CULTIVATION OF INDIAN CORN.

BY J. S. EMERSON.

The Indian corn crop succeeds the best, so far as my experience and observation go, in a hard tenacious soil. This soil holds moisture much longer than a light vegetable or alluvial soil. It also gives less chance to worms of all descriptions for burrowing and depositing their eggs than is found in a lighter soil. Also, in case of a high wind it holds the roots of the corn much more tenaciously than the lighter soil.

The season for planting is from the 1st November to the 1st of February or March. Except in very low and wet, or rainy situations, the sooner corn is planted, after the first rain in November, the more sure the crop. But in very rainy situations or in low lands exposed to be inundated by the usually heavy rains in December or January it may be safe to delay planting till the heavy rains have fallen.

PREPARATION OF THE GROUND FOR PLANTING.-Let the land to be planted be plowed deep and fine, if may be, in midsummer, and let fowls and pigs scratch and root it as much as they please, to destroy roots, worms and insects; and to facilitate their operations an occasional harrowing would not come amiss.

When the season for planting has arrived a second plowing would be beneficial. Then furrow the land both ways in drills, about 41 feet apart, and plant the corn in the checks. Four or five grains should be planted in each hill, with the expectation of leaving only three or at most four stalks, when the corn may have passed its danger from the grub-worm.

The danger from the grub-worm is less in November than in the two following months; and corn that has been growing a month or six weeks has generally passed the season of danger from this insect.

If the corn to be planted is soaked twelve or fifteen hours in a strong tobacco juice it will hasten its germination and may protect it from the attack of the worm.

About twelve or fifteen days after the corn is planted it is usually fit for the cultivator, which should be passed between every two rows in one direction and one week later in the other direction. But if the land is not in good condition a light plow is better than the cultivator; and in using the plow the soil should be turned from the corn into the middle of the space between the rows.

When the corn has been six weeks in the ground it is usually a foot high as it stands and is sufficiently strong to endure a slight shock from falling dirt. It is now time to re-plow, turning the soil towards the corn. Let it be plowed both ways, two furrows between each two rows, a boy always following the plow to relieve any corn that may have been crushed or buried up by the plow. When this moulding process is completed the hoe may be taken up.

Pass through the field removing every weed that may be among the corn, and every poor blade of corn where there are more than three in the hill. If there chance to be four good stalks in one hill and four only, let them all remain. At this time let the hill of the corn be shaped and the ground be left fair and in a condition to impart its greatest amount of nourishment to the corn. The hill round the corn should never be high, but large and flat. This one hoeing is all the corn will need, in case weeds do not spring up.

If the manienie grass or the seeds of noxious plants are in the soil when planted you will find it out and meet them as the case may require.

The manienie grass, the best friend to the grazier, is a potent enemy to the agriculturist, and must be met and fought in the hottest and driest weather, or the plow and the hoe will avail but little in a tenacious soil and wet weather.

The expediency of topping the corn before it is ripe depends entirely on the desirableness of the food for your cattle or horses. It is no benefit and but very little, if any, harm to top the corn after the tassel begins to dry and the husks of the corn to whiten.

A good crop of corn at these islands is from 30 to 40 bushels to the acre. I have raised at the rate of 50 bushels to the acre. Corn that is acclimated I think does better for seed than that which is newly imported from the Northern States.

Craving your patience a little longer let me now speak on some things connected with the general subject.

1. On the adaptation of our soil to the raising of such grains; a question which, as a committee, we were instructed to examine. There can be no doubt so far at least as Makawao and Kula are concerned, the raising of wheat and oats is no longer to be regarded in the light of an experiment. Through all Kula, and in the hill coun

try of Honuaula and Ulupalakua, on the potato land above Mr. Torbert's plantation, wheat would unquestionably richly reward the labor of the cultivator. If cereal grains are not grown at the islands in sufficient quantities for home consumption, to say nothing of a moderate exportation if needed, let it not be said that it is from want of adaptation of the soil.

