmer found that on January 16, 1854, a bushel of shelled corn thoroughly dried weighed fifty-nine lbs., the result of shelling a bushel in the ear weighing sixty-eight lbs. Shelling was formerly done in Southern Europe by scraping or rasping on a piece of iron ; in Southern France the ban- INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 425 die of a frying pan was sometimes stretched across a tub and made fast at the ends by two notches. The operator scraped the ear lengthwise on the sharpest edge of the iron till the grain separated from the cob and fell into the tub, and a dili- gent man with strong wrists would shell from twenty to thirty bushels per day. A lot of husked ears in a sack might be thrashed out with a flail, and of unhusked ears sent through a thrashing machine by slightly modifying its arrangements. Loudon describes a shelling machine as composed of a vertical wheel covered with iron on one side, made rough by punctures; the wheel working in a trough and sepa- rating the grain by rubbing the ears thrown in by hand, one at a time, and while the separated grain passes through a funnel below, the naked cob is brought up at the end of the wheel opposite that at which it was put in. The wheel may be made rough either on both sides or on one side, according to the quantity of work to be done and the force to be applied. In America corn has been beat out in barrels, and scraped off the edge of a spade or bayonet, but of late corn shellers in such abundance and variety have been introduced, that the shelling of corn often adds little or nothing to its value. Some of them clean as well as shell. See note on page 412. (/.) From what has been said herein on the uses of maize, the importance to the farmer of good corn mills will be ap- parent. These are largely manufactured in the cities, and the prices range from $10 upward. Grain was first pounded between two stones, afterwards broken between an immovable nether stone and an upper stone moved by hand, — the Hebrew and Greek mill, worked first by slaves and criminals and afterwards by asses. Water mills were used by the Romans. Buhrstone is the preferred material for modern mills, but sienite and granite are often worked into corn mills. The lower stone is fixed and is slightly convex ; the upper one, somewhat concave, is sup- 36 426 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. ported by an axis passing through the lower one and re- volving with considerable velocity; the distance between the two being adjustable for producing fine or coarse meal. The corn is shaken out of the hopper by projections from the re- volving axis, which give to its lower part a vibrating motion. The corn entering at the middle of the stone, passes outward a short distance before it begins to be ground, and when powdered, its escape at the circumference is favored by the centrifugal force and the convexity of the lower stone. The surface of the stone is cut in grooves running obliquely to make it act more effectively on the corn. Iron mills have been extensively used of late. One advertised in Ohio Ag!. Report for 1870, claims to have new features in the make of grinding plates. The teeth are all formed like the letter Y • the lower part of each tooth in its row connecting with the upper part next below, and so on through the whole series in each radiating row in the next circle. By this arrangement and shape of the teeth, the pulverized stuff in the mill is forced as well as ground towards the periphery or discharging edges, whether the motion is fast or slow. The mill grinds faster as the motion is increased. (y.) The cost of cultivating corn varies mainly with value of land, price of applied manure, and labor of man and horses, or oxen, and interest on investments in cultivating and harvesting implements. The fairest way of reckoning it is by the acre, for the fodder, a very important item, is thus easily included. Where it is estimated by the bushel, the actual value of the fodder should be deducted from the total cost per acre. As the corn crop, when manured broadcast, generally leaves a portion not taken up, only part of its ap- plied value ought to be charged to the corn. The cost of cultivation is probably greater in the East and other long settled districts than in the new lands of the \Vest. In the East it costs nearly the same labor to get a small crop as a INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 427 large one. Among the various amounts given in by corres- pondents of the U. S P. O. in 1849-50, is that of forty-five cents per bushel for Indian Corn production, including interest on land, taxes, fencing, and all other charges, (Vermont); twenty- two cents for Atkinson, Maine , twenty cents for Jeffer- son Co , N. Y, ; eighteen and one-half cents for New Castle Co., Delaware, forty cents, Amherst Co., Va.; nineteen and one-half cents, Wayne Co., Michigan; thirteen cents, including interest on land for a crop of forty five bushels in Hillsdale Co , Mich ; fourteen cents for Delaware Co , Ohio ; ten cents for Newport, Indiana. The estimate of the Shakers at Worcester, Mass., in U. S. P. O. 1853, (stiff clay, &c ), was for plowing in September, four dollars; twenty five loads of compost, thirty dollars; cross plowing in spring, planting, and twice hoeing, seven dollars; in all forty-one dollars for one acre, crop thirty-five to filty bushels, making from one dollar and seventeen cents to eighty-two cents per bushel. Compare this with the state- ment of Wm. J, Phelps of Peoria, Illinois, for same year. Preparing ground, one dollar, planting, twenty-five cents, cultivating, one dollar and a half, husking and cribbing, one dollar and twenty-five cents, in all four dollars for one acre; the usual crop of sixty bushels making the cost less than seven cents per bushel. In 1868, in Worcester Co , Mass., on one acre was spent twenty-seven dollars for manure, twenty-two dollars and fifty cents for other cost; the product being one hundred and eleven and one half bushels, made forty four and one third cents per bushel; three tons of stover should be deducted from the cost per acre. In the same year a crop in Auglaize Co., Ohio, on one acre was eighty-one bushels, six lbs , the cost being eight dollars, less than ten cents per bushel. An account from one of the old slave States (Delaware, 1849,) makes plowing one dollar; harrowing, twenty cents; 428 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. seed, eight cents; marking, fifteen cents; husking, one dollar twelve and one half cents-, shelling, fifty cents ; hauhng, one dollar ; interest on land, four dollars and eighty cents ; checkering, fifteen cents; planting, nineteen and one-half cents ; working, one dollar and twenty cents; cutting, thirty- seven and one-half cents; in all, ten dollars and seventy-seven and one-half cents ; deducting fodder, one dollar and a half, leaves nine dollars, twenty-seven and one-half cents per acre, or eighteen and one half cents per bushel. In 187 1, (see U. S. A. R.), crops were raised at Knights- town, Ind., costing twenty and three fifths cents; at North Fairfield, Ohio, twenty-two and one-third cents, by J. C. Bur- roughs of Illinois, twenty-seven cents ; at Chester Co. Pa , twenty-five and one half cents; at Oneida Lake, N. Y., forty- five cents per bushel. (/:.) The shrinkage of corn has been referred to under the head of varieties. Experienced farmers in Southern Ohio say corn loses in weight or measure considerably by being kept till spring. Four lbs. from fall to spring is the better estimate; that is, ear corn in the fall weighs seventy-two lbs , in the spring, sixty-eight One makes it seventy lbs before first of February, sixty-eight lbs. after. Some weight is lost from worm eating as well as shrinkage. (/) For soiling and fodder, corn is sometimes sown broad- cast, two or three bushels to an acre, but as this may result in too much shade, the following method practiced a few years ago on soil in good heart near a barn, well plowed and har- rowed and sown from large southern varieties, with good re- suits, may be safely recommended : Batchelder's corn planter was set to drop hills one foot apart ; the machine was then run backwards and forwards as near rows already planted as possible, without actually interfering wifh them ; the planted field was then well rolled. The corn came up finely. On sixth of August, an average stalk was INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. 