Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-07
Some Agricultural Points,

ny tne roots, at least ten per cent OF
the corn. This somewhat unusual
occurrence ought to suggest to the
farmers Of Wapello county some-
thing to prevent, If possible, this sort
Of a calamity in the future. To my
mind the time has come, or will
speedily come, when the farmers
ought to find it to their interest to
throw aside the cultivator when lay
ing by their corn. Thirty-four years
of experience and observation in
Wapello county, has satisfied this
writer that the corn should be hilled
up the last blowing. According to
the modern practice of corn cultiva-
ton, the ground is simply marked out
on the surface for planting, and then
it is cultivated both ways with the
cultivator, substantially at the same
depth each time, until, when it is laid
by, the hill is nearly on top of the
ground. The old way when we used
to raise rs to 80 bushels of corn to the
acre, was to furrow ont the ground
with shovel or small diamond pillow,
putting the grain in At good depth,
and the process Of cultivation to the
end of the season, was to throw dirt
to the hill, so that when it came to be
laid by, the corn was way down deep,
thoroughly intrenched in the ground,
while it's tentacles on the surface were
reaching out in every direction,
holding the hill firmly in its place,
thus defying the drouth, the wet and
the storm. You can go anywhere to-
day through well cultivated corn
field and pull the hill up with one
hand, thing that was impossible in
the old times when the corn was laid
by with the old fashioned shovel or
diamond plow.
It does not stand to reason that
corn growing on the surface will have
the substance; the penetration of
root; the strength Of stalk and shoot !;
the capacity to Withstand the drouth,
or the wet for that matter, and pro-
duce as consequence, the same old
fashioned crops, under the modern
level and surface cultivation, as un-
der the old system of continuous
deep blowing, and especially of deep
blowing and billing up at the last
blowing. We should not recommend
going back altogether to the pioneer
methods of corn culture. The plan
of planting after markers near the
surface and cultivating with the
double cultivators might be safely
and profitably adhered to, provided
that at the last blowing the four lit
tie cultivator plows were entirely
discarded and in their place put on
each side OF the cultivator q good
sized diamond plow, which would
cut 9 to 9 inches. Thes, plows might
be readily enough adjusted to the
cultiyator in use and they
would not only cut out and
cover up the weeds which now, to
considerable extent, escape the Guilt
vator, but they should be put in deep,
and made to hill up the corn to give
it place for its prodigiously penetra-
ting roots, and thus forhfy it against
wet and dry weather, and storms,
and generally insure the farmer
good crop for his labor. A slower
process, SO far as the hands are con-
Ger ned, but one not involving any
more horses, is to fall back on the old
fashioned single diamond pillow. In
addition to our own observation on
this subject, we have only to day con-
suited one four best Wapello county
farm ers, whose experience and OBJ
servation entirely corresponds with
what we have above written. and
who says that his corn, which has
been plowed deep, and we'll billed up
at the last blowing, promises a very
much heavier crop than that laid by
with the simple cultivator.
And now while we are aboutit, we
want to say good word for rye. A
farmer in Iowa county recently told
us that rye was his best crop, and ac-
cording to his statement 1t ought to
be voted the tired mans best friend.
He said that his rye crop never failed
that he pastnled 1t in the fall and
winter, and late into the spring, near
ly up to the time it iointed; that
when the milk was Just turning into
dough, he turned his hogs on it just
at time when they were surfeiting
on grass and clover that it was eaten
with great svidity by the hogs, and
made pork rapidly and probably,
and that finally when they had APP
parently consumed all the grain, he
broke the ground up, turning under
all the straw and manure deposited
by the stock. and that there was al
ways enough grain left to seed it, so
that directly again he was having his
fine rye pasture, and the same old
profitable process was continued from
year to year, with constant appreci-
alton of the fertility of the soil, and
with more profit and less labor than
from anything else he grew. This ex-
pertinent is worthy of trial.
! j. NJ, HEnRICE,