The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-23
WEDNESDAY, October q, 1883.
Prize Acre Corn in Oconee.

WcUHESUGt, uGtuusi 90, iuuo'
Prize Acre Corn in Oconee.
Having gathered our prize acre OF
corn, We beg leave to present our ex,
pertinent, the cause Of success and
failure, comments and deductions, Tor
the readers Of the Courier, in behalf
of all concerned in the farmers move
ment of progressive tiliage, etc. We
have gathered and measured careful.
ly one hundred and five bushels and
twenty-three pounds, struck measure.
Though the acre has been estimated
from forty bushels to over two hum
dred by different parties, and though
we have fallen far short OF our own
expectation, It is quite refreshing to
realize the fact that we have more
good merchantable corn from one
acre than we made on our whole farm
in either of the two last years, having
been submerged by the foods of 1887
and 1888. The cultivation was al
most faultless. The want of ma
chine to drop the corn and q good
hand to lay off the rows was the only
irregular procedure that observation
could detect. While We did not
make two hundred bushels on an ap-
proximate, we Will make the follow
ing statements, viz: Having manur-
ed very highly, 10000 pounds Of
compost of cotton seed and stable
manure and land plaster, and 5000
pounds of gusno,) the land having
been deeply plowed: the spring cold
and dry, the crop did not start off
well until the last of May. The
ground was thoroughly wet. Two
heavy rains from this time until the
last of June, impeded its growth. At
this particular juncture, when shoot
ing" silking, and tassehng, the wealth
er was dry until the Oath Of July.
During this time we experimental a
little with spraying, and on Tuesday,
22d July, we turned on a branch, but
on Thursday (two days later) the rain
came, and our irrigation amounted to
nothing, but an injury, as the land
where the stream ran was made too
wet, causing the corn to fall down.
This is the objection to irrigation by
turning on a running stream. The
ground gets too wet before it will get
over the. entire land. Spraying is
more Ike natural rain and far prefer
able, as the operation can better be
controlled. During this drought, ten
miles below in Anderson county, the
farmers were having too much rain
and partial showers were frequent,
which, together with a press of other
work, deferred us from resorting to
irrigation, thinking every day it
would rain. But if I had commenced
irrigation in the outset of the drought,
and kept it up, I believe firing could
have been prevented. One other
canse of failure was taking in a poor
sand bank for the purpose of testing
the power of highly manuring such
land, as compared with rich land, and
because it was not exposed to over
-fow.0 0stsss sand We got a good
stalk, but no corn very little hittsstig>ss sleast.
Two or three severe winds prostrated-
and split up the blades, preventing
filing. We think the wind destroyed
twenty-five bushels, taking in the
sandbank twenty-five, and the drought
twenty five or fifty, would have given
a yield of two hundred bushels or its
approximate. As it is we would have
made more if there had been less
corn on the land, and, perhaps, we
would have made,a better yield had
our rows been five feet instead of two
and one-half, and thicker in the drill,
and had given che corn more sun
light Corn planted on the new
moon grows taller, giving more foliage
and less grain. Hence our high corn,
some ears being nearly ten feet from
the ground. Il is not popular idea
to give the. moon such an influence,
but. neap tides are formed by the
moon being in conjunction with the
sun. So We. have faith enough in the
moon to insist on planting corr on
the moon. This would have increas-
ed our yield.-Keoaoee Courier.