429 cut from one of the rows where the tassel was just in sight and found to weigh three and a half lbs. , subsequently cured it weighed one lb. If there was one such stalk on each foot there would be seventy-six tons (of 2,000 lbs. each,) to acre of green stalks. Probably ten tens to the acre of dry fodder could be obtained from land so conditioned. Mr. Temple Cutler of Massachusetts, (U. S. P. O. 1849-50) stated that the corn might be sown in drills or broadcast, so as always to have a crop in the proper stage for soiling cattle. Mr. Waring, an eastern agriculturist, is quoted in U. S. A. R. 1871, as recommending the sowing of corn for fodder in drills three feet apart, so that they may be worked with a cultivator. Mr. L. S. Abbott, of Painesville, Ohio, in U. S. A. R, 1866, prefers the broadcast sowing as giving the greatest yield. He objects to the drill sowing, worked by the cultivator, as making the stalks too coarse to be entirely eaten up by the stock- Their coarseness depends somewhat on how thick the sowing is in the drills, and how tall the natural growth of the variety chosen ; and if, as some writers assert, the nutriment is richer in stalks, the lower parts of which have a better exposure to the sun, the cattle will probably contrive to mas- ticate them. But in this they may be assisted by fodder cut- ters, provided for the purpose, the pieces for obvious reasons being cut not less than two inches long. Mr. Abbott gives as the possible product, ten tons per acre as the estimate of good judges, and in quality, very much better than hay, and relished by all kinds of stock. As it is generally sown to supply the deficiency of the grass crop late in tlie summer, its necessity for this purpose can be determined before the first of June, which is early enough for sowing the corn. He thinks it maybe sown much later with good results, and that sown even in mid-August, during the summer drought, the corn will tassel before the autumnal frosts, in the latitude of 430 IXDIAX COKy AXn ITS fULTL'KE. Northern Ohio. He would sow three and a half bushels to the acre. The difficulty about the time of sowing is in curing the fodder late in the fall, when the long, cold rains so often stand in the way of proper harvesting; the abundance of saccharine matter in the stalks requiring several consecutive days of good drying weather. If the farmer's chief reliance for fodder is on sowed com, he should sow in good season, so that there may be no *' weather contingency at curing time." "When the corn is stoat, the burden on the ground is very large, and when the season has been attended with heavy wind storms, the corn will be twirled and twisted round and sometimes badly; just in proportion to this will the cutting be laborious." For doing this work promptly, a cradle with short strong fingers has been made; for binding it needs five or six days of warm bright weather to wilt it sufficiently; small bundles are best, put up in shocks of medium size, tied at top. Some farmers after thorough wilting, stack it in alternate layers with straw. A foundation high enough for proper airing beneath, is made by crossing timbers, the material is then stacked round a box drawn up as the stack is elevated. Korses fed on this kind of fodder never have the heaves, and cattle foddered with it mixed with some sweet turnips, have a sleek and bright appearance. In the far South this kind of fodder should be the main dependence of the farmer for feeding his stock ; the genial autumns, long drawn out, being cmmently favorable to the curing process. Texas grows corn, very much better than the grass suited for haymaking; the special fodder crop is, of course, very desirable there. ' A farmer in Ontario Co. New York, (see U. S. A. R. 1S69), on a field duly prepared, sowed oats broadcast, the usual amount, and afterwards drilled in corn, in the proportion of three bushels of corn to one of oats. They grew very evenly together. Some installments were cut for immediate INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTDUE. 431 use for the general harvesting, but when the oats were ripe, the crop was cut like grass. The dry oatstraw then ab- sorbed ths moisture of the cornstalks; the whole was easily cured. Horses and cattle ate it greedily. An extended article on the green soiling of stock, including the culture of corn fodder, by D. S. Curtis, of Madison, Wis- consin, will be found in U. S. P. O., 1859. (;« ) In conclusion, among the many things important to be considered by the young maize grower, who desires per- manent success, it may be well to allude especially to three: ist. The relation of maize growing to the culture of other crops, even when the operations are conducted on the most limited scale. It will be found that a reasonable attention to other cultures will make the success of the year's crop more certain. A good grass field especially, is one of the best preparations for the maize crop. Nature has already pro- vided this on the prairies; the best grass sod on soil fre^h from timber is made by judicious pasturage. The season may. \ favor the maize crop one year, and be adverse another year, when some other crop is favored. Insects or other enemies may prove ruinous to the most carefully cultivated maize field, and leave some other growths uninjured. 2d. While it is important to aim at producing the fullest crops, it is far better to manage so as to make them better and better from year to year, than to begin with largest crops and run down to small ones. The young corn grower whose prudence leads him to choose methods suited to his circ um- stances and location, which give the most certain promise of a fair crop, will be most apt to go on improving. If he has too high expectations of first results, the chances are that he may be disappointed, and lose the stimulus given by a first success. 3d. Keeping out of debt has been proved by the experi- ence of late years to be one of the best helps to permanent 432 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. success in this as well as other cultures. Strong and durable fences rather than showy ones, buildings that will last and that will secure the crops of the farm and accommodate its occupants, and at the same time please by a reasonable share of architectural beauty; domestic animals of good breed that can be well fed; implements whose use is well understood, sufficient for the most thorough culture, and good land, but not more of it than can be well tilled, and not enough of it to involve the purchaser in hopeless or embarrassing debt — in short, all things in proportion — with good habits, patriotic motives and unselfish aims, are among the best guarantees of good times a coming. IHCIAN CORS AND ITS CULTURE. 433 Broom Corn. As the culture of Broom Corn has some similarity to that of maize, a few statements in regard to it from the U. S. P. O., and U. S. A. Reports are subjoined : U. S. P. O. 1854. E. Smith of Sunderland, Franklin Co. Mass. states that in the previous fall and winter he drew to a lot twenty cords of muck, mixed with five and one-half cords of sheep manure; in April the whole was turned over and mixed, and eighteen bushels of ashes added. About May ist, it was turned over a second time, and on the 15th of May harrowed in, and planted with Woodward's corn planter, and one hundred lbs. of superphosphate of lime put in the hills. The land was cultivated and hoed four times, and there was taken from it by estimation, eight hundred lbs. of brush to the acre. Broom Corn had been grown on the land the two previous years. Crop raised on an acre and nine rods, of brush, 1,025 lbs., and seed, sixty-seven bushels, weighing forty lbs. to the bushel. Value of 1,025 lbs. brush at 10 cts. Value of sixty-seven bushels of seed, - Expense of plowing, harrowing and planting, Manure, ...