The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-02-19
CORN CULTURE IN THE SOUTH.

The first principles of successful corn
culture are contained in two lines:
"Plow Deep then often, while sluggards sleep;
And you shall have corn to sell and keep"
1t is unfortunate that these important
principles are not more appreciated in
the South. Our farmers do not generally
realize sufficiently the great Importance
of this corp; with them everything is
subjected to cotton, and while, as a rule,
they give assent to the assertion that a
plentiful supply of corn is essential to the
prosperity of a farmer, they, with few
exceptions, take.no pains to study the ma
ture of the staple, nor to investigate and
understand the conditions necessary to
the production of good crops.
They drift on, year after year, in the
narrow grooves and primitive customs of
their forefathers plant large areas, with
out any attempt at improving, or even
maintaining the fertility of the soil su-
perfcially scratch the surface ultimate
ly gathering II or Is bushels per acre,
and then say "that it does not pay to
raise corn" Under such q prevalent
system this assertion can not be denied
but when the staple receives the thor
ough attention that it deserves, its cul-
ture does pay handsomely.
Corn is the most useful crop grown in
the United States and throughout the
North and West where its capabilities
are known, it is considered most impor-
tant and profitable crop. In the South
eastern States it is the most abused and
neglected, and our farmers rest quite sat
isfed with yields of one-third of what
their lands would produce if well culti-
vated.
The average yield of the United States
is about Isl bushels per acre that of the
New England and middle States, about
35 bushels, and that of the States of
Maine Vermont and New Hamshire,
about 40 bushels. The large average Of
the last named States is the result only
ofdiligent and intelligent cultivation, as
their soil is naturally the poorest aud
most rocky east of Rocky mountains.
The seven Southeastern States, from
North Carolina to Louisiana inclusive,
produce the smallest average yield of all
the different sections of the country-on-
ly about - or 13 bushels per acre al
though the natural fertility Of their soil
is superior to that of Maine, Vermont,
or New Hampshire, and equal to that of
any other section east of the Mississippi.
This very small average is the result only
of want of cultivation, added to the abuse
that their soils have for generations re-
ceived at the hands of those who profess
and call themselves farmers.
That very large yields can be made in
the South, has been repeatedly demon
strated, most conspiciously by Mr.. j. w.
Parker, of Columbia, South Carolina,
who there made an average of 147 BUSH
els per acre, on two acres, and in the fol.
lowing season gathered 2O0b bushels off
one acre. Wide report of Department
of Agriculture for 1870, page 1867 With
an amount of attention bestowed upon
this important cereal equal to that it re-
ceives at the North, the average yield Of
our section can, within few years, be
increased to three times rs much as it is
at present.
The three conditions essential to the
production of good corn crop, are good
seed, land we'll supplied with vegetable
matter, and thorough tillage. Pure seed
is of the very first Importance good
Weld can not be obtained withoutit. The
rule that "like produces like" is as in
variable in corn culture as in stock breed
ing; and the thoughtful, intelligent
farmer will be as careful in the selection
ofthe corn he plants as he is in that of
the males and females from which he
ro;sos his farm stock. The selection of
seed should be made in the following
manner:
A piece of land, of sufficient extent to
Weld seed enough for the succeeding
years planting, should be well manured,
deeply and very thoroughly plowed, and
carefully planted with the best seed Oh,
tainable. When this patch is in tassel
during June, it should be carefully
watched, and from every stalk that does
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