The Portland daily press., 1893-05-23
TILLAeE OF CORN.


Drills and Flat Cultivation Compareo
With Killing and Check Rowing.
Many OF eur progressive farmers, es
peclally In the east. favor drill planting
and, shallow culture for corn. Indeed
some OF the biggest yields on record have
been gained under this practice. In a
word, the ideal method Of tillage of corn,
as set forth by farmers whose success
entities them to be quoted as authoritie'
on the subject, is that of fiat cultivation
and shallow tillage of corn planted in
drills.
This method Of cultivation, however
makes it necessary, if weeds are to b
avoided in corn to resort to hand hoeina
and wedding with expensive labor. To
avoid this farmers of modern methods
usually plant the corn in checks 81 to A
feet apart and by various implements OF
cultivation cultivate the corn both ways,
killing it after the first narrowing OF
cultivation and slightly each succeeding
time Of cultivation in order to cover the
weeds up around the hill that the cult
vator does not eradicate between the
rows, This concentrates several stalks
OF corn at one point, and, it has been
held, will decrease the yield of corn.
The question may also be fairly raised
whether the killing Of the corn will not
30 change the temperature and moisture
OF the soil and so cut the corn roots as to
so far decrease the yield that the saving
by the process will not compensate for
the decreased product. The question is
one OF exceeding importance to the Mis-
sissippi valley and TO the corn growing
states, and while Of less Importance to
Utah experiments have nevertheless been
made and reported upon from the Utah
station at Logan.
The first trial began in 1891 and shows
that where the corn was hilled both
ways the yield was not sacrificed by
either the cutting of the roots by the
close cultivation necessary where the
corn is titled both ways or by exposure
when the surface soil is moved around
the hills. The tillage, it ought to be ex-
planned, was not deeper than ordinarily,
as but little soil was required to be moved
at each tillage. A plat that was drilled
and titled only one way, avoiding cut
ting roots but one way, gave the least
yield. So far as the opening of the moist
underground to the sun by throwing
dirt around the hill and its elevation
into a small hill. it did not affect either
the temperature of the soil or its mois-
ture in way to injure the crop.
1t Is observed Of trials conducted in
1899, 80 far as the processes of killing
are concerned, the results, when COM
pairing that hilled one way with that
hilled both ways, show a difference in
yield that favors killing one way. The
corn hilled one way as against that
drilled and titled one way Is a practical
draw. That which is untitled and titled
both ways did not do as well as that
which was titled and drilled one way,
nor as well as that which was hilled one
way. The indications are, on the whole,
that it was the tilling both ways, with
probable consequent cutting of roots,
that has made the difference rather than
the processes of killing itself. That is,
there is nothing in the figures that indi-
Gates that the process of killing, or the
destroying Of the weeds by the process
of killing, worked deleteriously to the
crop
On contrasting the results of the two
years it will be seen that the general re-
suits are not unfavorable to even the
killing both ways. If future results
should confirm those of the two years,
Director Sanborn will regard the fact as
of great Importance in corn culture be-
cause it represents very great econ
omy 1t seems to show that the killing
of corn or planting in checks will be
as successful as drilling, and that the
process OF killing in its economy will be
as successful as fat culture. M