--- Hoeing, ..... Harrowing, scraping, and cleaning seed, Interest on Land, - . . - Net Profits, ..... $90 80 S. G. Hamlin, West Glenville, Schenectady Co. N. Y. The chief objection to growing on upland is, that it makes no fodder or manure, except the stalks, which are of little im- portance either as a fertilizer or feed. They are generally consumed in the field after the brush is taken off. The usual method of cultivation is to plow the land in spring, harrow $102 50 26 80 $2 50 $129 30 12 00 7 00 10 00 7 00 38 J2 434 ISDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTURE. till the soil is pulverized and mellow, and then roll down smooth with revolving plank or log roller. The seed is sown in the spring as early as the condition of the ground will admit, in rows about three feet apart, and six to eight inches in the drills. Soon as the corn is above ground, a narrow space of land on each side of the rows is scraped with a hoe to pre- vent the weeds from hindering its growth; the remaining space is left for the cultivator, which is frequently run to keep down weeds. The cultivation is usually finished by running the plow twice to each row. The brush is cut while green, and as often as convenient. As it grows from eight to twelve feet high, the tops are first bent or lopped to one side and cut with seven or eight inches of stalk left onj each stalk com- poses a brush. M. F. Meyer, of Kingston, Luzerne Co, Pa , states that broom corn was raised on river flats and was a profitable crop. The average yield of seed was fifty bushels to the acre, worth fifty cents per bushel. He had known eighty-five dollars an acre to be paid for the crop before harvesting. U. S. A. R. 1868, reviewing the State E.eports of Missouri Agriculture, states that the bottom lands of Missouri are suited to its growth. Land producing a rapid and tall growth of Indian Corn, will grow good broom corn. A growth of head of from twelve to eighteen inches is the most profitable crop for manufacturers; yet for "hurl," or those brooms made from the brush, without using any of the stalk under the wire, which are the most desirable brooms, a growth of twenty to twenty-four inches is necessary. An average crop is about one-fourth of a ton per acre, worth about one hundred and fifty dollars per ton. The seed is almost equal to oats for all kinds of stock, averaging forty bushels to the acre, worth thirty dollars; total product of the acre, $67 50; labor not more than required for an acre of Indian Corn. The price of brush depends on supply and demand. INDIAN CORN AND ITS CULTUEE. 435 lilV. Bxishels in Maize crop of U. S.for 1875; Average yield per acre; No. of acres planted ; Avrmgcprice per bushel and total value. No. of Swine Jan'y 1876, averageprice and valtie of sanu. (From United States Agricultural Report, 1875.) States. Maine , New Hampshire Vermont ^. Massachusetts... Bhode Island... Connecticut New York New Jersey Pennsylvania ... Delaware Maryland Virginia North Carolina.. South Carolina.. Georgia Florida Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Texas Arkansas Tennessee West Virginia Kentucky Ohio Michigan- Indiana Illinois Wisconsin , Minnesota Iowa Missouri Kansas Nebraska , California , Oregon Nevada , Territories , Corn Bushels. Yield Av. Bush 1,300,000 1,650,000 1,720,000 1,620.000 290,000 l,775,tX)0 19,750,000 9,000,000 44.000,000 3,267 000 14,200,000 21,333.000 22,275,000 9,240,000 20.100,000 2,150,000 24,500,000 23,220,000 7,920,000 31,000,000 19,448,000 58,000,000 10,560,0f;0 00,200,000 95,000,000 23,600,000 95,000,000 280,000,000 15,200,000 7,340,000 160,000,000 128,000,000 76,700,000 28,000,000 1,.500,000 96,000 15,000 1,500,000 Totals 1,321,069,000 29.4 44,841,.371 30.5 38 37 37 27.5 29 34 41 40 26 30 22 15 10.2 10 10 12.6 18 15.5 20 30 26.5 29.1 33 3 34.5 33 34 34.3 21 29.2 35 30.6 40 40 36 3 26.5 29 26 Acres. Av. Price. . 42 622 43 421 46,486 43,783 10,545 61,206 580,882 234,146 1,100,000 125.653 473,333 969,681 1,485,000 905,882 2,010,000 215,000 1,944,444 1,290,000 510,967 1,550 000 648,266 2,188,679 362,886 1,807,807 2.753,623 715,151 2,794,117 8,163,265 723,809 251,369 4,571,428 3,497,207 1,917,.500 700,000 41,322 3,622 517 57,692 80 96 94 94 95 1 10 1 00 74 65 58 57 55 54 CO 1 00 86 1 08 89 83 52 41 56 41 44 61 39 34 54 42 27 28 23 20 1 07 91 1 08 1 02 Value. $1,248,000 1,551,000 1,616,800 1,539,000 319,000 1,775,000 14,615,000 6,240,000 25,520,000 1,862,190 7,810,000 11,519,820 13,365,000 9,240,000 17,286,000 2,.322,000 18,375,000 16,718,400 7,048,800 25,730,000 10,112,960 23,780 000 5,913,600 24,682,000 41,800 000 14,.S96,000 37.050,000 95,200,000 8,208,000 3,082,800 43,200,000 35,840,000 17,641,000 5,600,000 1,605,000 87,360 16,200 1,530,000 No. Swine. 58,800 37,300 51,800 75,600 16,300 57,900 568,700 153,000 875,000 46,700 2.33,500 589,800 758,300 275.900 1,360,700 175,400 755,900 792 900 222,600 1,090,000 901,200 1,026.400 248,400 1,604..300 1,596,100 459,700 2,136,000 2,640.100 540,700 213,400 3,296,200 1,874,300 246,500 80,900 363,300 181,500 5,200 116.500 $ 42 $555,445,930 |25, 726,800 Av. Price 811 66 16 20 12 19 18 03 17 05 16 73 11 39 13 83 11 50 10 61 7 10 4 45 4 01 4 11 3 91 2 26 3 99 4 31 3 98 4 09 3 31 5 22 5 38 5 51 8 06 7 93 7 70 8 63 7 58 6 99 8 08 5 94 8 91 7 58 7 17 4 41 9 (10 86 80 Value. 8G85,60S 604,200 631,442 1,363,068 277,915 968,667 6,477,193 2,115,990 10,062,,500 495,487 1,657,850 2,624,610 3,0-40,783' 1,133.949 5,320,337 .396,404 3,016,041 3,417,399 88.5,918 4,458,100 3,523,692 5,3.57,808 1,336 392 8 839,693 12,864.566 3,645.421 16,447,200 22,784,063 4,098,506 1,491,666 26,633,295 11,1.33,342 2,196,315 613,222 2,604 861 800,415 46,800 1,019,375 75,070,484 (From United States Agricultural Report, 1875.) Movements of Indian Com (bushels,) in the principal Cities of United States for the yearn : 1873. 1874. 1875. Receipts. Shipments- Receipts, Shipments. Receipts. Shipments. 24,576,345 3,558,363 8,233,400 8,330,449 2,259,544 38,157,232 921.391 7,701,187 13,416,787 162,729 2.202,308 6,003,618 324,183 36,754,943 197,920 5,200,916 29,329,000 3,303,641 5,954,700 9,355,467 3.457,164 35.799,6;« 1,313,642 6,991,677 26,447,807 380,254 22,488.707 5,346 340 5,950.800 9,567,141 3 695,561 28,341,150 919,605 6,710,263 12,955,525 1,.551.776 Philadelphia ».. 4,601 586 5,959,757 658,718 32,705,224 556.563 4,148,556 6,9S0 802 595 915 20,443,884 Milwaukee St. Louis 226,085 3,523,974 i30 INDIAN COU.N AND ITS CULTURE. Hogs packed dwriiig the four last winter packing seasoTis at six leading points in the West, crimparcd with the ivholc. U.S.A. R. 1875, & Cin'ti Gazette. C:iTIES. 1872-73. 1873-74. 1874-75. 1875-76. Sum'r Pnck'd Win'r Pack'd Amount of regular packing in the seaboard Cities is so small, that no attempt has been made in those cities to collect regular statistics. The facilities aflbrded in the East are not such as to enable packers to compete with the West. Ohio Statistics, 1877. No. of Hogs packed for the two winter seasons following in Ohio. Circleville Cleveland Cincinnati Dayton Kenton Lima Minster New Bremen... New Vienna.,.. Piqua Riple" Toledo Wash' ton 0. H. Wilmington Xenia All other points Total , 1875-76. I 1876-77. 15,339 88.077 563,309 5,000 5,200 5,339 7.300 7,250 6,000 6,000 4,317 20,165 15,600 17,582 56,407 822,935 15,942 121,202 523,576 5,000 5,300 7,062 6,200 7,125 5,500 5,000 5,.500 12,369 15,000 7,000 16,000 55.933 813,709 Total number of Hogs cut in Cincinnati, each winter packing season for the foUowing years. [See Ohio Statistics for 1873. 1877, U. S. A. R. 1.87.5. &c.] Year."i. No. Years. No. Years. No. Years. No. 1832-33 85,000 1842-43...... 250,000 1852-53 361,000 1862-63 608,457 1833-34 123,000 1843-44 240,000 1853-54 421,000 1863-64 370,623 1834-35 162,000 1844-45 196,000 1854-55 3.55,786 1864-65 350,600 1835-36 123,000 1845-46 205,000 1855-56 405,396 1865-66 3.54,079 1836-37 103,000 1846-47 250.000 1856-57 344,512 1866-67 462,610 1837-38 182,000 1847-48 475,000 1857-58 446,677 1867-68 366,831 1838-39 90,000 1848-49 410,000 1858-59 382,826 1868-09 356,555 1839-40 95,000 1849-50 393,000 1859-60 434,499 1869-70 337,330 1840-41 160,000 1850-51 334.000 1860-61 433,799 1870-71 481,.560 1841-42 220,000 1851-52 852,000 1861-62 .... 474.467 1871-72 630,301 The Ohio Statistics for 1876 aive the winter packing for 1875-76, at points not mentioned aoove, packing ten thnnsnnd or over. CITIES. No. Cities. No. 1 Cities. No. 87,991 84,390 75,968 74,500 52,239 50,542 40,068 32 410 32,3.=.5 29,7.50 27,633 Council Bluffs, la Galena, Ills Richmond, Ind... Omaha, Neb Madison, Ind St. Paul, Minn.... Barry, Ills Gosport, Ind 26,410 , 25,000 : 22,700 18.025 ' 16,046 16,000 15,3ti0 15,000 14,000 13,200 ! 12,544 Frankliu Ind Greeusburg, Ind. Pekin, Ills 12 678 St. Joseph Mo. \ & vicinity (" Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kansas City, Mo 12,394 12 000 Washington, Mo New tastle, Ind. Hagerstown, Ind Evansville, Ind.. Burlington, Iowa Davenport, Iowa 12,000 11,734 11 400 Dubuque, Iowa Dos .\loines, Iowa... Detroit, Mich 11.000 10.665 10. ,572 Terre Hante, Ind Springfield, Ills... Bowl'g Green, Ky 10.320 Keokuk, Iowa Ottumwa, Iowa Leavenworth, Ks 10,033 INDIAN CORN AND ITS CDLTURE. 