The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-18
Growing Both Corn and Potatoes.

1t must have been by comparison Of the
effects of continuous cropping that pota-
toes have won their hard name in potato
growing localities as ar exhaustive crop,
says the American Cultivator. They re
guire deep, rich soil, or rather one that
has considerable vegetabl matter, but
mainly because. such a soil holds moisture
better than does one that is shallow and
compact, But as for taking from this
soil much of its plant food the potato
does not and cannot do it. Eighty per
cent of its bulk is water, and the larger
part of it's solid substance is starch
taken through its leaves from the car
bOnic-acid gas in all air. This starch can
not be taken from the vegetable matter in
the SOIL and the only way the potato
crop exhausts it is by leaving the sur
face naked during winter and exposed to
winds, rains and sun at all seasons. A
corn crop does the same, though as the
potato in digging requires an extra loosen
ing of the soil, it develops more nitrogen
and loses more by washing than does the
soil after corn crop. The main differ
ence in the eXhausJiveness of the two
crops is that something of the grain and
all the corn stocks are fed on the farm
where grown, and go into the manure pile.
The potato returns scarcely anything
It's vines are green and watery. When
their dried substance is found after they
have rotted down it is small in amount
and not very rich at that.
1t is sign of good farming when the
area devoted to-hoed crops has as much
corn as it has of potatoes. If the two
crops were sold the potatoes might bring
most money, and if farmer can do no
better with corn than to sell it he had
better devote his land to the crop that
pays the most money. But we hold that
a farmer who is a skilful breeder or a
good buyer and feeder OF stock can make
more out of his corn crop on his own farm
than he could do by selling it. He may
probably purchase other kinds of feed,
but corn with its stalks are too bulky to
carry any great distance. If the grain
itself is bought. the expense of drawing
it TO the farm from the railroad station
makes it more expensive than it would
be to grow on the farm where needed.
The corn stalks, unless grown at home,
cannot be got at all. Many eastern farm
ers who have relied on buying corn for
their stock rather than growing it have
found that bad roads or distance from
railroad stations made it more expensive
than they had expected.
The farmer who grows potatoes exclu-
sively is apt to neglect his stock. He has
comparatively little feed except what he
buys, and as rule his potato money goes
for other expenses and for fertilizers,
which the keeping of more stock would
enable him to save. He, therefore, keeps
so little stock that it does not seem to be
worth while TO make speciality of it.
Yet the stock speciality is in the long run
a safer speciality than any other. 1t is
speciality based on the corn crop, the
great grain staple of this country, in
which its supremacy is never likely to be
SuDerSeded The corn growing farmer
who takes the greatest care to keep only
good stock, will find that his corn crop
pays him better than potatoes do. 1t
makes profitable work in winter, while
the exclusive potato grower crowds all
the work of the year into few weeks of
planting. cultivating and harvesting, and
must use up through the remaining
months what he has regarded as profits
from growing potatoes.