Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-11-10
Indian Corn Culture.

| Selectlng the top ear OF Cne double
cared stalks of corn from year to year,
says correspondent of the American
Cultivator, has given us valuable i'm
provements in the crop, yet there comes
finally an end to this progress, while at
the least neglect reversion follows. l
am becomming convinced that the ten
dency to sucker is the main cause of
reversion. There have been many
trials in the past, but the general i'm
preston pervails that removing suck
ers lessons the yield. Some recent ex-
periments Of my own convince me that
this is owing to the manner in which
the suckering has been performed.
Corn, of course, is one of the grasses,
and has the natural tendency to tiller.
a habit which needs to be broken up,
and the energies of the plant cOncen-
trated upon one stalk and its accom-
panying ears. Suckering has neither
gone far enough, nor been persisted in
long enough, to break up the tendency.
Once or twice pulling is not sufficient
to break up this tendency. In my own
| field have broken out suckers this
season at six different times, the result
of which has been somewhat to dwarf
the stalks, but the gain has been in
forcing out ears at every node. am
now convinced that if this plan be fol-
lowed up for successive seasons the
habit of suckering can be broken up,
and in place of suckers we can develop
ears. 1t has been thought necessary to
retain the suckers to afford pollen for
late ears, yet find it is suckering that
causes the late ears by diyerting the
energies of the plant from performing
their proper functions at the right
time. In such cases, the removal of
the cause cures the difficulty.
/ have had much experience in corn
culture concerning the crossing of va
rieties and their reversion. Some years
ago crossed black Mexican corn and
early Minnesota to improve the quality.
| saved the white corn from this cross,
planting it for several years to fix the
habit; but it soon reverted, so that l
could not distinguish it from the early
Minnesota. For four subsequent sea-
sons 1 have crossed black Mexican,
Early Minnesota, Campbelrs sweet
corn, Egyptian, Red River and Sto-
wells Evergreen. Until this season
there were seldom two good ears to the
stalk. account for my success this
year from the fact that during 1881 /
have kept the suckers entirely removed,
and most of the stalks have borne
two, some three, some four and some
even five years. / removed every
tassel upon those stalks which were
without an ear before the time of bios
soming. think in this experiment l
have now crossed long enough to fix
for the impression, and prevent, at
least in part, the tendency to revert,
and shall commence next season to
select and fix two varieties, one early
and one late, with two and three ears
to a stalk, believing that two and
three good ears are all stalk can sue
cessfully mature of sufficient size to
prove profitable. l have no doubt that
more ears in number can be developed,
but my observations convinces me that
three good ears of corn are of more
value than six nubbins. Before this
year have often wondered how Other
cultivators secured their FIVE and six
ears of corn to the stalk. A Yankee
guess would be that persistent sucker
ing coupled with selection, is the Sc
cret; if so it should be secret ne
longer Farmers should be freely en-
titled to the benefits of all TIE knowl
edge there is among men.