stirring the ground full 4 in. deep. Three days after this last hoeing I landed the corn up, and in the middle of August topped it, cutting off the male blossom. (fig. 13. b) I have now gathered it; and from the seven rows, each 38 ft. long, the produce is 1156 good ears, and 339 defective ones, which, had it been a fine summer, would all have been good. I have rubbed out the corn of seventeen ears, not one of which was what I call a fine ear, and the produce is a quart of clear corn; therefore the 1156 good ears produce 2 bushels and half a peck for 3 rods of ground, or 102 bushels per acre. The defective ears, being only half ripe or very small, I do not include in my calculation.

Mr. Cobbett having seen my crop just after the last hoeing, stated in his Register that it was the finest he had seen; but, not to overrate the produce, say that it takes eighteen ears to make one quart of corn: then there is 96 bushels per acre.

16

figured one of the lat-
ter (fig. 17.), sent us
last year (Vol. V.
p. 211.) by Messrs.
Thorburn of New
York, to the same
scale as the ear of
Mr. Greig's plant. (fig.
15.) We have also
given a figure (fig.
14.), to the same scale
as fig. 13. of the ave-
rage of a row of plants
raised in our garden
from this large variety;

This is a great produce, and I hope every gardener will plant a small piece, if only to send the ear to his master's table in its milky state. Any man who can grow kidneybeans can grow corn, and any ground that will grow the beans will grow the corn. My ground is light, about one foot deep, on gravel, much exposed, and liable to early frosts in autumn, my georginas having been killed three weeks ago.

The middle of April, if the weather be dry, will be the best time to plant; and I think 10 in. or 1 ft. apart, according to the goodness of the ground, will be better than 6 in. Those plants which had one sucker left, bore more ears than those that had no suckers. I had one plant with eleven ears, several with nine and ten, and a great many with seven and eight ears each.

I have endeavoured to give all the information I think will be required for growing this crop with success; but

17

those who wish to know more of the corn and its uses, should read Mr. Cobbett's book, that gentleman being better acquainted with it than I profess to be.

I am, Sir, &c.

Conduit Nursery, Bayswater, Oct. 28. 1829.

JAMES GREIG.

plants (fig. 13. and fig. 14.), and the two ears and grains (fig. 15. and fig. 16.) belonging to them, our readers will have at least a very palpable idea of the important difference between the two varieties; and a little reflection will convince the young gardener or farmer how much of his success in all the departments of culture, in the field or in the garden, will depend on the judicious selection of varieties. Botanical gardeners, we sometimes think, are too apt to overlook the important differences, with reference to culture and product, that exist between such slender botanical distinctions, in consequence of knowing their insignificance with reference to botanical nomenclature; but no gardener or farmer could raise a crop of ripe ears from plants having the habit of fig. 14., while plants with the habit of fig. 13. have ripened tolerable crops, even in a very unfavourable season. The difference between these two varieties, in a botanical point of view, is of the slightest description. See on this important subject Bishop's Causal Botany. In the different figures (13 to 17.), the single grains (c) are all of the natural size. The sections (d) show the manner in which the grains are arranged on the ear. Cond.

ART. XIX. The Result of some Experiments with Ten Varieties of Indian Corn, with a comparative Estimate of the Merits of this Corn, as compared with those Corns commonly grown by the Farmers of Britain. By G. C.

Sir,

As you have requested me to report on the culture of Indian corn in the neighbourhood of London, as an article of garden and field produce, I have devoted some time to the enquiry. I find that as yet no conclusive result can be safely arrived at. In the first place, but few varieties, and those not the best, have been selected for trial; secondly, I have not heard of any extensive breadth, except Mr. Cobbett's at Barn Elms, to which I have not had an opportunity of paying any attention. Mr. Poynter of Waltham Green has cultivated ten varieties, of which he has furnished me with the following particulars. I find the varieties were supplied to him by Mr. W. Cobbett, jun.

No. 1. Sweet corn

Useless to attempt growing. 2. Maize quarantaine (ripening in forty May succeed in fine seasons.

days)

9. Egyptian or chicken corn [Maïs à

May also do well in warm

summers.

Useless.

The same.

The same.

The same.

Only now (October 31.) in bloom.

poulet, le plus petit et le plus pré- Very early, rises well, but

coce, of Vilmorin's catalogue]

10. Cobbett's early corn

small.

Equally good, but not quite so early.

I shall first state the course of culture pursued, and then proceed to comment on the result. The seed was planted on the 8th of May last on a slight heat, protected by a frame and sash, which sash was removed in fine weather. On the 19th the plants were placed in a compartment which had been previously sown with radishes, but the crop gathered. The rows were 24 ft. apart, and the plants about 1 ft. from each other; a row of Cos lettuces were then planted between them. From the extreme wetness of the season, the ground, instead of being hoed and drawn to the plants in the rows, was simply dug twice, and kept as clean as possible. The result as above.

