The Indian corn crop of 1850, for the whole of the United States, is returned as over 500 million bushels, a gain of about 40 millions on that of 1840.
I give below the quantities of Indian corn and meal which were exported from the United States in the following years:—
| Corn, Bushels. | Meal, Bushels. | Value. Dolls. | |
| 1790 | 1,713,241 | ||
| 1794 | 1,505,977 | 241,570 | |
| 1798 | 1,218,231 | 211,694 | |
| 1802 | 1,633,283 | 566,816 | |
| 1806 | 1,064,263 | 108,342 | 1,286,000 |
| 1810 | 1,054,252 | 86,744 | 1,138,000 |
| 1814 | 61,284 | 26,438 | 170,000 |
| 1818 | 1,075,190 | 120,029 | 2,335,405 |
| 1822 | 509,098 | 148,288 | 900,656 |
| 1826 | 505,381 | 158,652 | 1,007,321 |
| 1829 | 897,656 | 173,775 | 974,535 |
| 1833 | 437,174 | 146,678 | 871,814 |
—(Pitkin's Statistics of the United Stales, and Seybert's Statistical Annals.)
System of culture pursued in the United States.—Maize, the corn, par excellence, of America, is grown in every State in the Union.
Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Indiana, are in their order the greatest producers of this grain. In Illinois, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Maryland, Arkansas, and the New England States, it appears to be a very favorite crop. In Massachusetts, the most Northern and least favorable State on that account, being cold, a fair proportion is grown, the aggregate produce being greater there than in any of the grains, except oats; more, indeed, than might be expected, were not labor somewhat cheaper than in more Southern States, where the climate is more congenial. The ordinary produce is twenty-five bushels per acre; forty bushels is often raised, and in prize crops the weight has come up to 100 bushels per acre. In Ohio the average is fifty-five bushels to the acre. The eight and twelve-rowed varieties of Indian corn are those most usually grown in New York, and the average produce of a good field in that State is from forty to sixty bushels; on ordinary ground twenty-five to thirty is a fair crop. The same returns appeared to be derived from ground in New Jersey. Mr. Doubleday, of Binghampton, New York, estimates the produce of that neighbourhood at forty bushels, and the expense of raising the crop as follows, estimating the worth of the land at twenty-five dollars (say £5) per acre:—
| Dollars. | Cents. | |
| The interest of which is | 1 | 16 |
| One ploughing with double team, and harrowing | 3 | 50 |
| Seed and planting | 1 | 00 |
| Plaster or gypsum, and putting on the hill | 0 | 37 |
| Ploughing and hoeing twice, cutting or stalking the corn | 2 | 75 |
| Husking or thrashing | 2 | 50 |
| 11 | 62 |
Average yield, forty bushels; cost of produce, twenty-nine cents. (1s. 4½d.) per bushel.
Nothing is here put down for manure or cartage, because the fodder, cut up and saved, as usually adopted, is equal to the manure required. It is looked upon that the preparation of ground for corn costs less than wheat; the approved plan is to plant on sward ground, ploughing at once, and turning the ground completely over, then harrowing longitudinally until, a good tilth is obtained. Should the soil not be rich enough, stable manure is first spread on the land.
Now suppose the corn to sell at seventy-five cents the bushel, the account would stand thus:—