Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1879-04-02

The largest welI-authentlcated yield

possibilities of this wonderfullyspro'
ductive grain There are those who
believe in the still higher possibility
of producing, with every circumstance
iavoring, as much, even, as 200 BUSH
els OF dry, shelled grain on a single
acre of land.
To show how such crop may APP
pear possible, at least on paper, let us
estimate, first, the number of indivld-
aal plants that can be made to grow
and produce full ears on an acre of
ground. We will take the common
eight-rowed corn of New England as
the basis of our calculation. With
rows three feet apart, there will be
1880 feet of row to the acre. BY
drill planting the single kernels being
dropped uniformly, six inches apart,
there will BEL all grow, 10 GAO plants.
AS by actual trial 225 full ears OF this
Germ will, when well dried, produce
one bushel of shelled grain, a few fig.
ures will show that an average equal
to one full ear to each stalk. will give
1913 50 bushel of shelled corn. Doub
lie this, by getting two full ears per
stock, and the crop will be PSI 10
bushels. Yet in face of these figures,
the fact remains that it is extremely
difficult, under the best methods OF
culture now in use, to get a yield OF
100 bushels to toe acre; while the av
eragc of the country is about thirty
bushels or nearly the same as the av"
erage wheat yield in England.
There is no great difficulty, with
good seed, and soil, good cultivation,
in doubling this average. There is a
goodly number Of farmers who, one
year with another, do net fall short Of
securing sixty bushels--a ton and a
half-of dry, shelled corn from every
acre planted to this crop. Occasional
crops ofsesenty or eighty bushels are
recorded every year, while 100 bushs
els are sometimes CLAIMED, but subject
to the incredulity Of most hearers, No
one, however, who has had experience
in corn culture on favorable soils, can
doubt that 100 bushel crops are occa-
sonally realized. At the same time
it is absurd to expect that the ideal
possibility of 267, 10 bushels can ev-
err be realized since this requires not
only the exact planting and perfect
termination of every plant to maturity
and its production of two full and per-
feet ears, or their equivalent in i'm
perfect ones.
Nevertheless, it is well to keep the
ideal in mind as a stimulant to excr-
ton. There can be no doubt that the
habit of producing two ears (under
ordinary close culture) can be bred
into corn plant, where it has sufficient
area to develop itself fully is to pro-
duce multiple ears. Corn widely
planted, and kept free from weeds,
"lillers" like wheat and cereals. FIT
teen or twenty ears are thus sometimes
grown from a single seed, But for
the best results in field culture, the
less of this tillecing, or suckeriug, the
better. We want to breed out that
habit of growth, and breed in the hal.
it of setting several ears on a single
stock. Dr. Sturtevant aims TO do this
by close planting and ''ro"t pruning"
that is, repeated deep cultivation with
a sharp edged implement running
close to the rows of corn plants. Iu
this way he hopes to reduce the luxu
rance of stem and leaf, Gas seen in the
plant where its full individual develops
ment is permitted aud epcourage)
md to get in its place single stock
with multiple ears. Anatomy of the
corn plant reveals the fact that the
germ OF an ear exists at every ''node"
Or joint Under the ordinary condi-
tions ofcu.ture,, ouly one, OF occa
sionally two and perhaps three, OF
hese are developed 50 as to yield
.eed. The point Of practice is to rem
Ter this occasional occurrence habit
lal one. We see it in the pop -corns;'
we aim to produce it in the common
ield varieties
Some years ago field of the long
Jared white pop corn was planted.
Manure had been drawn and piled in
ne field the previous fall, which was
spread in the spring. When the crop
was cut up, it was discovered that
where the rows of popcorn crossed
he spots on which the manure had
stood all winter, eals we're developed
l foo. long, with kernels as large as
.hese OF ordinary field corn, these ears
ooking precisely like those of the
white variety known as the SANFORD
.orn. These ears were as numerous
IN the stalk (two and three as else
and there was no very great
excess of luxuriance in the hight or
eatage of the plants. Not much sig
ll6cance was attached to this occur
'ence at the time, but the recollection
IF it now suggests the thought wheih
IF there is not instruction TO be drawn
rom it regarding this matter of de-
the habit of multiple caring.
This sudden transformation of small
ears into large ones under the stimulus
If high manunOg, with out a proper
tomato growth OF the plant itself,
Gems to suggest that multiple caring
$ promoted (other circumstances ia
-Oring) by poverty of the soil, within
certain limits. We suspect that mod
rate deficiency of nltrogenous food,
nd an abundance of potash and phOs-
,hOric acid, are the right conditions
or developing multiple garage.
If this IDEA should prove correct,
Ices it not point 10 the conclusion that,
n order to reach as nearly as possible
NAHUM yield of corn. the seed will
equire to be grown upon a different
oil from the crop? In growing seed,