Morris tribune., 1892-05-04
Planting Corn.

EDITOR lRIBUNE:--AS the Ulln6 u
: plant corn is near, little corn tall
will not be out of place.
l When is the best time to plant corn
I think it should be planted as sool
| as the ground is in good condition, O
) any time from the first to the fifteenth
of May. / would rather run the risl
} of frost after planting in the spring
: than to risk the early frost that We
sometimes have in the fall, before the
corn has ripened.
How to plant corn is subject upon
which much has been said. There is
a difference of opinion and always will
be. 1t is every mans privilege to plant
corn his way and enjoy his own opin-
ion in regard to planting corn, yet
believe there is no man so perfect that
there is no chance for improvement.
l believe man was made to progress
continually. When l was boy | was
given pail of corn with handful of
pumpkin seeds mixed in, and [ was
to drop just five kernels in hill, and
| must place them about four inches
apart, and many times have l been
called back to pick up the sixth or
drop the fifth kernel. In those days
corn was all covered with the hoe and
every hill after being covered must
be stamped with the hoe. This method
of pressing the ground with the hoe
is not so laughable as the manner of
dropping, because in dry season the
ground will hold moisture much bet
ter if pressed down. In those days
corn after being cultivated was hoed
by hand, weeds all pulled out of the
hills and dirt piled up around the
corn to prevent it from blowing down.
By the above method of planting
and cultivating from 25 to 40 bushels
of shelled corn were raised from one
acre of ground.
There has been great improvement
made in the method of planting and
cultivating corn. Instead of the old
method of planting by the hand we
have the two-horse check row planter,
and in place of the old hand hoe we
have the two-horse wheel cultivator,
and by the present methods it is pos
sible to raise 125 and $50 bushels per
acre. This amount is not the average,
but it is the amount that has been !
raised, and what has been done once
can be done again in corn raising.
Stevens county is not considered as
good a country for corn as it is for
wheat, yet believe the soil in Stevens
county, if properly MANFRED and cul-
tivated, is capable of producing 100
bushels per acre.
I will leave it to the judgment of
any good prosperous farmer to say
it is not better to highly ma
nure and thoroughly cultivate one
acre of land and raise 100 bushels of
corn, than it is to spend more time on
two acres without manure and raise
so or so bushels of inferior corn.
Any man who will be to the trouble
to plant one acre of corn, one-haf of
which shall be heavily MANFRED, and
the other half have no manure, at
harvest time he will find the MANFRED
half will have double the amount of
corn, of a better grade, and it will |
ripen about two weeks earlier than the
half without manure. More manure,
less acres and better cultivation will |
make great improvement and be a
great benefit to the corn growers Of
Stevens county.
There is one more improvement that
can be made. The old Yankee method
Of planting five kernels in hill may
be all right for the Yankee or Flint
corn, but with the Dent corn it is quite
different; two stalks is the right num-
Der for each hill; never allow more
than three to grow, and would rather
have only one than to have four stalks
in each hill l.
I have the best success raising corn
on land that has first been well ma
nured, plowed deep, dragged until
thoroughly pulverized, marked 81 feet
each way, set the planter so it will not
drop more than three kernels, and give
thorough cultivation; and am fully
convinced that it will pay any man
that raises corn to go through his
field with the hoe when the corn is six
inches high and hoe the weeds out
around the hill. This accords with
my theory of one acre we'll cultivated
and good crop, instead of two acres
poorly cultivated and poor crop.
S. B. SMITH.