437 Potatoes, $84,150,040, Barley, S29,809 931. Rj-e, S-28,683,fi" Rye, 1,651,321 Potatoes, 1,131,552 Buckwheat, 1,113;993 Buckwheat, 820,814,315. Barley, 937,498 Potatoes, 106.090.000 Rye, 22,504.800 Barley. 22.896.100 Buckwheat, 19.aH3.700 'lotots ict3 ^o^otc^o^^ M to CO if>. ui o> M 00 «o o i-- to w *- o> a> ^1 (jp ^ oi 800 000 00000 0000000 oooo 00 o o j^ o o o JO o o o o _p o o _o o o o 0000 — o o 000 O O O O O O O O O o O O O O' o c o o 'o o o "o o "o o 000 000 00000 ooooooo cooc? 00 ooooS ooo 000 00000 Ooooooo 0000 So 00000 So 1791 1792 1793 1791 1795 1796 1797 1793 ,^^ -"'■ ' ^N •» ,' .--■ ^ ■^ " Ind. Com, Corn Meal, From 17{ After that t w ., \ s ;5 •^ ^ ^> to H i_- ^ - ---* 2 '"' : i j f- )^ ^ ^ '^ c! CO / V. V ■N, 1799 1800 \ •V. ^ 1 ...- - - •"■' / / 1803 1804 , •' ^>, v 1805 i - - ■ — 1806 [ "^ \ 1807 1 1808 '■ ,'' ./^' 1 1899 1810 \ ■^v X \ / 1811 - - - — 1S12 1813 ^ ^ 1 ,-' ^ ^' 1814 1815 ! __, \ -c ^- -^^ 1816 \ ^ > 1817 ^^ ^^ 1818 TRIO ^--. \ 1 (_• (O W Ji. CpCT gsgg Is §'c o o 00" 0S8 ss t-" l-" W _h-» «0 Ki \0 hO to to _K5 to KO to ^ "^1 cc o o K-» '( -' V: "jj. 01 c> Vi c^ o _5 o o _S o S o S _o S o o _o o o o o o 5 5j "0 g p g g cj '^ o "<^ o to o K^ t; CO It- OS 0000 00 0000 lis sssssssg SS8: I CO n •saoinipi i I I I i i I i I I i I g Years. o 9. ^ o_v J* (-. D- O a ' 2 "' & I— Ci S. 1-. ^ o- - S- ^ -; --I Si p O (D 3 « K. : -a § g g g » ^ M CD - 00 P^ D (^ c* O- g D" cr 2 P (D p' m 5 S ' o ■ - ft g* e ^cKi c B-S S o (jq (0 «> e S S ° 2. to O p: ^ 5 / 1 ^ '\h b a b "' c :,-.:a b c ;:::;d c Ill .c _.c P. _.d c __d ..3 '_ d 2 c .S c _d c ""d c d s 1800 ISCl 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 18"0 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 TABLES. Page. I— Heat Producing or Nonazotized Compounds ^ »....». 15 II — Flesh Forming, or Azotized Proximates 15 III— Composition of Proteine 16 IV— Elements of Maize, From Sundry Analyses 18 V — Elements of Indian Corn, Wheat, Rye, Oats, Buckwheat, Peas, Rice, Cabbage, Meadow Hay, Clover, Wheat and ^Pea Straws and Potatoes; From Sundry Analyses 19 VI— Four Analyses of Ash of Indian Corn, one each Ash of Wheat, Rye and Gate ~ 20 VII— Analyses of Maize. and Wheat Straws and Ash 21 VlII — U. S. Acreage of Improved Land, Maize Product, Bushels of Maize to Acre of Improved Land; Population, and Bushels of Maize produced to each inhabitant in years 1850, 1860 and 1870, 40 IX— Bushels of Maize Produced in the several U. S. and Territories, in 1840, '50, '60, '70. with Yield per Acre in 1850..- 42 X— Number of Swine in the several U. 8., Ac, in years 1840, '50, '60 and '70. Census with Additional Returns for 18C0 45 XI— Estimates of Maize Product by the Agricultural Division of U. S. Patent Office in the States, &c.. for years 1S42, '43, '44, '47 & '48 47 Xn— Estimates of Maize Product by Agricultural Department of U. S. in the INon-seceding States in years 1862, '63, '64 and '65 _. 50 XIII— Estimates of Maize Acreage, Value of Crop, Bushels per Acre and Average Price in Non-seceding States, in years 1862, '63, '64 and '65, From U. S. Agricultural Department - 53 XIV— Estimated Maize Product from IT. S. Agl. Reports, Expressed In Thousands, from 1867 to 1874 in the States, &c 57 XV— Estimated Acres from same in the States from 1866 to 1874 68 XVI— Estimated Yield per Acre, and Average Price of Maize in the SUtes, Ac, (U. S. A. R.), from 1866 to 1874 61 XVII— Estimated Value of Maize Crops in the States, (U. S. A. R.) 1866 to 1874 62 XVIII— Estimated Number of Swine with Price and Value (U. S. A. R.) in the Loyal States, Jan'y, '64 and '65, and Peb'y '66 68 XIX— Same in Thirty-five States in Feb'y, '67, '68 and "69 69 XX— Same in the States and Territories in Feb'y '70, '71 and '72 70 XXIa— Same in Jan'y, 1876 _ 71 XXI6— Acreage and Product of Indian Corn in Ohio Counties for 1862 and 1872, and yield per Acre, Average from 1847 to 1866. and for 1872 72 and 73 XXII»-Monthlv Prices Of Maize, Meal and Hog Products, at New York and Baltimore, from Dec, 1S09 to May, 1S12. Averaged from Quotations in the New York Spectator and Baltimore Wliig... 78 XXIII— Monthly Prices of Indian Corn at Njvv Orleans from Sept. 1843 to Aug. 1848, inclusive 93 XXrV— Comparative Prices of Maize nt St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Buffalo and New York for the four quarters of 1848, from U. S. P. 0. Report, 1848 «... 94 441 442 TABLES. Page, XXV -Monthly Prices of Indian Corn at New York City, from 18C4 to 1873, from U. S. Report on Commerce 95 XX VI— Monthly Prices of Cornmeal at same f i om '64 to '73, (U. S. R. Com.) 93 XXVII— Monthly Prices of Mess Pork at same from '61 to '73, (U. S. R. Com.) 9G XXVIII— Monthly Prices of Pickled Hams at same from '64 to '73, (U. S. R. Com) • 93 XXIX-Monthly Prices of Pickled Shoulders at same from '64 to '73, (U. S R. Com.) 97 XXX— Monthly Prices of Western Lard at same from '64 to '73, (U. S. K. Com.^ -... 97 XXXI— Quarterly Prices at Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, selected from U. S. A. R., of Maize and Mess Pork, for '69, '70 and '71 103 XXXII— May and June Prices at Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco, &c., of Corn and Hog Products, for 1876 105 XXXIII— Domestic E.xports of U. S. Com, Meal and Hog Products, from Oct. 1, 1789, to Sept. 30, 1820, (Ssybcrt&c) - 109 XXXIV— Domestic Exports of U. S, Indian Corn, Meal and Hog Products, from 1821 to Sept. SO, 1812 ; for 9 months to June 30, '43, and after, to June 30, '53, (U. S. P. O., '53) 113 XXXV— U. S. Exports, Indian Corn and Meal from 1851 to 1861, inclusive, 116 XXXVI— Exports, Produce of U. S. to Foreign Ports, Corn, Meal and Hogs from 1862 to 1875, inclusive, (U. S. R. Com., &c.) 117 XXXVII— Swine Products of U. S. exported from '62 to 73, inclusive, (U. S. R. Com.) .." lis XXXVIII— Certain Varieties of Maize, seen in Museum of the Agricultural Department at Washington City, in 1876 163 XXXIX— Other Varieties seen at same time la said Museum _ 164 XL— Varieties of Maize mentioned in U. S. P. O. and Agricultural De- partments, as used in the places described 165 XLI— Organic Analysis, by Dr. Jackson, of Wyandotte, Tuscarora, King Piii.ip and Gourdseed Varieties, (U. S. P. O., '57.) 166 XLII— Analyses of Ashes of Cobs of Sweet Corn and other varieties 169 XLIII— Dr. Salisbury's Org.anic Analyses of Golden Sioux, Ohio Dent, White Flint and large and small 8 rowed _ 170 XLIV— Dr. Salisbury's Analyses of Ash of Kernels, Leaves and Cob,'White Flint 170 XLV— Weight of 7 Varieties of Maize; ear at husking (fall of 1871) and shelling; of shelled, Jan. 2 & 3, '72 and other items as to shrink- age 174 XLVI— Elements of A.sh of Leaves at difTcrent stages of maize growth 191 XLVII— Elements of Maize Grain, growing, Aug. SO, Sept. 13, Oct. 18 197 XLVIII— f;cn»us Statislics of distilled Liquors in U. S., 1850, '60, '70 231 XLIX— Census Statistics of Starch made in U. S., 1850, 'GO and '70 232 L— Analysis of Domestic Manures produced in 24 hours 357 lil— Elements of Ash of Manures from horse, ox, swine and man 358 LII— Prof. Norton's Analyses of Bolivian, Peruvian, (.'hilian and Ich- aboo Guanos — 366 Lin— Percent, of Nitrogen and Bons Phosphates in Peruvian and Fish Guanos, bone dust and bones (minus glue) 370 LIV— Product and Yield per Acre, Acreage, Average Price and Value of Maize for 1875; Bwine, Prices and Value Jan'y 1876, in the respective U. S 435 INDEX. Page. Abbott on Sowed Corn 429, 430 Absorbente of Liquid Manures, &c. 351 Absorbing Power of Soils 254 Acids 252, 313. 314, 316, 338 Carbonic, Chloric, Nitric 313 Chloiohydric. Oxalic. Tartaric... SZl Phosphoric, Silicic. Sulphuric 313 Vegetable 258, 2C7 Acre of Corn ; Cost of 426 Acreage of Maize 39. 59, GO, 66 67 In Ohio 72 73 la different United States-see Tables. Adams, Variety of Maize 208 Advice to Europeans; Author of, on Fish Diet 365 Africa; Maize in 34. 36 .Southern Plains of 260, 261 Afterculture of Maize 407 to 419 Agricultural College of Wisconsin, Experiments 174 Convention of Presidentsof Coun- ty (Ohio) Boards of 265 Department at Washington, 39, 49, 50, 51 . 58, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 68, 69,70 173 ■Museum of Same 151, 163, 164, Alabama 46, 48, 50, 66, 63. 112, 177, 243, 2.o9 369 (For Crops, .'} Cow, Digestion of 14, 179 Cow-pea as Fertilizer HM Cradle for cutting Corn Fodder 480 Creuic Acid 351 Crops of Maize in Massachusetts Bay 31 In U. S (See Tables) Remark.s on. .39. 40, 41, 43. 44, 47, 48, 49, 60, 51, 52, 57, 59, fcO, 63, 64, Of Ohio.'..'...'.'..".'..........'.'.'.".'.'.".'.'..' 72. 