The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-03-13
THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.
South Carolina Makes the Biggest Corn
Crop Ever Grown on One Acre.
From the American Agriculturi.t.

South Carolina Makes the Biggest Corr
Crop Ever Grown on One Acre.
From the american Agriculturist.
The acre entered by Mr.. q. ]. Drake
was sandy soil in Marlboro County
South Carolina. The original growth
was oak, hickory and long leaf pine
Three years ago, before the land wa:
improved, eight dollars per acre was 6
fair valuation, while, thirty years ago
the plantation of which this acre is ar
average specimen was called by its owner
'Starvation's Empire" II had a gentle
slope, with northern exposure, end wa:
naturally we'll drained. The acre was s
fair specimen of much of the poor LAND
in the South, and its improvement auc
productiveness affords an instructive
lesson. As late as 1885, when it was ir
corn, it made poor crop-practically
nothing. In 1886 the acre yielded about
300 pounds of seed cotton, two dollars
worth of ammoniated fertilizer being
used in the way common to ordinary
cotton culture. The fertility Vas sc
reduced that in 1887 the yield of corn was
not over FIVE bushels per acre. But nov
MIR. Drake undertook to improve it. To
provide the vegetable matter or humus
80 much needed, the land was literally
covered with rakings of leaves, straw,
etc, from the neighboring woods. On
top of this, rs horss.loads of stable man.
ure were evenly spread broadcast; also,
rs bushels of cotton seed, 500 pounds Of
Wilcox, Gibbs & Co.'S manipulated guano,
250 pounds of cotton seed meal and ESQ
pounds of kainit. The heavy dressing
was all ploughed under with Starke's
Dixie turning plough. II was laid offin
rows with the same plough, two furrows
to the row, four feet apart; 100 polnds
of guano we're applied in the furrows,
and then each pair of furrows were
thrown into ridge with the same plough.
The Peterkin cotton was plantad with a
Leytch cotton planter, and made : the
great crop Of 917 pounds oflint cotton
on the acre, showing concfusively the
result of the improvement.
PREPARING FOR THE BIGGEST CROP ON
RECORD.
Mr. Drake decided that this acre was
the one for him to enter in the corn con.
test, and be determined to make the
biggest crop on record, season permit
ting. The last of February, therefore,
he hauled upon the contest acre so one
horse wagon-loads of stable manure,
averaging 20 bushels to the load, or
1000 bushels of mapure in all, worth
$50, to which should be added 81 for
hauling and spreading. This was the
droppings of horses and mules fed on
corn and fodder and was not moved until
hauled to the acre. At the same time
500 pounds each of manipulated guano,
cotton seed meal and kainit were also
broadcasted, and the whole was then
ploughed under Following the plough
whole cotton seed was literally strewed
in each fufrow, 600 bushels being applied
to the acre. A subaoil plough came
after, breaking the soil to total depth
of IL inches and also burying the whole
cotton seed deeper than the other man.
ure. Thus the decaying seed would back
up the crop later in the season, when its
roots had penetrated below the first layer
of manure. One horse and a man did
the ploughiDg, and also the subsoiliug
both jobs being completed in one day,
(March l, at total expense of two
dollars. The acre was narrowed on the
same day with Thomas smoothing
harrow, one man and two horses doing
the work in about one hour. The next
day, March 2, the acre was laid of, with
the 5tarke plough, in two furrows to the
row, followed by the subsoil plough in
each row. The rows were alternately
three and six feet apsrt-that is, there
were six feet between two rows, then
three feet, then six feet, and so on.
THE VARIETY AND CULTURE.
The seed planted WAS one bushel OF
the common gourd variety of the South.
crn white Dent corn, but it was strain
that had been improved by twenty years
of careful selection from the best of corn
grown on this plantation. The planting
was done in half day by four hands, on
March 2, the weather being warm aud
the land moist. Five or six kernels were
dropped to each foot of the row. The
latter we're FIVE inches deep, but the seed
WAS only covered lightly an inch deep by
raking in the sides ofthe furrow. Rain,
the next day, washed in more soil, and
covered the seed rather deeply. There
were good rains March 10 and Is, the
plants began to show on the 18th, and
by the 25th there was tolerably good
stand. On April 8 the crop WAS hoed
for the first time, thinned 10 one stock
every five or six inches, and the few
missing places replanted. On the 20th
the wide spaces (six feet) between the
alternate rows were ploughed out with
the subsoil plough. Then mixture
composed of two hundred pounds each O.
manipulated guapo, kainit, cotton seec
meal, acid phosphate and animal bone
was evenly applied by sowing in each
furrow (thus con6ning this application
of plant food to the wide spaces aftel
which the whole acre was gone over witt
"a Thomas harrow. There was. rain OF
the oath, and two days later the croI
was again narrowed with the Thomas
harrow. Now, on May If, the DarroV
or three.fuot rows were ploughed ou
with the aubsoiler, ard 800 pounds O