The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-01-19

the acre on his upland which Is very
thin. Another, Mr.. F. E. Mckenzie,
who is by far the best farmer in our
county-we Greenville people think he
will compare favorably as farmer with
the Joneses and Dicksons of Georgia
never makes less than 25 bushels to the
acre on his upland, and so bushels on his
bottoms. He also makes bale of cotton
to every acre he plants in cotton.
These three farmers 1 have just now
mentioned have their uplands all ter
raced and sub soiled, and plant in rows
seven feet wide, three feet in the drill,
one stalk in hill, with large handful
of compost to each hill. They say there
is money in corn. Now, gentlemen, [
have told you Of some experiments made
by some of Greenville's best farmers. l
will now give you my largest experiment
with corn on upland. A few years ago
it fell to my lot to plant, as my individ-
ual crop, seventy acres of very red
upland in corn. This land had been in
oats, consequently it had small stubb!e
on it. In January I began to bed it up
with a half shovel plow, making my rows
six feet wide. / finished bedding it
about the last of February. April 10, l
commenced 10 plant it, finishing about
the Goth. I planted in the water furrow,
after making fresh furrow with bull
tongue plough, dropped the corn three
and half feet apart in the drill, putting
a handful of compost to the hill near the
corn. I covered the corn with two good
furrows, with the half shovel that made
the beds with. -Four days afterwards |
knocked The corn off with two boards, a
mule pulling the boards knocking off two
rows at each trip. The work was done
efectually, as all the young grass was
demolished and the plants Immediately
made their appearance with no skips.
Every grain that was planted seemed to
have come up. AS soon as I could see
the corn from one end of the row to the
other I ran around it with small but
strong bull tongue plough, after which I
finished plowipg out the middles with a
small shovel plow, by first going over the
entire seventy acres with two burrows.
When over I came back and put two
more burrows, after which there was
small ridge left in the middle, which I
finished nicely With one furrow. 1t had
rained before l finished ploughing the
corn, consequently this mode of culture
kept the crust we'll broken and was equal
to two separate workings and ever since
have adopted that plan of cultivasipg
corn. ploughed that corn twice more
with solid sweeps the second working,
putting four furrows and the third only
three. | tried to keep the ground level
as / could and to disturb none of the
corn roots. I hoed that corn only once
and gathered 400 bushels of corn, 5000
bundles of fodder and fourteen loads of
shucks, which at that season of the year
was worth $l,O13.25. 1t cost me to plaut,
manure, cultivate and gather that corn
crop 1858 20, which left me balance of
S75OO5, which was s1O.71 per acres,
making the corn cost per bushel 10 cents.
Now, gentlemen, that seventy acres has
been repeatedly planted in cotton, both
since and before, and it has never realiz-
ed me 5000 per acre. found out to
my satisfaction that there was for me
little more money in corn than in cotton.
So I have since paid more attention to
the corn crop. 1 haro found it to be
very shallow rooted plant, and conse-
quently ought to be worked very shallow
both on bottoms and upland. Do your
deep ploughipg in fall when both man
and mule can do it with more ease. I
have found from experiments with corn
on creek bottoms that to secure good
stand, sosk your corn fifteen hours in
kerosene oil snd plant the last of March,
in rows six feet wide and in the drill
according to the richness of your land,
on average bottom land about two feet in
the drill.
Gentlemen, right here let me say that
bottom land is capital place for you TO
put manure no matter what kind, or how
much, for there the land has moisture,
and l always have believed to make a
crop on any kind of land, water was just
as essential as manure, and if had to do
without either I would do without
the manure. Now, don't forget to give
corn distance so as to let the light and
air into its roots. Some farmers will say
to plant bottom land in six feet rows,
and two feet in the drill, would be abso-
lutely absurd. Now, gentlemen, let us
see where the absurdity comes in. One
would have at that distance on an acre
of bottom just thirty. five rows, and in
every row he would have los stalks,
which oughtto produce 1O5 ears; if so, he
will have on an acre 35 times los, which
is 3,675 stalks or ears every one hum
dred ears will make good bushel of
corn, which would be 3Gi bushels of
corn. So you see at this distance, with
only one ear to the stalk, what there will
be, but put little manure and you will
see two good ears on every stalk, which
will be 734 bushels per acre. l have a
few acres planted this year the above
way and I expect to make seventy-6ve
bushels to the acre.
1 hear great complaint everywhere OF
the damage done corn by the worms.
The only safe remedy against bud worms
is to make your bottoms too dry for them,
by ditching, and also be sure to keep all
the ditch banks we'll cleaned. One i'm
portant thing we greatly neglect, is the
ottont;on ,ve nav to the seed Wa Dlant