73 Large - 262, 295 to 309 Of Corn Sown for Fodder, 429, 430, 431 Of 100 Bushels to Acre, !!■ w Rai-sed 300 to 802 Cross-bills 283 Cross Breeding 162 Crow 280. 284, 290 (Jrown Point Phosphorite 821 Crushing Maize for Fodder 199 Cuba.. 23, 87 Exports to 119 to 122 Imports trom, to U. S 122, 123 124 Maize Fodder in 185 Cuban Guano 846 Cuckoo 282 (^ulms of Young Maize as Food 208 Cultivator 297, 299,301, 860, 389, 408, 409, 410, 413 414 Seven Toothed and 2 Horse 409 Cultivation, When Ended. ..409, 413, 415 Culture, Deep 247, 306 to 809, 311, 387, 388, 409. 414 415 Of Broom Corn 433, 434 Cumberland Co. Va 189, 261 Curculio 282 Black 286 Currencies, New Jersey, &c 79 f'urrentsof Air and Ocean 245, 246 Curtis, I>. S 431 Cutler Temple 188, 429 Cutting up and Harvesting Corn 419 to 422 Machines for 420, 421, 422 Time for 191. 192. 420 Cutworm 60, 289, 290, 302, 3.50 Cuyahoga Exporting District 127 Cuzco 25 Cyclopedia, (Scotch) Rural, 188, 205, 216 273 Cylinder Plow 379 Dairyman's Ass'n at Utica, N. Y 180 Dairyman, (Delhi) feeding .Mixed Food 203 Dakota 43. 44, 46, 210, 200, 287 (See Tables.) 448 Page. Daniels', Prof. Experiments 159 Duuish West Indies, Exports to, 119, IJO 134 Imports from, to D. S 123 Dantzic 342 Dariea 24 Darling Corn 158, 208 Daabeuy, Dr. (apatite) 321 Daupliin Co. Pa 315 Ddvv, Sir Hamphrey IC, 252 Davlon Plows 382, 383 Dead Animals 353, 354 How Used as Manure ~« 354 D<;ad Sea 331 Dearing Corn 153 De Bow's Compendium (Census) 39 Deep Plowing 387, 388, 389 Delaware, 50, 55, 127, 150, 253, 275, 276 325, 328, 332. 348, 427 428 (See Tables.) Delaware Co. Pa 196, 277, 367 Delaware Co. Ohio 152, 382 Demand and Supply 106 Denmark 118 Deut, J. H ~ 285 Dent Corn 147, 150 Early 405 Denver, Col 269, 417 Denver's Plow 376 Deodorizers 343, 352, 354, 362 Department of Agriculture, Wash- ington City, Museum 163 Depth of Planting or Covering 406 Experiments on 309, 310, 406, 407 Desert Region of U. S. (so called).... 240 Des Moines Prices 104 Detroit 104 Exporting District 127, 129 Dextrine 11, 12, 161, 168, 197, 204, 225 Diary, Agricultural Use of 279 Digestion of Animals Generally 204 Human 12 to 14 Porcine, 14, 204, 205 OS HorfeandOx „ 14, 179 Of Sheep, Young Cattle and Fowls 14, 204, 205 Diggers 374 Diseases of Maize, el Carbon 293 El Hango, (Mexico) ~ 293 Drainage as a Remedy- 294 La Ra<)uitte 293 Mustinessto Prevent 294 Smut in Corn 293, 294 Distilleries 201, 2.31 Distillation, Products of ... .229, 230, 231 Distribution of Maize 34 to 38 Of Exports of Maize 118 to 122 District of Columbia.. 44 (See Tables.) Ditches 264, 265, 269, 394 Dodge, A. W 189 Dogs 293, 354 Dolomites 259, 328, 329 (See Magnesian Limestone) Domestic Animals and Poultry Fed, 178 Duua Aua 417 Page. Double Michigan Plow .~.... 380 Shovel Plow 298, 407, 409, 413, 414 Double Tree 399 Dove 283 Draft of Plow; Centre 395, 396 Force of, (Priest's Expe^iments^.. 397 Line of 374, 375, 397 Point of 395, 397 Drainage, Effect on Soil 258, 262, 263 to 268 270 Drains, Depth and Distance Apart... 266 Drain Tiles 265, 208 Drift Deposits in Ohio, &c 252 Drill 298, 401 Furrows Manured 360 Drought Null from Deep Plowing, When 388, 408, 409, 414 Dry Blood 370 Dry Earih for NightSoil 362 Drying Green Corn 209 Drying Machine, Centrifugal 355 Ducks fed on Maize 206 Dukes Co. Mass 304 Dunlap. M. L., on Plows 377, 386 Dutch Plow 374 Dutch E. Indies 124 West Indies 123 Dutch Settlements in America 28 Dutton Variety, 43, 146, 150, 159, 169, 174 Dynamometer 381 liagle Plow ~ 378 Ear Corn 197, 197 Advantages of 424 Early Dent Com 159 Early Gourd .....~ 123 Earlv Yellow Dent ~ 174 Early Yellow Pop 159 Earthquakes 249 East Indies 25, 121, 1'23 Economy of Maize Bread 222, 2'23 Edwards", Mississippi 190 Eggs, Fresh in Winter 206 Egypt 36, 123, 268, 333, 371 Egyptian Maize ~ 161 Eight Rowed YellowCorn 141, 171 Large 170 El Carbon, El Hango, El Raquitte... 293 Electricity 235, 311 Elevations Reduced to Sea Level 245 Elijah and Elisha 371 Elkington Drain 266 Elsinore 342 Emigrants 218 Emmons, Prof 171 Enemies to Maize Culture 279 to 295 England 36, 116,199, 217, 266, 273. 314 Exports to 119, 120, 121 Imports from 123, 124 Lime Used in, and How Applied, 314 Prices of Maize & Provisions, 90 to 92 Varieties of Maize in 161 English Settlements in America 28 Plows 374, 375, 377, 384, 385 Entomologv, Importance of 292 Entomologi.st of U. S. Agl. Dep't 279 Epsom Salts, (Sulpliatcof Magnesia) 331 449 Page. Equatorial Heat.. 245 Curreats 24G Winds 241 Erie Canal 43,82, 94, 112 Espy's Rain Piiilosophy 242 Estimatosof Maize Products in US. from 1842 lo 1848 47 From 1862 to 1865 iO Kroiu 1867 to 1874 57 Acres of Maize from '66 to '74 58 Average Yield per Acre, and Price from 'G6 to '74 61 Total Va.ue of Ma ze Crops, from '66 to '74 62 Number of Swine with Price and Value, .lan'v '64 to '66 GS Feb'y '67, '08, '69 CO Feb'y'70, '71, '72 70 Jau'y 1876 71 (See Tables.) Estimates, How Made in 1862 .51 ^,2 Europe laO, 291, 3G9, r>74 Maizo Bread in 216 European Varieties IGO Kuryomia, Inda. "289 Evans on Maize in Canada 187 Evening Traveler, (Boston) 88 E\-ergreeuC'orn 158, 208 Eweil on Grinding and Cooking to Feedstock 80 E.xcremcuw of Domestic Animals, 357 to 361 Excrements of Deeraud Kabbit 357 Of Man. (Night Soil) 362, 303 Experiments on Maize and Other Bread, &c 222to22t On Peaty Swamp for Maize Glow- ing 303 Of Priest on Draft of Plows 397 On Varieties as toSnrinkage 174 As to Tirao of Ripening 109 Exports of Bones Irom European Cities 342 Early of U. S., Remarks on.. ..107, 108 And Imports t.f Maize in U.S. Colo- nies Previous to 1776 a3, .'54 Maize from 1776 to 1779 108, 109 Exports of Maize and Hog Products from U. S. 1790 to 1820 and Re- marks on same 109 to 113 Of snme from ISJl to 18.53, (table), 113 Hog Product in '5t, '55, '58, '59 116 Maize, &c., from U. 8. to Jreland, inl»16 114 M uzeua in '01, '65, '73 117 Maize, Meal, and Hog Products from 1862 to 1875 117 Swine Products from '62 to '73 118 Of Maize, Meal and Hog Products Distrilmted 118 to 122 Of Maize, Policy of i:!4 Prices of Maize and Meal 121, 122 Maize percentage to Ko. of Inhab- itants in U. S 124, 125 Summa'-v of, Maizo and Meal from lS30tolS7j 125 38 Page. Exports, Total, from U. S. from 1790 to 1814 no Maize and Meal, 1854 to 1861 ILO Bushels of Corn on all the Canala to Hudson River, &c l."l From Boston ]ii Of Cotton from V. S 1:5 From Chicago lyi From Philadelphia 130, 131 Exporting Districts of U. S 126 to 1:9 Extractive Matter 168, 109 Fairfax Co. Va 353 Fairfield Co. Ohio 297 Fallow Crops 275 F.ll Sown Wheat and Grass 273 Fall Plowing, Advantages of 386, 388 Effect on Worms 284, 289, 350 Farms, Average Size of cy Implements, Value of 68 New 270 Far West 2:9 Feathers and Hair Waste 356 Feed, Boiled _ 198,199, 202 Broken Corn lOS, 199 Cobs of Green Corn 199 Other Cob? 199 For Domestic Animals 178 Meal of Corn 200, 201, 20:! Mixed „.195, 199, 201, 203 F(,r Poultry ....178, 205, 206 Soaked las Steaming Cob and all 193 Wetting 195, 293 Feeding Domestic Animals 21, 2(5 Cooked Whole Corn 198,202, 20 1 Cooked Meal 198, 200, 201, 202, 203 Corn and Cob Ground 201, 202 (Crushed Maize 199 Ear Corn...., 196, 197, 198, 201, 202 Fodder ]92 Fodder, StL-amcd ,. 193 Fodder CookedbyMachinerv, 194, 195 Ground... i97 to 205 General Principles as to Grindin r 20 1 Lawes' Experiments on 202, 20.3 Qualities of Corn generally lOG (See Soiling.) Feldspar C32, G.'IG Female Flowers of Maize 2(j8 Fences 394 As Aids to Maize Crops 270, 271 Fender Attachments 410 Fermentation of Liquid Manure.... 363 Fertilizers. 310 to 370 Fiber 225, 226 Fibrine 10 Field Mice 284 Fields Arranged to Catch Farm Ma- nures _ 3-:0 Finches 28;; Fish Guano 346, 355, 370 Fish for Manure 354, 355 Fitch, Dr _ 291 Flat Plowing 391 FlatBoat^ 101 Flax ^ 275 450 Pago. Flemish Plow 374 Plowin-' _ 391 Flet
