LIMIT OF PRODUCTION. To the yield of this grain, as to that of every other, Nature has somewhere placed a limit, or rather, perhaps, has surrounded it with a series of limits, which no skill or ingenuity of man may exceed. There is, for example, a limit in the prolific power of the seed; another in the capacity of the soil; and still another in the area or space required by each grain for perfect development and fruition. These might be called, respectively, the limit of fecundity, the limit of fertility, and the limit of area, or dis tances. It is safe to assume that neither of these has ever yet been reached. The productiveness of Indian corn has not yet been tested to its ultimate boundary. There is a possible yield greater than any yet accomplished. What that yield may be we do not know. It may be two hundred and fifty bushels per acre; probably more; possibly less. But what we do know is, that two hundred bushels per acre have been achieved. Beyond that lies the domain of uncertainty, a vast undefined region of dim twilight, which theory may explore, and experiment may develop, probably with useful results. The prolific character of maize is shown, not more in the large crops spread over many acres, than in the self-multiplication of single grains. The reproductive vigor inherent in each separate seed is not a little remarkable. One kernel has been known to produce in a season several thousand grains, and single ears of the gourd-seed variety have produced more than a pint by measure. Now, if the proximity of the growing grains did not interfere with this fecundity, if close planting interposed no limit to these prolific results, it is easy to see that an acre might be made to return a thousand bushels just as readily as it now returns a hundred. We know that a single stalk of maize will, under certain conditions, yield a pound or more of grain. And we also know that if an acre of good land, at the proper season, were literally covered with grains of corn, placed in contact and sprinkled over with earth, those grains, if all perfect, would all germinate. But would each one return a pound of corn? Certainly not; nor any other quantity. The close planting violates a law of Nature. There is a certain interval or space between the stalks that would render a pound of corn possible for each. There is another interval. that would reduce this quantity to a gill; and still another that would render every stalk in the field grainless. These intervals, however, are not fixed quantities. They vary according to the soil, the kind of grain planted, etc. For each of these varying con ditions there is some one mode of spacing better than any other a certain arrangement of distances that will give a larger yield than any other. Let us suppose that yield to be two hundred and twenty-five bushels per acre. Then the spacing which gives that product is the best possible, and no deviation from those distances in planting would increase the yield. Here, then, would be a limit of production imposed by the law of distances. But let us take another view of the matter. Every soil not absolutely sterile contains, in its natural state, a certain amount of the constituents of Indian corn. In a state of perfect fertility it would contain the largest possible amount of these, and in the exact condition and proportions required by the growing plants. We do not perhaps know what is the highest point of fruitfulness to which a given soil may be brought. But this is not material. The maximum of fertility is not indispensable for a maximum yield. If the space occupied by the roots of a single stalk contain one and a half ounces of the inorganic elements of corn, in the right condition and proportions, along with a small percentage of the organic constituents,* then such stalk should produce a pound of grain, so far as the yield depends on the prolific character of the soil; and if an acre of ground contain, in each square foot, one-half the above quantity of corn elements, then the capacity of such acre * These being mainly derived from the atmosphere, and from descending rains, their presence in the soil is not required in the same proportions as the other class of elements. is equal to over three hundred bushels of grain, so far as that capacity is determined by the fertility of the earth. If, then, the farmer brings his land to this standard of fertility, complying at the same time with the other requisite conditions, he is entitled theoretically to expect a corresponding result. If he has made sure that his soil contains the constituents of maize in the ratio above given, he has reason to calculate on three hundred bushels per acre; and if he fails to get that amount, it is not the fault of the soil, but because there is another limit to the yield earlier reached than the limit of fertility. He is barred out by the limit of distances. If he had fertilized his soil to a capacity of five hundred bushels, yet by the hypothesis above stated, he could only get two hundred and twenty-five bushels, nor even that amount, unless he complied with the conditions on which it depends. The only barrier, therefore, of any practical consequence to the farmer is that imposed by the law of distances. This limit, being the first that he reaches, renders any others that may lie beyond of little moment. He can raise but so many bushels on an acre as this principle permits; and how many that may be, experiment alone can determine. It is assumed above to be two hundred and twenty-five bushels, which is doubtless too low. It is extremely probable that the further improvement of existing varieties of corn, and modes of culture, and, still more, the introduction of new varieties, will yet prove that the real limit of production is in fact much higher. But the amount above stated may be confidently taken, for the present, as a possible yield, having been verified, on a small area of ground, in a number of instances. It is, in fact, probable that many farmers have produced, without being aware of it, even more than this, relatively, on limited portions of their fields. Though it is, doubtless, true enough that results from small areas are not to be taken as certainties for large crops, yet it is also equally true, that experiments on a small scale are important and valuable for determining the best methods, and for proving, not indeed the certainties, but the possibilities for entire crops. The large yield obtained on one hundred square feet will not, of course, be so easily reached on an acre; yet the experiment, though small, will, if successful, be the sure precursor of a similar yield on a larger scale; for whatever is actually accomplished in the one case becomes undoubtedly possible in the other. But after all that can be said, it must be admitted that the value of a large yield depends on what it costs to produce it. Nor is it at all likely that such a yield as the one above stated to be possible, would be found, in the first instance, a profitable crop. The processes by which it would be at first arrived at, would probably make it more than usually expensive. Still it would be a valuable result, and a point gained in the right direction. To reduce the cost of such a yield, would be a subsequent achievement, and one certain to follow, in due season. It is thus in a gradual way, and by single steps, that all valuable progress |