Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-07
How to Improve Southern Corn.

How to Improve Southern Corn.
Mr. D. Lee, of this county, contributes
the following TO the Country Gentleman:
In 1s4S, while residing in Augusta, Ga,
] measured corn plants growing on the
Savannah bottoms which were eighteen
| feet high, with stalk and leaf in proper
! ton. Had the yield OF seed correspondent
with this magnificent Developments of stem
and woody tissue, the harvest should have
been at least 200 bushels of corn per acre.
But instead of this it was only sixty BUSH
| els. Coming from the rich valley of the
Genesee in Western New York, where
similar land produces seventy-fve and
eighty bushels TO the acre, it occurred to
me that by planting the best seed corn TO
! be had in New York or New England it
| might not be difficult to lessen the growth
ofwhat appeared an excess of stalk and
! leaf, and increase that of grain. Where
| the climate and soil are very favorable to
the longevity of plant, nature appears TO
regard any provision for the next genera
ton through the medium of seeds, as of
secondary moment. Under such condi-
tiOns, fruitfulness is often suspended or in
definitely delayed Unfruitful apple and
pear trees are familiar instances of this
kind. Planters often top cotton plants to
make them more fruitful. They pinch off
the terminal buds of Lima beans, shorten
the runners Of strawberries, and prune fruit
trees and grapevines to check the natural
tendency to form undesirable wood, and
encourage the organization of fruit in It's
place.
Root-pruning corn with the pillow or Gull
tivation is quite practicable, but a rather
unsafe operation in our climate, in the
judgment of the writer. Probably an in
fusion Of the dwarf habit and obvious fruit
tulness Of the best Northern corn into the
| constitution of our native seed, by cross,
would give acclimated plants peculiar
| value. To obtain cross of this character,
| Northern seed should be planted in hills
| Of Southern corn some thirty days after
| the latter is planted otherwise the silk on
/ the early Northern corn will be dry and
dead before any another dust is formed on
the tassels of the late Southern plant.
some varieties of Northern corn, say
| those grown 300 miles north of nv farm
in Southern Ohio and Indiana, need not
be planted more than ten DAYS later than
ours to have the organs of production in
both simultaneously formed. Having de-
Veloped these at the same time, two kinds
Of crossing the vital principles are easily
made. ! prefer to have the more fruitful
parent for the mother; and, therefore, i'm
prcgnatc the silk Of Northern corn with
the pollen Of southern 4 different cross
| will be made il we icrtilzc the silk of
Southern corn with pollen from the spikes
Oh Northern. IN DONG inns with the cQrll-
est varieties Of Northern, | have to raise by
hand dust from the low stalks Of small
Northern corn, several feet to reach the
nascent ears on tall Southern Not one
ear in ten is low enough AT harvest for me
| to reach il without bending down the
! stalk.
When connected with the University of
Georgia, | made many new seedlings from
parents acclimated in different parts of
| this continent but their practical value
had not been satisfactorily determined,
when calamitOus war arrested my expe-
riments. Problems relating to the consti-
tutional value of new agricultural plants,
often require years for their solution: and
nothing is more common than to give to
facts too large or too small a meaning in
our profession. That the vital activity and
| frutfulness of corn may be greatly chang
cd by simply changing its climate, are facts
Of far more significance than any superb
cial thinker will believe. There are thou
sands Of Southern farmers who ANNUALLY
procure their seed potatoes from the North
because the vitality i'm these tubers is best
developed in % northern climate. At the
risk Of being mistaken, ] remark that were
my land planted with northern seed corn,
20 that q -iN-fOOt man might reach the
highest ears without bending down the
stalks, the yield would probably be an ave-
rage of some eight or ten bushels moro 10
the acre. ID. LIE.
KNoN COUNTY, Tenn.