Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-05-12
Corn-What Crop shall We Get?

Rurul New Yorker.
Corn-What Crop shall We Get?
Everybody can grow corn, y
'anybody can grow corn" This is
what every one repeats who says
anything on the matter. But will
any reader of this paper tell us OF
any one who has grown maximum
crop of corn, and has been able to
do the same thing twice in success
sion? We are often told Of men
who grow from so to hundred
bushels OF corn per acre; but some
how they are never able to bring
any testimony to prove that they
have done it. Most farmers will
tell you that fifty bushels of shelled
corn is very large crop, and we
believe there are but few townships
in this State, in which this is the
average product, and yet we arc
told frequently that more is pro-
duced' Now we don't care much
about the product of a picked acre
or of a few square rods; but we do
| want to learn in one or two instances
just how much corn ten or twenty
acres has produced, treated in the
ordinary way that farmers generally
cultivate a crop of corn. Now, the
complaining season is just coming
on, and we suggest that some ofour
readers make a trial to learn how
much corn their crop yields them,
and not depend upon mere guess
work either, but regularly measured
by means of bushel which when
fairly filed will hold bushel of
ears of corn.
AS there is time to consider few
matters connected with crop of
corn before planting time, let us
make a few suggestions as prelim-
mary. We say nothing about the
preparation of the soil at present.
Every farmer that plants corn knows
right we'll that it is much better to
work land up to a good mellow
warm filth, even ifhe is two or three
days later than he would like, than
to plant seed corn in a cold, harsh,
unworked soil, that has only lately
been turned up to the surface, and
simply narrowed. Make a good
secd-bed for the corn, and it will
pay in its rapidity and rankess of
growth. No crop seems to repay
care with more good will than the
corn crop. Now it ought to be
understood that which hills are
four feet apart each way, there are
on an acre 2,72O, and that if the
hills each are made to grow three
stalks, there must be 7,l66 of these
stalks. How many of them will
grow two ears? Will one half of
them9 Again, what will be the
average weight of the ear of corn
when ripe and cured? Estimate
that one-half of the stalks grown
will yield two ears, and the other
half but one, and we have produce
of over 10000 ears. Is it too much
to say that those ears should aver
age ounces each? Then we have
yield of $500 pounds of corn and
cob, or at rate of 70 pounds of
ears to the bushel, about SO bushels.
Now we would like to know how
many farmers on their big fields go
beyond this? Thirty-six bushels of
shelled corn, we are not afraid to
say, will cover the great average of
the crops of corn that are taken off
the best lands in this State. Yet
there are few farmers who will not
claim that their crops reach a
higher range of produce than this
thir,y-six bushels.
There are numbers Of farmers
who are now planting their corn in
drills, and planting their seed in
rows five feet apart, and each plant
about foot distant i'll the row.
Now, on an acre planted Ill this
way, there can be only 9,44s stalks
or plants. If the produce of corn |
is estimated at the same rate that |
we have given above, there should |
be yield of As bushels per acre.
Because there will be more plants
by nearly 300 than can be got
from three in hill set four feet
There is no doubt at all that corn
requires a great deal Of light and
air; and the problem that some
farmers have undertaken to solve,
is, whether better and sounder corn
cannot be grown in rows five feet
apart, and running north and south
so that light can strike on both
sides, than can be grown where the
corn is set in hills, and closer
This is worth trying but not in the
slip-shod way that most farmers do
their work. The ground should be
clean and we'll prepared for such
trial, for the corn can be cultivated
only one way. Hence, if the soil is
not in good order, as is the case
generally the corn set in hills or
squares, would have the advantage,
because it could be cultivated both
ways, and be kept reasonable clean
with little labor, while the drilled
corn would suffer or else would have
to be handhoed and nobody who
grows corn on large scale, cares
about doing that, when it can be
avoided as well as not. At any
rate, here is a question that was
propounded to us last winter, while
noting corn crop in rows, and
which had Yielded good average
crop, but how much our informant
could not say.-Michigom Farmeer.
A GARDENERS ADv1CE-Always
cultivate with your eyes turned to-
ward the nearest market. This
ought to be the first rule for farm
cr, for, without conveniences to sell