  • iuorideof Calcium 342 Fodder from Maize 178 to 196, 235 Ash of Leaves Analyzed 191 Chopping for Horses and Neat Cattle ^ 192 Cooking 194, 195 liac'hiney for Cooking 194, 19,') < utting Up 192 Effectof, Plowed in 175 Effect of, on Nutrition 183 to l,s5 Fed out dry 182, 192 Fed out Green „ 178 to 181 From General Crop 191 Product of 189 Prices of 196 Sowed Corn for Soiling, 178 to 181, 42810 431 Steamingand Apparutusfor, 192 to 195 Super-phosphate for Fodder Crop. 345 Testimony as to its Merits 1S9 to 191, 193, 195, 196 Time of Cutting for General Crop, 192 From Topping Corn, 186, 187, 189, 190 Time of Cutting for Soiiing....l81, 429 Value of, as compared with Hay... 196 Value of Stalks from Grain Crop, as compa.-ed with Hay 192 Food, Value of Maize 16 to 21 Human, from Maize 206 to 226 Its Advantages 225, 226 For Soil 175 to 178 Foot-prints of Plow Horses on Acre, 385 Forest Leaves, Value 271, 272, 351 Forests, Effectof on Climate 247, 218 Cutting of, for Pastures 272 Fort Fillmore 417 Four Corners, Huron Co. O - 382 Fowls 205, 206 [See Poultrv.] France 206, 268, 323, 327, 833 Exports to 118 From U. S 120, 121, 122 U. S. Imports from 123, 124 U. S. Maize Bread in 216 Maize District of 36 Maize Product of 36 North-West 205 Southern 35, 371, 424, 425 Franklin, Dr 323 Franklin Co. N. Y., (Broom CornV.. 433 Freight Prices 100, 101, 102, 106 Chicago to Liverpool 133 French. II. P i:66, n«i French Gi.Ima , 27 Par:c- French Government 74 Creuch W. Indies 123 French Varieties 160 Fr nch Liquid Manures 846 Furrow.... 378, 37a, S80 \vi9 Salt as a Manure in 333 U. S. Exports to 121, 122 U. S. Imports from 123, 124 Warmed by Gulf Stream 246 Great Lakes, Effect on Climate, 144, 236 Great Salt Lake City 239 Great Western Plains 236 Mountains 329 Grecian Poet and Plow 371, 374 Mill 425 Greece 35, 124, 216 (ireeley, Farmers' Club 418 Green Corn for Boiling, How Se- lected 207 How Preserved, [RecipesJ 208, 209 Green Crops Plowed in 347 to 350 (ireen Mountains , 259 Bovs 217 Grjen Sand 253, 332 Greeno Co. Ind 276 Grinding and Cooking Feed. ..198 to 205 For the Table 212 to 224 Grosbeaks 283 Ground Hog 280 Grub- worm -.282, 284, 290, 291 Guaguave 213 Guanahani 23 Guano 305, 316 Beds of 3.^7 Analysis of Four Kinds 366 AltaVela .. ai6 Bolivian, Chilian, Icbaboe and Peruvian 366 Baker & Jarvis 346, 366 Cuban 346 Mexican 306, 367 Guatiraala 37 Guiana 120, 122, 134 Guinea. Coast of 365 Gulf of Mexico 238, 241, 245 Gulf Stream 246 Gum « 18, 168 Gunpowder 2-59 Gypsum 255, 319, 322 to 326 Price of 325 Where Used 325 Where Found 322, 323, 325, 326 Hackberry Variety 1.50 Hair Waste, Ac 356 From Tanners 370 Halifax, N. C 190 Hamburg, Europe 121, 122, 341. 342 Hamilton Co. O 150. 29H, 299 Hams .88, 89, 90 Hand Planting of Corn 405 Planter 4a5 Note to 411 Hanse Towns 118 Harford Co. Maryland, [Guano used], ■'568 Hare 29.S Il.arris, Joseph, on Soiling ISO Harrison Co. O. [Premium Croi>] 299 Harrow....257, 389, 398 to 400, 411, 411, 417 , Page. Harrow, Late Patents of 399, 400 Harrowing Large Fields 400 Hasty Pudding 214 to 216 [See Mush.] Hawks 281 Hay, Analysis of .' 19 Value of, compared with Corn Fodder 1R2 From Irrigation... 269 Hayes, A. A., on Corn Colors 161 Hayti 120, 121, 123 Headlands 392, 393 Hebrew Mill for Grain 4.>5 Hembstadt <& Schubler on Manures, 399 Heat Producing Elements. 9 Analyzed 15 Solar 234, 249 From Slaking Lime 317 Excessive, effect on Plants 338 Height of Com 172 Hemp 123, 277 Hens Fed on Maize 206 Hen Manure 346, y>7 How Saved and Applied 361 Henry Co. O. Prize Crop 300 Henry Prof 144, 235. 242, 246 Herds Grass 277 Herepath's Analysis of Coprolites... 327 Herodotus, on Irrigation 2'8 Hesiod's Plow 371, 372 Heteroptera 287 Highland Co. O. [Grub.s] 292 Hilling 414 Hills, Manure ior 360 Kernels Dropped and left in. ..405, 406 Hillside A.spects. Ac. 248, 250. 276 HillsdaleCo. Mich 276 Hindostan, Maize in .35 Plow of 373 Hiugham Plow 376 Historical Account of Maizc....22 to 34 Hitchcock Plow 376 Hobson Corn 164 Hoe 407, 410, 414 Hoeing 413, 414. 416 Hog as Fat Producer 79 202 Hog Feeding, [Maize] 1,33, 198 to 203. 423 Hogging Down Maize Crops 177, 178 Effect on Land and following Wheat Crop 178 Hogs Destroying Grubs 284 Number, &c. inU. S... [See Swine] Holbrook, Gov 377, 388 Holland, Homer ^ 233 Holland 121, 338, 341 Holm Oak for Ancient Plow 372 Holmes, Ezekiel, [Birds] 2H0 Hominy 17, 211, 212 Honduras 124, 134 Honey C. Variety. „ 150 Honey, Mexican, from Maize 229 Hornblende, Mngnesian Silicates in, 331 Horn Rasped, &c., for Manure 357 Horns of Cattle, Nitrogen In 370 Horse Hoe 4^9 Horse Manur^.., 170, 357 452 Page. Ilorsos ^ 193 Horses, Th re t> Abreast in Plow, 393, 395 L)iji;estion of 179 Fed on Crushed Maize in England, 199 In Penn., fed on Soft Corn ^ 19G Fed on WhoieCoru, Shows Agcof, 197 Soaking Ear Corn for „ 19S norao-Toolh Variety 1G2, 165, 107 Horse Rike 4ir? Horstraan'd Ejcperiments on Oats. .. 837 Hrushauer's Analyses of Maize, Straw, &c « 21 Hudson's Bay - 238 Hudson, N. Y., Windsiu 243 h udson River Valley, Winds of 2-13 Exports by 131 Hulled Corn 21 1 Human Food, Maize 205 to 220 Advantages of 224, 225, 22G Humateof Lime 323 Humus... 249, 251, 255, 256, 257, 258 315, 323 335 Hungary .., 35. 216 Huron Exporting District 133 Hurricanes 249 Husking Bees, Pins, Gloves and Ma- chines „...-...422, 423 Hybridizing 154, 102 Hybrid of Maize 150. 154 Hydrate of Lime 314. 317, 319 3'29 Miigncsia 329 Hvdrate of O.xide of Potassium 331 Hydrogen, [In Analysis] 15 Hypocrenic Acid 361 Ichaboe Guano - 36(> Idaho 43, 44, 260 IlUnois 44, 45, 47, 48, M, 52, 59 65, 66, 68, 201 ~... 250 [Sec Tables.] Climate 145 Insects 285 Dolomites 829 Tamestone - 317 Premium Variety 152 Quadrupeds 279 Rota ions „..- 276 Varieties 150, 159 Whi.skev - 231 Winds of 243 Illinoian 201, 411 Imperial Paper Mill at Schlogelmuhl, 233 Imports ana Exports of Maize in U. S. Colonies 33, 34 Of U. S, 1790 to 1816 110 Imports of Bones into Gt. Britain... 341 Imported Articles— U. S. from Vari- ous Countries 122 to 124 Improvement of Land 263 to 279 Inca 24, 25 India 268 Northern 35 Indiana 262 [See Tables, for Oop.s, National Intelligencer .so Navajoe Xu4iaas, How Raise Corn... 4i9 4GG Page. Kebraska»....50, 66, 67, 144, 240, 2C0, 287 [See Tables.] Winds of — ^ 243 Netherlands 118, 123, 124 Nevada 37, 6G Newberry, Prof 251 New Brunswick 134, 236, 259 Ne wbold's Plow, Cast Iron 37G New C-astle Co. Del 261, 427 New England 43, 55, 59, 60, 219, 325 Ashes Used in 339 Climate 236 Fish Manure 354 Lime in 314, 317 Plowing in Falliu 386 Winds of 243 New England Farmer...284, 294, 348, 376 New Eiiglander's Bread 217 New Grenada 124 New Hampshire 48, 50, 59, 66, 236, 325 Dolomites 328 Rotation 277 N. Harmony, (Maize Sugar) 226 N. Jersey 46, 50, 55, 63, 66, 67, 126, 300 [See Tables.] { Curculio 286 ' Green Sand, &c... 253, 259, 317 White and Other Varieties 150 N. Mexican Black Variety 208 White 151 N. Mexico 41, 45, 139, 213, 236, 287, 240 416 [See Tables.] Soil of 260 Winds 243 Cultivation by Navajoes 419 N. Netherlands, Early Maize Prices, 33 N. Orleans Prices...83 to 87, 89, 90, 93, 101, 102 104 As Exporting City 128, 129,133, 134 As to Lsothermal Lines 244, 245 Picayune, (Newspaper) 300 Newport, lud., Cost of Corn Pro- duction 427 New Soutli Wales 36 New World, Maize iu 37 N. York Albion 207, 216, 222, 22.i N. York City, Exports, 126, 127, 130, 113 Freight Prices 101, 106 I Other Prices, Corn, Meal and Hog Products and Provisions, 74, 76, I 77, 78, 80, as, 85, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100 104 N. York Banks 56, 99 N. York Chronicle ... 99 N York Spectator 74, 76, 77 N. York State Agl. Society 171, 267 N. York S.ate. Acreage of Maize 65 fSee Tables.] Climate 2,36 Corn Bread 219 Cost of Cultivating Maize 427 «'rop 48, 50 Dolomites 328 Experiments in Culture SO," Farm Implements 68 Page. N. York State, Gypsum 323, 326 Insect Enemies 289, 291 Plows 378, 379 Limestone 317, 259 Rotations 275, 277 Soils 2.'2, 262 Soiling 180, 181 Varieties 141, 143, 145, 147 Winds 243 Niagara Co. N. Y 32S Falls 323 Islets 2^!2 Nichols,"j.'R!*'on Fodder,'.'"!'."*.'.".'.'.'.!!! 187 Nightingale 282 Night Soil 352, 362, Sf3 Nile R. Flooding Soil 200 Nitrates, Formation of, aided bv Lime 314, 316 Nitrate of Ammonia 2.">5 Lime 316, 320 Magnesia , 331 Potash 332 Soda 334 Nitric Acid 311, 314, 316, 348 Nitrogen 9, 10, 256, 311, 313, 316 Value of, in Various Manures... 370 Nitrogenous Elements 10, 11, 15, to .20, 171, 357 Norfolk, Va. Prices 82, 83 North American Indians, 27, 28, 207, 212 Normans, (Coral Sand) 827 Old Plow 373 North Carolina 146, 154, 164,269, 285 [See Tables.] Large Crops 300 Gypsum 325 Limestones 328 North Chili, Nitrate of Soda 334 Northern Corn. ...85, 87,141, 143, 149, 162 171 Northern Europe, (Gulf Stream) 246 Norway 123, 246 Guano from 355 Note as to Implements 410, 411, 412 Nova Scoiia 37. 124 Isothermal Lines 244 Nubia, Maize in 36 Oats 276, 278 337,347,349 Obstacles to M.aize Growth 263 Ohio Agl. Reports for 1849 377 .1858 225, 247, 268. 283 1862 282. 297. 355 1869 133, 201, 251, 408 1870 426 Ohio See Tables Northern , 430 North-Western 250, 252, 265, 300 Southern 428 South-Eastern 278 Birds ~ 282 Bottoms 278, 299, 391 Climate 2.36 Coal Measures 251 Cost of Cultivating Maize Crop.... 428 Crop, Maize... 