Cornplanter

“ In many cases cross-pollination is assured because the stamens and the pistils are in different flowers (diclinous) . Monœcious and diœcious plants may be pollinated by wind or insects, or other agents (Fig. 204) . They are usually wind-pollinated, although willows are often, if not mostly, insect-pollinated. The Indian corn is a monœcious plant. The staminate flowers are in a terminal panicle (tassel) . The pistillate flowers are in a dense spike (ear) , inclosed in a sheath or husk. Each “silk” is a style. Each pistillate flower produces a kernel of corn. ”

“ If one will wander along the edges of a cornfield, he will often see an exquisite picture, such as Nature loves to make. The wild convolvulus, which often fills the fence corners, has crept out of the grass into the furrow and twined around the corn, climbing to its very top, and, having power yet to grow, returns upon itself and fashions festoons of exquisite leaves and white blossoms, which hang down in every negligent form of beauty. Other vines too, besides the convolvulus, try their arts, and none fail ”

“ The corn and pumpkin seed may be dropped at the distances of six inches, and thinned at the first hoeing, so as to have the growing plants of the former about a foot apart, and the latter about 16 inches. If any vacant places should happen in any of these drills, such vacancies may readily be supplied by transplanting sets, taken from parts where more plants are standing than are necessary. Any young plants may be transplanted after they have attained a suitable size, which is usually in from two to four weeks growth. ”

“ There is presented to us a kernel of corn containing within itself the elements of vital action. So long as it is stored in a granary it is quiescent, but when planted in the soil it germinates, producing first the tender blade, then the tasseled tops, the silky ears, and, finally, rows of mature kernels upon the spike, inclosed by a sheathy covering. As soon as the seed is properly situated for development, an inward impulse urges onward the growth till the process is completed. ”

“ Frequent, shallow cultivation is a prime necessity in growing this crop. When well up, thin to four stalks to a hill—usually five to seven kernels being planted. A slight hilling when the tassels appear will be advisable. Plant frequently for succession crops. The last sowing may be made as late as the first part of July if the seed is well firmed in, to assure immediate germination. Sweet corn for the garden is frequently planted in drills, about three feet apart, and thinning to ten to twelve inches. ”

“ And I knew then that the destined time had arrived for my planting. That afternoon I marked out my corn-field, driving the mare to my home-made wooden marker, carefully observant of the straightness of the rows; for a crooked corn-row is a sort of immorality. I brought down my seed corn from the attic, where it had hung waiting all winter, each ear suspended separately by the white, up-turned husks. ”

“ Within a month it springs up, each tiny plant having two or four leaves, and one month later it is transplanted in little hillocks, set about the same distance apart as are our hills of Indian corn.
Two or three times during the season the plants have to be hoed and weeded, while the sickly leaves, which peep out from the body of the stock, must be plucked off.
If the plant grows too fast, which is to say, if it is like to get its full size before harvest time, the tops are cut to make it more backward. ”

“ A corn-plant completes its growth in not far from a hundred days, and leaves its accumulated vitality stored up in the grains upon the ear. The prospective life and activity of a whole field of waving corn may be considered as stored up in a few pecks of apparently lifeless seed-corn safely housed in the granary. We thus see that in the annual plants the life of the species is, so to speak, carried over from one growing season to another in the ripened seed. The seed is also the form in which plant-life is easily transported from place to place. ”

“ A certain number will not have made more than one strong crown, and a few single-crown plants have not flowered; these, of course, do not divide. During the flowering time I keep a [218] good look-out for those that I judge to be the most beautiful and desirable, and mark them for seed. These are also taken up, but are kept apart, the flower stems reduced to one or two of the most promising, and they are then planted in a separate place—some cool nursery corner. I find that the lifting and replanting in no way checks the growth or well-being of the seed-pods. ”

“ If you plant the top-onion for sets you need not stake them, for they cannot shed out their seed if they fall over. It is not generally known that the same onions may be kept for seed for many years.
Transplanting.—All fruit-trees, most kinds of shade trees, shrubs, hardy roses, honeysuckles, pinks, lilacs, peonies, etc., may be raised, divided, and transplanted in April unless your soil is very wet. All hardy plants may be safely transplanted just as soon as the ground is dry enough to crumble freely—and not till then. In planting out shrubs, remember that they will grow ”

“ If you were to plant only one grain of corn and let it grow until it is ripe, and then plant the seeds again which grew on these few ears of corn, and thus continue to re-plant again and again, we are told by those who have calculated it very carefully, that in only five short years the amount of corn that could be grown as the result of the planting of the one single seed would be sufficient to plant a hill of corn, with three grains in every square yard of all the dry land on all the earth. ”

“ I cultivate all the time with cultivator and harrow. I grow corn in the orchard from eight to ten years, and oats after that. I think windbreaks are essential, and would make them of native timber, planted south of the orchard. I prune with a knife and saw, and believe it makes the fruit larger and better; I never thin on the tree. I like to put plenty of stable litter and old straw at the roots of the tree in winter. I pasture with hogs after the oats come up; they eat all the windfall apples and thus destroy insects. Am troubled some with caterpillars, borers, and codling-moth. ”

“ Ferns which make broad crowns may be divided, and this is the common mode with many species. Some species produce creeping root-stocks, which emit roots if pegged down into a pot of soil or on a block of peat. Several plants can often be produced from such a layer. All these operations are best performed in late winter, before the new growth begins. The tree ferns are rarely propagated to any extent in cultivation, but young plants are imported from their native countries. ”

“ If a single row is planted broadside to the prevailing wind, the pollen is dissipated and the corn remains unfertilized and produces no ears. Three or more rows insures against this loss of pollenization. If only a limited number of hills are to be planted it will be better to plant them in blocks rather than in one or two long rows. Corn that matures at different seasons should not be planted in parallel single rows as the result would be the same as one single row—the corn not blooming at the same time. ”