The following particulars are only matter of calculation:On thirty rods of Cobbett's corn, fifty-seven rows, each row

containing forty plants, every four rows may be presumed to yield about one bushel of clean corn, or fourteen bushels in the whole, or seventy-four bushels to the acre.

No. 1. Sweet Corn is used principally as a culinary vegetable, as a substitute for peas in a dry season, and can be therefore of little importance in a country which at all times furnishes such large supplies (of what I may, I trust, say there cannot be two opinions about) of a better vegetable.

No. 2. Mais quarantaine appears to be an early variety, not much unlike No. 10., and therefore its merits may rest on the proof of that.

No. 3. The Early Golden, or Sioux corn, is a very early variety, said to have been originally brought from among the Sioux Indians, and, as an early bright yellow corn, may be entitled to our consideration.

Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7. are well known varieties, grown throughout the middle states of North America, and I have no doubt extensively also in South America. They are admitted to yield from forty to sixty bushels of clean corn per acre, as the soil, situation, culture and season may admit, but at present they are of no use here as an article of field culture.

No. 8. White Pearl Corn (which I must really consider a distinct variety, despite of your doubts in the last Number, from its very different manner of growth, yielding a much greater foliage, and coming into bloom four or six weeks later than any other), could a supply of seed be obtained, might be made, as an article of forage in dry seasons, a crop of considerable value to the farmer for the supply of his cattle.

No.9. Chicken Corn is a very diminutive variety, not exceeding 18 in. in height, rarely more than one stem, and may be planted in rows 18 in. asunder, the plants not more than 10 or 12 in. apart; consequently a great quantity may be placed on a limited space. It is very prolific, and has ripened thoroughly this season.

No. 10. Cobbett's Early Corn, which is nothing more than what is well known in America as the Nova Scotia Corn, grows about 3 ft. high, and may be planted in rows 2 ft. asunder, and the plants about 18 in. apart. It is an abundant bearer, as all the early varieties must necessarily be, from the expansion of their blossoms at a season when the high temperature insures a dispersion of the pollen from the staminiferous flower.

Having thus gone through this list, I have now to offer a comparative estimate on the probable results of culture of those varieties which may be considered available to us from their disposition to ripen in our climate, as compared

an

an

with other articles of established usage, and with which practice has made us familiar; such as peas, beans, oats, or barley. Of course with wheat, as an article of growth for flour, it would be idle to waste time in the comparison; and here I may beg leave to correct an error of opinion which has prevailed among many since the introduction of it, as to its application in America, which is no less gross than to suppose it is the corn which yields the fine flour of that country, error so palpable as to require no refutation. It will not be practicable, within the limits of this article, to enter into details sufficiently at large to expose the fallacy of the attempt to substitute it for either of the above crops, as a part of a series in rotation on a farm of any extent; but it may suffice to show the probable result of it, as a part of a course of culture, as matter of profit, on the premises of its known properties and produce. To take, for instance, one acre on a soil peculiarly adapted to it, a friable loam; admitting it to give, as average crop, fifty bushels to the acre, which, t the market price of it (usually in our markets 4s. per bushel), would be 10l. per acre. Now, if sown in May, the ground cannot be possibly cleared until November, which in most situations would be too late to get the ground ready for wheat; consequently it must remain idle until March following, if intended for oats, or, by a process of winter fallow, for spring wheat or barley, thus consuming eighteen or twenty months for two crops: whereas, if peas were sown in February or March, they will generally be harvested and marketed in July or August following, and the ground sown with turnips, which may be again cleared off in October and November, by which process the land is immediately available for wheat, at all times the staple crop of our farmers. In comparison of value as to produce, compared with peas, maize possesses no advantage; the general produce of grey peas is six or seven quarters the acre, which at 36s. per quarter, will yield more than the Indian corn, and certainly leave the ground in a much better state for the next crop, as it is notorious that maize exhausts the soil, whereas peas and turnips are considered an ameliorating crop. To pursue the comparison with regard to barley, which may be sown in May, harvested in August, and the ground prepared immediately for wheat; the produce of barley on soils adapted to Indian corn may be taken at an average in good seasons (equally necessary to the perfection of both), at seven quarters per acre, which, at 30s. per quarter, would yield an equal profit. Beans, for the use of which it may also be substituted as horse food, as with oats, are generally cultivated on soils not at all adapted for the culture VOL. VL-No. 24.

F