44, 48, 50, 59, 65, 66 Avcrngc Value of C3 INDEX. 457 Page. ' »hio Crop, Acreage and Yield per Acre in Counties ~ Tl, 73 Distilled Liquors «... 231 Fiirm Implements 68 Freights 100 Geological Report for 1S70 300 Gypsum 323, 325 Limestone 317 Maize Bread 219 Prices .....~ ».... 64 Rotations 278 Prize Crops. 297 to 300 Settlement of 75 Swine - 47 State Fair 378, 38i Premiums « 382 Taxes for Drainage - 265 Varieties .....143, 150, 155, 170, 171 Ohio Canal »... 43 Convention, (Agl.) for 1869 251 Monitor, (Columbus) ,... 81 Valley 134, 148, 260 Ohioau, (Deep Plowing,) 414 Oil „ 3, 17, 149, 161, 171 Oil of Vitriol 346 Oil from Maize 157, 232 Omophrou Labiatum ~ 287 Omonee 211, 212 One Horse Plow 407 Oneida Lake, N. Y ™ 428 Onondaga Co. N. Y ~325, 323 Ontario Co. N. Y 262, 289,430, 431 Ontario, Imports from — . 124 Opium ^. 123 Orange Co. Ind., Rotation 276 Oregon 127, 240, 243, 260, 381 [See Tables.] Variety ......150, 15 Organic Manures 347 to 370 Orientals 373 Orthoptera ^ 286 Oxen Feeding 178 Digestion ».. 179 Eat How Much 193 In Wales and China 373 Oxides of Iron and Manganese 337 Oxygen 9,10, 11, 15, 256, 310 Oxv-muriate of Lime 319 Oyster Shell Lime 318 Pacific Ocean 24, 112, 144, 237, 238, 241, 244 to 246 Guanos 366 Railroad 2.38 Slope 269 Painesville, O , Fodder. 429 Panama 24 Papers from Maize 233, 234 Pappoose Corn ^ 158 Paraguay 37 Parched Corn and Meal 206, 210, 211 Paring and Burning Clays 336, 337 Paris, (Nitre Beds) 332 Parker, J. W 307 Parkersburg, W. Va ., 86 Patent Corn Cribs. 423 Patentees of Plows 376 39 Page. Patent Office Varieties 145, 150, 151 Patents, Com. of. Orders Analyses of Varieties 165, 166 Patents for Plows from Jan. 3, '72.... ;Wl Pearl Ash 32O, 331 iieas 273, 275, 278, 347, 348 Peat.. _.. 303, 351, 352 ;^shes _ 33s Charcoal 352 „ Soils (See Muck) 335 Penn Colony, Maize In 33 Pennsylvania .48, 50, 55, 81, 201, 219, 243 287 (See Tables.) Distilled Liquors 230, 231 Left Hand Plow 380 Limestone 259, 317, 328 Liming Land 315 Plaster _ ™ 325 Rotations 275, 277 Varieties 147, 150, 156 Peoria, Ills , Cost of Raising Corn.. 427 Persia „. 35, 268, 361 Peru 25, 26, 37 U. S. Exports & Imports...l21, 124, 134 Maize Liquor _ 230 Varieties 139 Peruvians 25, 230 Irrigation.. 268 Guano 366, 368, 370 Phaloena Forfioalis 291 PhiladelpliiaPrices.....76, 77, 80, 85, 104 Exports 126, 127, 130, 131, 133 Exposition, (Centennial).- 163, 383 Philistines _ 371 Philippine Islands 123 Phosphates 12, 161, 162, 252, 262 Mixed 321 [See Lime, Magnesia, Alumina.] Phosphatic Manures 355 Phosphoretted Hydrogen 354, 355 Phosphoric Acid 12, 21, 175, 255, 320, 321, 346 370 Phosphorite _ 321, .322 Phosphorus 10. 12, 313, 340, 34L Pickering, CoL Plow Improver. 376 Pigeon, Passenger 280, 281 Pigeon Manure, How Applied 36L Piscataqua R., Prices of Maize in 1680, &c 33, 3 Pitch of Plow , 396, 39' Pittsburg......-,, 104, ir Pizarro 2. Plantagenet on Corn Bread 21'. Planting Corn, Time of, 296, 301, 404, 40 . Plant Louse, 28" Plaster of Paris 259, 277, 322, 324, 344 Effect of Applying it and when, 323,324 Where Found (See Gypsum) Pliny on Roman Plow .372 Plowing for Maize Crop 386 to 397 Plowing, When Best in Fall 386, 387 Depth of ..„..387. .388, 389 In Ridges 272, 391 to 394 Effect of in Wet Soil 387 458 I'age. Plow, See Following Titles : Aiuericaii Plows, Chinese, Dutch, Kiiglisli, Flemish, Grecian, He- sioiJs, Koinau. Also: Castile, Ceylon, Europe, Southern France, Bengal, Hiu- Uostan, Mdgua Gra^eia, Morea. Peru (2.)), I'hilistines, Poland, Spain, Wales. Also : Bull-tongue, Carey, Centre Uraft, Dayton, Denver's, Double Michigan, Double Shovel, Dyna- mometer, Kagle, Gang, Iron c:eiitre, Jefferson, Knox, Luft- Hand, Xewl)oid, Pliny, Small's, Stationary Engine, Steam, Scooter, Steel,Siiovel, Steel Clipper, Sub- soil, Stubble, Sulky, Swivel, Tliatcher's, Traction Engine, Triple Shovel, Turnwrest,Varro, Virgil, Wheel, Wood Jethro. See Also Cincinnati Premiums : Cities and Towns furnishing Plows for Premiums at Ohio State Fairs, Inait of Plows, Dun- lap on Same, Fender Attach- ments, Holm Oak. Patentees, Requisites for Premium Plows, U. S. Plows and Steam Plows, Wooden Mold Board. For Various Purposes, receiving Premiums at Ohio State Fairs.... 3S2 Plows Generally 371 to 38(5 Plow Horse 39.5, 3% Team 39i> Plowing with Three Horses 395, 39tj Plowing in Manure, When 3U7 Plowman, Pules for 39G Plymouth, Mass 30 Suppers 215 Point of Draft 397 Poland, Plow of 3/3 Polar Currents 24G Winds 23S Polvnesia, U. S, E.xporls to 121 Poiie, Lightened 220 Poore, BenP 217 PopCorn 1-11, lo7 Analyzed 22() Joint IM Pearl 159 Porcine System 13, 14 J ork Packing 116, 129, 132, 430 Pork, Bacon, itc.. Prices 80 to 93 9l>, 97, 99, 100 to 105, 129 133 Different » lasses of. Described 92 Portland, Oregon. Prices 101 Porto Rico. U.S Exports to, 120, 121, 122 Portugal, U. S. E.xportsto 118 Imports from 123, 124 Po.ssibiliiies of Large Yields 304, 30:i Posts for Fences 271 Potash, 175, 251, 255, 313, 310, 321, 331, 332 (See Potassa.) Soluble Salts of 2.54.25-., 342 Potassium, Hydrate of Oxide of 331 Page. Potassa 12 Potato Roots Loosen Soils, &C...273, 274,277 278 Pondrette from Fish 3 i5 Blood ^ 350 NightSoil 302,3(53 Poultry fed on M lize . 178, 205, 200, 423 On Maize Ealing Beetles 2!vl Prairie Hen 283 Prairie Loam 300 Plow 379 Premiums 296 to 304 Prices of Maize iu the U. S. * olo- nies 31 to 33 Maize, Meal and Mess Pork, (U.S. Ciiies), Jan. 30, '75 104 Same at Liverpool, Eng 100 Freights of Same, Jan. 30, '75 106 Maize in 1800,^\Vashington's Esti- mate) 79 Maize and Hog Products Early in 19th Century 74 to 78 Same at Baltimore 78 Same at Marietta, 75 Same at New York Ciiy 77, 78 Same at Philadelphia 76 Successive in New York ( ity....S0, 81, 83, 85. 87, 89, 90, 91, 92 IDl Hog Products in N. V. City, from 'fi4 to '73 96s 97 IMaize & Meal in same, same years, 95 Maize Ratio to Mess Pork at Bal- timore, (1802) 80 Same at Philadelphia in 1806 80 At Baltimore, i-'orn, 1815 83 At Baltimore, Corn & Meal, 1825, 83 At Boston, corn, 1830 87 At Boston. Corn and Hog Products '39 to '50 88, 89 At ButtUlo, N. Y., Corn, 1848 94 At Charleston, Corn i.ing 2C8 Prices as aflected by Supply and De- mand 106 Prices as affected by War - 56 Of Export from U, S 82, 121, 122 Prime Pork 92 Priest's Experiments;Draftof Plow) 397 I'roteine, Analysis of 16 Protoxide and Peroxide of Iruu S37 Providence, E. L, Prices 104 Proximate Elements of Maize, 9, 11, 15 Prussia, Maize Bread iu _ 2i6 Public Domain, U. S 240 Pueblo Villages 37, 140 Indians 212, 213 Puerto Bello 23 Puget's Sound 1.14, 237, 245 Pumpkins among Corn 415, 416 Puritans, (Mush, &,v.,) 215 J'utnam, Judge \V. K., Varieties 164 Quarantine, Maize 36, 157, 160 Quarterly Journal of Agiiculture... 874 (iuebec. Imports from 124 Quiiicv, Josiah, on Soiling 17S Quicklime 314, 330 Kadiation of Heat 246 to 248 Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio «6 Rains 238. 239, 241, 242, 247 Randolph Co. Ills. Rotation 276 Rappahannock Co. Va 277 Rareripe Varietv 1.53 Rats, Eat Beetles 2X4 Prevented 291 Devourers of 293 Recipes for Corn Bread 219, 220, 221 Red River of North 236 Red Sea, Maize near 34 Refuse of Plants and Wood as Ma- nures C51 Page. Repairs to the System Reports on Commerce and Naviga- tion 117, 119, 126 Republic, U. S 107 Of Greece 114 Requisites for Premium Plows, 382, 383 Revenue Districts for U. S...126, 127, 128 Rhode Island 50, 6 , 6b, See Tables.) Dolomites 323 Guano Used 367 Maize Bread 219 Soil 261 Variety 140, 146 Richmond Va M, 104 Richmond lud 3V2 Rice Corn 141, 157 Ridge Plowing 272 S91 to 394 Rivers, Ettect on Soils 249, 2oU Robin, Habits of 283 Rock Crystal o34 Rock Salt S33 Rocky Mountain System, 236 to 238, 242 Roger Williams V\0 Roller i,57 How Made 40i) How Used 401 Rolling Stalk Cutter 420 Roman Plow 372 to S74 RootCropH, Prepare for Maize 273 Bring up Soluble Silica 835 Rotation of C ops 272 to 279 Rouse, Richard 155 Rumford, Count, on heating water, 263 264 Rural Cyclopedia 205, 21<) Russell, Robert 244 Russia 35, 103, 114, 119, 123 Russian River ^'alley, California 240 Kveand Indian Bread 219 Rye Plowed In 349 Region of 34 In Rotation 275, 276, 278 Saft'ord, Gov 240 Saint Antoine Varietv 15.5 Etionne Coal 339 Louis Prices Ac. 93, 94, 101, 102, 103, 104 129 Paul, Prices 104 Thomas, Imports to U. S 1.34 Salem Premium Plow 382 Sal.m, O., Subsoil Plow 383 Salisburv, J. H., Analyses. .170, 171, ISO, ]8i, 225 22(5 Salt Lake Varieties 1.59 Saltpetre 332 Samp 212, 214 San Antonio Valley, Texas 418 Sandusky Bay, Plaster.. S2.'» Sand, Effect of Excess in Soil 2.'7 Sandy t^oils 252, 2.54, 255, 2.57, 849 Sanfoin for Plowing in Green 847 S.in Francisco, Exporting District... 