“ No fruit crop will respond more readily to good care than the Currant. Clean cultivation and a liberal use of manure or fertilizers will certainly be followed by well paying crops. One- or two-year-old plants may be set 4 by 6 feet. Trim the bush by cutting off most of the suckers below the surface of the ground. If the season is dry, a mulch of straw or leaves will assist the plants to establish themselves.
[84] The red and white Currants bear mostly on two-year-old or older wood. A succession of young shoots should be allowed to grow to take the place of the old bearing wood. ”

“ I prefer beets, as they are so much larger, it is less trouble to gather and take care of them, and the crop is generally larger, still I always grow some carrots for a change. I plant sweet corn in drills, always put some fertilizer along the furrow, dropping the kernels about eight inches apart, with the rows three feet wide, I commence planting soon after May first, and continue at intervals until about July first, so I can have a fresh supply for use, and market, all the season. ”

“ The next morning each man is off to his field at sunrise, carrying the various items of equipment he will need. The seed corn, only a small amount of which will be needed this first day, is carried in a pouch made from the entire skin of a fawn. The head and legs dangle grotesquely as the farmer throws the pouch over his shoulder. At harvest time last fall the finest ears of corn were selected for seed and ceremonies were performed to assure germination and growth. During the winter it was stored where it would be safe from dampness, mice and weevils. ”

“ The Field Convolvulus (Convolvulus arvensis) . This pretty little plant is very commonly found on grassy banks, open downs, or in our corn-fields, running up the stems of the standing corn, and flowering during June, July, and August. It is one of the enemies of the farmer, from its spreading, to the detriment of the crops, over so large an area of ground; and owing to the great depth to which the roots descend, it is exceedingly difficult to get rid of it when it has once taken possession. ”

“ Prefer good upland corn ground, with sand or gravel subsoil, north and east slope. I plow deep, and plant large two-year-old trees, shallow, and mound up; shorten roots and branches. Cultivate with plow and harrow from youth to old age. Grow corn in young orchard up to six years, afterward nothing. Prefer a windbreak on south, west, and north, of box-elders, Osage orange, or peach. Rub liver on trees to repel rabbits, and use a knife for borers. To prune with a little saw makes the trees grow faster, and the apples grow larger, and it pays. ”

“ Soil and Cultivation.—The Sunflower will thrive in almost any soil or situation, but succeeds best on land adapted to the growth of Indian Corn. It is always grown from seed, which should be sown in April, or the beginning of May, in drills three feet apart. When the plants are well up, they should be thinned to a foot asunder, and afterwards cultivated in the usual manner; stirring the ground occasionally, and keeping the plants free from weeds. The flowers appear in July, and the seeds ripen in August and September. ”

“ The seedlings which, sown in the open, were now rewarding Jim's matutinal thinnings-out, were a comfort and encouragement. The intensely blue cornflowers furnished many a dinner-table, and though they did not face the wind with all the backbone desirable, I had not staked them, they formed a very good background to the less tall pinky-white godetias, and these, too, in July were a boon to those Others. They last very well in water, and, if diligently cut and not allowed to seed, they continue a fine show of bloom into the early autumn. ”

“ Every fall he does through his field and selects his seed corn from the best of the earliest ripened ears; when these ears are husked one or two husks are left on each ear, and then the husks, with the ears attached, are braided together until there are fifteen or twenty ears in a string. These strings of seed corn are hung up in the sun for a fortnight or so, and then hung from the rafters in a cool, dry loft over the wood-shed; there it remains till seed time comes again, and it never fails to grow. ”

“ On all land we have ever seen, we believe four feet apart each way, with four or five stalks in a hill, will produce the largest yield. It lets in the sun sufficiently around every hill, and the proportion of ears to the stalks will be larger than in any other distance. Planting with a span of horses, and a planter on which a man can ride and plant two rows at once, is the easiest and most expeditious. We can not too strongly recommend harrowing corn as soon as it comes out of the ground. ”

“ Should an old corn-field, or other piece of ground, be thrown out of cultivation for more than one season, it is sown with pine-seeds by the winds, and the young pines shoot up as closely and compactly as hemp. They continue to grow in this manner until they become twelve or fifteen feet high, until their roots begin to encroach on each other, or until the stoutest and best rooted begin to overtop so as entirely to shade the smaller. ”

“ I would plant close rows running east and west, as each row would help break the wind when the trees in the row reach each other. I would plant twenty feet apart in the row, and the rows thirty feet apart, and would recommend planting a row of cherry, dwarf pear, plum or peach between the apple rows, provided they are cut out at the proper time to not allow them to rob the orchard of moisture. Cultivate often to a good old age with a disc and Acme harrow. Grow corn or Kafir-corn for five or six years, leaving a good space next the trees, not for weeds, but to be well cultivated. ”

“ The cultivation of Indian corn on newly cleared lands is very easy, and attended with but little labour; on old farms it requires more. The earth is just raised with a broad hoe, and three or four corns dropped in with a pumpkin-seed, in about every third or fourth hole, and in every alternate row; the seed are set several feet apart. The pumpkins and the corn grow very amicably together, the broad leaves of the former shading the young plants and preventing the too great evaporation of the moisture from the ground ”

“ A great number of amateur cultivators of the Carnation have an idea that if they obtain seed from a variety of Carnation, the seedlings produced from such seed will be reproductions of the parent plant. This, of course, is wrong, and it is well to mention it. Now to grow Carnations well they must have a good soil, or the plants will not produce flowers, or layers, for another season. ”