The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-07-07
The Culture of Corn.

not yet nearly r0dCIlSu I'D POooioA
ties. The average yield throughout
the country is about thirty bushels
per acre in a good year. When the
season is unfaVorable this yield is re-
duced to twenty-five bushels per
acre or less. In 1880 there were g.
36S, ,604 acres under this crop, and the
aggregate product was l,754,59l $50
bushels, or an average of a fraction
more than twenty eight bushels, per
acre. At an average of thirty cents
per bushel, or a little more, the addi'
tional value of the aggregate product
would be S20.0O0,O00 for each addi-
tionaI bushel per acre. But it is quite
possible to double the average pro-
duct of this CROP by better culture
than Il now givengto TO IL. and the ex-
ira income thus gained would pay
the taxes of every farm in the coun-
try, amounting in the whole to $780,
000, 900 in the year with an ordinary
product. 1t is thus readily seen
what an important question is the
one now under consideration not only
to the farmers personally, but to the
general public interests. The bulk
of the corn grown is simply put in
the ground and no careful cultivati IN
is given to it. The principle purpose
{c fo nnt tho 10 ruoSt ooroaOp OcCihln
without consideration for the amount
of yield per acre. The crop is laid by
as early as may be, and is then left
to struggle with the rampant weeds
which soon get an even race with it
on the rich warm soil. The crop of
of the great corn-producing States is
generally grown in this manner, and
it is there that the average is reduced
so much. The States of New Hamn-
shire and Massachusetts surpass Hi
nOis, Indiana and Kansas in the av-
erage yield, and very closely ap-
proach that OF Iowa, where drainage
and the most skillful methods of cul-
ture are rapidly pushing that rich
State to the very head of all. But
yet Iowa with its unsurpassed soil
and climate and the energy an skill
of its farmers, only produces forty
one bushels to the acre in a good
year, as in 1880, which was the last
census year. New York, Pennsylya-
MIA and Ohio fall very little below
Illinois in the yield of this crop, and
yet in these States there are hum
drels of farmers who produce in fair
seasons seventy five to eighty bushels
per acre.
This is not strange, because it is
easier to grow a crop of this amount
upon the poorer soils of the East than
it is to produce an equal yield upon
the rich prairie soils of the West,
where the land is actually too fertile
to produce the maximum yield of
grain, and upon which the excess of
fertility in the soil is expended upon
stalk and leaf rather than upon the
ear, And this popularity of corn is
all in favor of the farmer whose soil
has been under long cultivation, and
which is more amenable 10 the infiu-
ences of skillful culture. For, in the
first place, the condition of the ground
may be made to suit the crop precise
ly, and the requirements of the Plant
met in the best manner by the exact
ly needed manuring or fertilizing, so
that the whole strength of the plant
may be directed to the ear rather than
to an enormous growth of stalk and
leaf In the second place, the seed
may be chosen in regard to the capa-
bility of the soil and climate, and
thirdly, but not last, the plant may
be 50 trained or bred as to become in
the greatest degree prolific and pro-
ductiye. All these points are very
important, as may be easily shown.
Corn is now better understood, and
its habits of growth better known
than they have been heretofore. This
has been learned Ivy good deal of
experimenting and observation, and
the knowledge is of the greatest value
to the farmer. 1t is now known that
a soil or manure rich in nitrogen is
detrimental to the yield, inasmuch
as it develops the stalk and foliage
+ too much. 1t is with corn as it is
/ with fruit tree, which in a rich soil
produces wood and leaf abundantly,
but very sparely of fruit. With nj
trogenOus manuring, or in soil over.
rich in nitrogen, corn produces large
stalks, mainly suckers. wealth OF
foliage, and one ear, and it is this
richness of the virgin soils of the west
which prevents the corn there grown
from bearing so abundantly of grain,
whileit produces much heavier stalks
and leaves than the corn of the East
At the same time the trained soils, SO
to speak, of the East, have proved
hns oh - IL