2nd. Time and manner of preparing the ground, planting, &c. As the experiment of raising wheat may be made on other islands than Maui, allow me to give you the result of my experience as to time and method. I think it well to commence sowing or planting as early as November or December. Sown thus early, wheat will have time to take root, and will become large tall and hardy. If occasionally fed down in early winter, by calves, no great harm will be done. I would not, however sow a great quantity thus early, but continue to sow at my convenience up to the end of March. The growth will all be respectable. The portion sown in November will probably be ripe early in May, so that by sowing every week during the winter the work of harvesting will extend through July and August. As to preparation and manner of planting, I remark that there is little danger of plowing the land too thoroughly. The crops so far as I have observed amply repay all the labor bestowed by the plow. In regard to the manner of committing the seed to the earth, I am partial to the method of planting it in drills. At the outset it will doubtless cost more labor, but that it will ultimately cost more is not clear. The land will of necessity be better plowed, the seed will lay deeper, and be more certainly covered. The body of the grain will be stouter, the heads better filled, and there will be much less danger of the wind and rain which frequently throw the grain down or entangle it. The drills on rich land may be about as near as a horse followed by a small plow, can make them without walking in the furrow last made. By planting thus, one can walk through the length of his field, prevent weeds from choking his grain, and the rats from making unreasonable depredations; and finally, the grain is more easily and cleanly harvested. Since writing the above, I find the following remarks in the "Pictorial Cultivator Almanac," for 1852:-"The practice of sowing wheat in drills, is every year gaining favor, and this system of sowing is destined to become general. In England the system is already so well

established that it has been pronounced the 'sheet anchor of husbandry." Those however, I will add, who are disposed to cultivate wheat can try both methods, the broad-cast and the drill, and decide for themselves which is on the whole, the best.

I for one, earnestly desire a change of seed, for though our wheat which is the bearded kind is good, still I have no doubt that a change would be beneficial. Cannot seed be obtained from the coast, or from the United States? If from the Northern States, the first crop or two might yield less than our Hawaiian wheat, but as soon as acclimated, we should probably have larger crops, and grain of a better quality. 3rdly. Obstacles to wheat, oats, and corn growing and preserving.

These I have shown are not found in the soil of Hawaii nei, though some or all of them may be with the climate. Nowhere probably can wheat and oats be more easily raised than on many parts of the islands. Obstacles however exist; for to success in what business are these not found? We might about as well murmur against Providence for not giving us our bread baked and buttered, without the toil of oven heating, dough kneading and churning, as to complain that we cannot obtain our wheat and corn without toil and vigilance in warding off and destroying the enemies of vegetation. Of these enemies, the pelua I have already mentioned. We all know the character of this insect, and have most of us been tried by its ravages; but 'tis one of the trials incident to the labors of the agriculturist in an untried climate. We need the influence of a New England winter to check the ravages, or to rid the country altogether of this and other insects. But as the remedy in this case would be worse than the disease, we must bear the trial as patiently as possible, till in good time some one shall discover the method of destroying so dire a foe to agricultural, and especially to horticultural pursuits.

Another enemy to grain of every kind we have in the weevil. This will cause us more trouble I fear than the pelua. I need not say that the weevil attacks the grain after it is garnered, and it will find its way through a hogshead, a barrel, or a bag of wheat or corn, in an incredibly short space of time. I know of no method of preserving our grains from the ravages of this insect. Caution in curing and putting them up will do something. They should be most thoroughly

dried, and put up in small containers or bags. The wheat which I formerly obtained from Kula, I used to put into bags containing from a peck to a half-bushel each, and these I hung in the cook room near the stove pipe. I think no weevils were seen in one of these bags unless it became wet from the rain through the roof. If any member of the Society can suggest a method either of destroying this insect or of preserving our wheat and other grains from its ravages, he will confer a great favor on us all.

The rat, too, means to show us wheat growers, that this grain is sweet to his tooth. I hope this vermin will not increase upon us, and rival the pelua and the weevil in destructiveness. As he condescendingly waits till the grain is nearly ripe before he attacks it, I think he will harvest but a small part of our fields. After all, we have fewer foes to our garden vegetables and grains than our friends of other countries have, and we may well endure the ills of this sort which we cannot cure, or endure them till a cure can be effected.

4th. Finally, allow me to say that we all have occasion for gratitude to God in view of the multiplication of physical comforts within a few years; and we should be stimulated by this consideration to encourage, both by precept and example, a more thorough and systematic cultivation of the soil till the best resources of the islands shall be fully developed.

To feel the force of this appeal to our gratitude, let me take you back with me to 1828, the year in which some of us landed at Honolulu and commenced our residence on these shores. Here was our work, and those of us who came to toil for the people, looked for our reward in the coming world. And well we might, for we had little prospect of obtaining it on earth. The fact is some of us were for several years put on short allowance, and I may add, no more sweet than short. I will not particularize, for no one wishes to talk or hear of such things. Suffice it to say that during some part of 1829 while I was absent on the North West Coast, there was great suffering in Honolulu for want of the comforts of life. Mrs. Green speaks of those days with thankful emotions that she did not die outright of starvation. Mr. Richards and his family, then at Honolulu, suffered also exceedingly as he informed me on my return. I admit that this season was an extraordinary one; still those of us who were on the ground at that time can