The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1858-03-17
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From the Cotton Planter and Soil.


PLANTING AND CULTIVATION OF CORN.
DR.. Cloud-Dear Sir: As the time for
planting is at hand, my thoughts naturally
run in that direction, and have concluded
therefore, to give you short article on the
subject.
Planters all agree, so far as know, as to
deep plowing and thorough preparation pre-.
paratory to planting corn, but differ very
widely as to the mode Of culture. This diff
ference of opinion grows out Of the fact, that
we all pursue the old beaten track, cultiya-
ting our corn every year just alike. scarcely
ever testing the different modes by expert
menting. and generally, with seasons. make
full crops, and we are satisfied with the re-
sult--belieyo that our plan is equal, if not
superior to that Of our neighbors. This is all
wrong. No man should be satisfied with
anything less than all the corn that his land
and seasons are capable of making. l ven
ture to say that there is not more than one
acre out Of every hundred in the South, that
yields as much Of any thing that is planted on
it, as it is capable of doing. The planter who
has in more corn and Gotten to the hand than
he can make yield every grain Of corn and
every lock Of cotton that the land can pro-
duce. is oyer-cropped. don't care IL he has
not more than twelve acres to the hand.
These are stern facts, that everybody must
admit.
But it is impossible to arrive at the best
mode of corn culture without experimenting.
We must try different plans the same year,
and note particularly the seasons and the re-
suit. And one year won't settle the question
satisfactorily. If you should plant one hun
dred acres in corn this year, and make an
average Of forty bushels per acre, that won't
prove that by different management you
might not have made fifty bushels per acre.
But if you prepare one hundred acres
thoroughly, and plant fifty of il in the water
iurrow Ritter bedding and throwing two fur
rows back, and cultivate shallow, and make
sixty bushels per acre, and the other fifty you
plant in the same way and cultivate deeply,
and make forty bushels per acre, Of course
YOU have demonstrated the fact that shallow
culture, after preparing well, is preferable to
deep culture. This experiment would pay.
You would not be satisfied with the forty
bushels per acre, because you see that your
land can produce sixty. But il you had
planted the whole hundred acres alike, and
cultivated in the same way. and made forty
bushels, you would have thought that you
had made good crop. and perhaps would
conclude to practice that system forever,
with the fact hid from your eyes, that you
were every year losing twenty bushels Of corn
per acre.
Ny opinion, after ten years experience in
corn culture, during which time | have ex.
perimented no little. is that corn land should
be pIowed deeply and thoroughly. and corn
planted shallow, about even with the general
sub soil Of the field. And after il is well up
pillow it as deep and close with small pillow,
as can be done with one horse plows, and
after this cultivate lightly, "laying by" al
early as possible-say by the FIRST Of June.
am aware that some Of your correspon'
dents will object to blowing corn deep at all
and | am also aware that the objection can
not be sustained. q. q. HARMON.
Utca, Miss, Feb. 6. 1858.