Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-07-22
COrn-Raising.

Corn is, by common consent, the most
valuable grain raised on this continent
| and, probably, in the world; and corn
growing in the West is part of every
farmers business. A Western farmers
specially may be wheat, or tobacco, or
cattle, or wool, or pork, IT broom-corn, or
| castor beans, or fruit; but whatever it is,
raising crop OF corn is an indispensable
appendage to it. He must have corn for
his own use, if not % sell. 1t is the cheap
est of all stock feed, and its convertbility
into SO many useful forms increases its
homely value. 1t can be turned into
cattle, horses, mules, hogs, poultry and
spirits; and it is considered the most east
~ raised of all crops-one breaking up,
one planting and four plowings being the
regulation allowance of work for an aver
age corn crop.
And yet it may be questioned whether
Western farmers really understand corn
growing. This is an audacious statement,
we know, and the Missouri Granger who
has been raising the grain off and on for
forty years viii. when he reads it, wonder
where these city newspapers have learned
more about his business than he knows.
If there is one thing every old farmer
tlatters himself he knows ali about it is
how 10 raise corn; and to have his knowl-
edge questioned at this time of life is
enough TO cause his honest face to flush
with anger. But let Us 90 to the record
and sea what the facts are The amount
of corn raised in this country Is enormous /;
iii 1870 it was 16l ,0O0. 900 bushels, and
five years before, in 1868, ii was estimated
at 932 900 900 bushels-an average of over
20 bushels To every soul IN the land. or
this Illinois produced the largest portion,
1870 900, 900 bushels; Iowa came next with
90 900 900 bushels, and Missouri next to
Iowa with 6G. 10000 bushels. These
figures show how important the crop is
how easily it Is raised and what immense
quantities OF it are consumed. But statis-
ties carefully collected by the Department
OF Agriculture at Washington, from the
year 1868 to the year 1878. force the conyic-
ton that the average yield per acre, COM
pared with the maximum yields secured
| by careful Cutivators, Is very loW-not
more than one(ourth What it might be. In
Maryland the average l. % bushels peracre
in Virginia il is - bushels; in Pennsylva-
MIA it is 81 bushels in Ohioit Is - bushels,
and for the United States the average Is
- bushels The very highest average for
any one State is 80 bushels, for Kansas.
How insufficient these averages are may
he Judged when il l. stated that there are
humorous well-atteSted cases in which
Yields of 20 TO 40 bushels, and even more,
of shelled corn have been obtained from
one acre of ground. In 1878 the Carroll
County (Md.) Agricultural. Society offered
premium of 800 for the largest amount
of corn raised on an acre, and it was taken
hv Mr.. j Brown, OF Baltimore County,
who produced 1909 bushels of shelled
grain and $3.50 pounds of good fodder ON
the limited area. The ground was a tim
othy meadow. broken deep, SUBSIDIZED and
lightly spread with stable manure; it was
then treated TO an application Of 500
mounds of bone.dust sown broadcast, and
aNerward narrowed and rolled. Ii was
marked off in burrows three sad halt feet
apart and compost of hog manure, salt
and gypsum >prinkled in the burrows the
grain Was planted six inches apart on the
/ 10Th cf MAY After coming up il waS
carefully narrowed several times and after