127 I'rice of Lard 104 Saskatchewan R 37 Saturdav Evcuiiu Po^'t K3 460 Page. Savannah, Ga., Republican 3tH) Saving Manures 359, 3ti0 Sawdust, Al>sorbeMt 3f)] Sciienectsvdy Co. N.Y., Broom Com, 433 Schlogelmuhl Imp. Paper Mill, 233, 234 Soioto Gazette ~ 8'2 Scooter Flow 412 Scotland, U. S. Imports from 123, 124 Ridge Plowing o9C Width of Furrows _.. 390 Seotch Plow 374 Serapingsof Leather as Manure SSfi Seaweeds 333, SbS Seeds, Magnesia Essential to 330 Seed Corn Used in U. S , '70 to '74... la^ Selection of - 172, 401, 402 Select Virgins .„ 26 Seneca Co N. Y., Value of Com Stalks _... 196 Senegal R., Fish and their Food 365 Serpentina, Source af Magnesia 328 Sewa-eof Towns , 255, 3(>4 Seybert, K.. IKxport Table] 109 Shakers, Soils 262 Draining 204, 265 (Jost of Cultivating Maize 427 Shale 2.51 Share of Plow 371 to 380 Shavings, Pine Shatters, &c., [Ma- nure] 3.51 Sheep, Digestion of 179 Corn for 197, 201 Manure from 357 Shelled Com for Young t'alves 197 Shell Marl 2.59 Shells attbrding Lime 316 Shellers, Hand and Power 412, 425 !-helling by Hand ™ 424, 425 Sheltering Manures .« 300 Shoe Peg (;orn 152 Shovel Plow.... 297, 301, .302, 3C6, 407, 410. 412 4ie Shrinkage of Varieties 174 Of I orn Generally 428 Shucks Compare» Siliciiim 3:>4 Silicic Acid 331, 3.35 Silicious Soils 349 Silks 123 ' nltnre 237 Silurian Fonnnlion 259, 32H Sinclair on Soils 2.52 Singletree 396 Page. Sioux Indians 157 Six Nations .„ _>. 158 Slate t'ormations 1 „. 2.59 Slags of Iron Furnaces, tsilicd) 322 Small's Plow 375 Smith, Aaron, (Plow Inventor) 377 Smith's Draining System 266 Smith, John, on Maize Culture 29 Smith.sonian Institute 144 Weather Tables 239 Winds 242 I.sothermal Lines 244 Smut in Corn - 293, 294 Snow Corn 141 Soaking Corn for Feeding 198 To Prevent Worm Destroyers 312 Seed with Mineral Substances 312 Sod for Longstanding 262. 309 Soda 313, 316, 321 Carbonate 333 Nitrate and Sulphate of 3.34 Sodium, Chloride of d^iS Sod Plowing 387, 388, 389 Soil Best for Maize Culture ....248 to 2lV> - 397 Soiling Crop 175, 178 to 181, 428, 429 Soils, Ab.sorbing Power of 250, 251 As to Moisture 2:a Effect of Clay on 2.56 Ert'ect of Draining 268 Gravelly 2:.8 Sandy .„ 257, 2.53 Sononx, Maize Region .37 Soraona Co. California 240 Sorghum 278 Southampton Co. Va., Guano 368 Southern corn ....17, 85. 87, 142, 148, 148, 162 401 .South American States 121, 122, 124 South Ctirolina— See Tables. Windsof 243 (;rops, <&c ~ 50, .59 Irt' Springfield, O 3N2 Premiums :W2 Spnriy for Plowing in 347 Sial->les,'IilMnnrc from ;Vt7 Stagnant Water, Effects of au .'Stalactites, Stalatimites, &e :516 Stacking Corn F(HMer 430 Starch. 11, 17, 18, 149, 157, 161, 167. 171, 226 461 Page. Starch, From Maize 231 U. S. Statistics of 232 States be.st Maize Producing 66, 67 Stationary J^igine, (steam plow) 384 Ktatist cal History of Maize in U, S. 38 to 135 (See Tables.) Steaming Bones 342 Steam Cultivator 385 Steam Plows 384 to 386 Steel CI ipper Plow 379 Steel Plows 378, 383 Hteubenville, 300 Stewart, E W., (Steaming Fodder... 193 Straiglit Plowing, Importance of ,395, 396 Striped Gopher 281 Stubble as Plant Food...l7o, 176, 278, 350 Plowing 377, 387 Stumpy Ground Plowing 272 Subsoil 258, 267, 380 Attachment .. 390 Plow. 380 to 382, 383, 389, 413 Subsoiling 247, 258, 301, 337, 389 Successive Cultivations 408 Succotash _ ;. 209, 210 Suckers Pulled 413 Sugar. ..18, 123, 158, 1C9, 171, 197, 225, 226 Sugarcane 228 Sugar Corn 208 Sugar and Syrup from Maize. .226 to 229 Sulky Plow 381 Sullivan Co. N. H 277, 328 Sullivant, J. as to Hog Feeding, 201, 202 Sulphate of Alumina 336, 351 Ammonia 323, 346 (Jopper , 161 Barvtes 340 Lime 259. 323, 324 Lime and Potash Mixed 321, 325 Magnesia 331 Potash 334 Sulphur 10, 12, 313, 340 Sulphuret of Iron 351 Sulphuretted Hydrogen 354 Sulphuric Acid, 175, 321,. S23, 325, 340, 343 Super-Phosphate of Lime, How Made 343, 344 How Applied 344, 345 Tested 344 Testimony as to its Fertilizing Power 344 to 346 Supply and Dematid 106 Snsquehannah River, Sugar Corn, 158 Sussex Co. Del., Guano. 368 Sussex Co. N. J., Phosphorite 321 Swallow 282 bwamps and Bogs, Reel-timing, 264, 265, 269, 305 309 Sweden, V. S. Exports to, &c 118, 123 Swedish West Indies 82, 119 Sweet Bread 13 Sweet (;orn 161, 162, 169. 1.82. 225, 225 Swine in U. S 44 to 47, 68 to 71 rsee Tables.) I'm i nets. Early Prices of, at Ma- rietta, O ^ 75 Swine, Exports of, and Hog Pro- ducts, their Prices, &c. See the Names of the Exporting Cities and Foreign Countries, and of the Different States of the Union also. E.xports, Prices. Switzerland, Farmers of German... 363 Insects In 282 Plaster in ?23 Swivel Plow 379, 395 Sylvanus Quadricollis 288 Surinamensis „ 288 Sylvester, Dr 199 Syracuse, Plow in Medal at 371 Syria, Irrigation 208 Tabasco. (Mexico, Large Ear) 301) Tables, See List of. Talcose Slates, Phosphorite in 341 Talladega Co. Ala., Manures, &c 177 Tanbark Spent 353 Tartrate of Potash 331 Tasseling of Corn 415 Taxings of Liquor Manufacturers.. 231 Team Tortillas 213 Tourke Bread 213 Townsend, Plow of <'astile 373 Tmction Engine for Steam Plows... .Ssi Trap, Apatite in 341 46*2 Page. Treasury Dep't U. S. (Liquors Taxed 2:51 Trials by bynaraometer 383 Trinidad, Maize in 23 Triple Shovel Plow 413 Triple Corn 164 Tschudi, M. De, on Insects & Birds.. 2«2 Turkey K, 114 U. S. Imports from 123, 124 Turnip Slices as bait for Worms 2S4 In Rotations 273, 274 As Green Crop Plowed In 347 Turnsole Paper 256 Turnwrest Piow 377 Tuscarora ( orn 140, 153, 154, 157, 158, 161, 165 to 169, 171, 226 345 Tuscarora Indians 146 Twin Corn 151 Under-draining 265 to 268, 272 With Sub-soiling 3.^9, 390, 397 United States Agricultural Reports For 1842 48 1843 48, 226, 228 1844 48, 91, 228, 255, 311 1845, Note 48 1847 145, 160,183, 293 1849, '50...17, 131, 188, 191, 200. 232, 261,268,285, 353, 427 429 1S.-)1 3C8 1853...22, 113, 140, 161, 201, 218, 235, 262, 281, 289, 344, 386 427 1854 235, 433 1855 16 1856...144, 242, 264, 266, 317, S27, 352, 375 18,57 17. 166 1858 247 18.^9 22, 235. 385 I860 268, 331, 338, 340, 348 1861 197, 349, 357, 370 1862 49, 52, 378, 389, 395 1863 51, 233, 284, 379, 386 1864 18, 52, 347 1865 17, 193. 194, 204, 235, 366 1866 210, 212, 217, 239, 345, 379, 429 ]Hfi7 162,385 1868 121. 237, 240, 2-»3, 259. 260, 268 279 286. 287 299, 309, 326, 346, 434 1869. 193, 235, 240, 304. 317, 3S1, 385, 430 1870 140, 181, 213, 235. 2.55, 268, 349, 385 1871.. 104, 159. 254, 268, 286, 34.5, 380, 385 428 Igyo 156 1849'to"Vs53 324, 339, 358, 361 1849 to 1870 236 United states Ajiricultural Society, ^ E.xhibition at Chii ago 385 United States Agl. Department, 156, 369 Census Statistics for Maize 39, 40 (Census for 1870, iLiquors) 231 Consumption of (iuano in, 1851... 368 Consumption of Maize in 134 Crop. (Note to p. 48), See Tables. Drainage in 269 Eiirlv Commercial Experience... 108 Exports & Imports-See Exports, Geographical Features of 23*. 2.38 Geological Features of 252, 2o'3 , Page. United States Government Taxing Liquors 229, 2.10 Greatness of its Agriculture.. 171, 172 Irrigation in 269, 270, 416 to 418 Maize Region and Limits. ...234 to 248 Meteorology of 238, 241 to 247 Plowing in 387 to 391 Population of 1850, 1860 & 1870, 40 Reports oa Commerce and Navi- tion 114, 117, 118, 119, 124 Steam Plow in 385, 886 Tonnage of 114, 115 Tonnage in Ports of 132 Varieties of Jdaize in 138 to 175 Unger, Dr 22 University of Wisconsin 159, 174 Uredo, (Disease) 291 Urine 357, 364 Utah 37 Maize in 239 Utica, Winds of „.... 243 Valparaiso Variety 157 Value of Maize, Crops, Estimates, (fee.— See Tables. Varieties of Maize 138 to 174 Black 140 Blue 140, 213 Brown 141, 145, 146 Calico -. 139 ( hanges in 142 Experiments on 155, 174 General Remarks on 172, 173 Mercantile ^9 Proper for Soiling 182 Tendency to Inteimix 174 See Analysis of Indian Corn : — Dent, Early Evergreen, Hack- berry, Hobson, Honey, Keever, Piscataqua, Rareripe, Kedblaize, Sixty Days, Shoe-peg, Snow, Twiii, White, Yellow. Also, the Respective Titles of States and Maize Countries ; Also, Tables of Varieties. Varro, (Roman Plow) 372 Vasco Nunez 24 Venango Co. Pa. Rep'i from. 147. 3i;0, 301 Venezuela, U. S. Exports to, 1 - .^ ■ o^ x^^ .^ : # . ^0^^ ■^^^ 9p. ". . \,/ '' \<^' %.<•' ^ % \^;^%- ,<^^% %7'^^\- .# "^ *^ ^1 1^- - ^ o. -"/ r^^^.^--^ \> \..^' .^' z:^: %.d< %<^ ^/ cS ^^ .^' L^^ <> -^ &■ .^ -:"/.% "' cP^,^-^^^"- '% cP^- 3 ■^A.d< .N' %.^- '%,^'' K^ ^^'' % ' '^^^"- #' %^ ^ \> *. ^ * " A ^ \> *. ■• * " A 0^ ^ '^ <>^ . f!m 1 1 1 1 ■