The Opelousas courier., 1895-05-11
FARMER AND PLANTER
CULTIVATION OF CORN
I.v farmer Gives His Brethre,

CULTIVATION OF CORN.
Farmer Gives His Rrethr.,
n, is ioeas on the Subject.
nrst thing that should be cons;d.
eleo IN raising crop of corp is. whath.
CT Or not the soil to be used conta;ns
she necessary fertility to produce .
paying crop. If it does not. II ;s va,r
certain that the cultivation Of it xv;th'
oot hrst applying some kind Of fart;l.
aner VIII result in a loss. We can NOT
se' something out of nothing. and
"nile every farmer will readily admit
~ ruin OF this yet many plant corn
on that in a good a will ~
pioouce enough to pay TWENTY-FIVE
cents a day for the time it takes 10 o,1-
.iVate It, and as hard times are now ~,
FARMER would think of work;nr fo. -
quarter per day and board himself
ever though he knew the money would
DC paid promptly at shutdown.
with the question of sufficient for,
Unity decided favorably, the next
thlng is to break the land as ear1v in
the fall Us possible, the depth Of
%l,; NC governed by the
thickness OF the soil; thin soil shallow
ano thick soil deep. My eason for
prSerrlng fall blowing is that | think
me sou retains moisture longer, when
subjected to dry weather. Dronobts
liaDe oeen SO severe and of such fre
qoent occurrence in the past that
every available e should be
aaopted that will in any degree avert
the damage incurred by them. The
next thing to be done is to pre.
pare the land for PLANTING.
which l think is best done hv
laying off rows three feet ten inches
apart with two horses to one-borse
plow running as deep as it will plow
we'll, and then crossing them with
rows OF the same width. but shallow.
Ihls leaves considerable depth of loose
art In the cross where three or four
grains of well matured, sound corr
should be dropped and covered by run-
ming a harrow over the ground. The
seed being in the ground, the next
thing is to cultivate the soil in such 2
manner that when the crop is laid by
corn roots will have full possession of
1t from bottom to top. The mode of
cultivation that will best result
IN this condition, varies some
what with the season. Before the
corn comes up a good, deep furrow
should be run midway between each
row and followed by an A harrow with
the front tooth running directly in the
row. These burrows, besides forming
good drainage allow the air to circu.
late mor freely through the soil,
which prevents it from getting too
hard for the tender corn sprouts to get
through. After corn is we'll up it
should have a turning plow run a good
depth on each side, and as near the
row as possible, throwing the dirt to
the middle, which leaves ridges
where the burrows were left by
the first blowing. This leaves
the young corn growing in a
narrow strip of land that
can not be easily flooded by heavy
rains, but can be easily penetrated by
the faint rays of an early spring sur.
This III the roots of the corr to
grow downward while it is young, and
prevents them from being torn of by
the plow in after cultivation.
After this. if weather continues cool
and wet, corn should be narrowed and
plowed in the same name across the
other way. By the time another plow-
ing is needed corn should have attained
considerable size, and begins now to
need more soil near the row, consequent
ly the middle that has been prepared
and kept in reservation should be
thrown toward the row. This can be
accomplished best by running a turn
ing pillow about six inches from the
row on each side and splitting the mid
die with a double-shovel. Roots will
then put out from the corn stalks as
as near the surface as the moisture of
the season will admit. All that is
necessary after this is shallow or sur
face cultivation. If the top of the
ground is kept free of grass and weeds
the roots of the corn will do the rest,
and on a good limestone soil will pro-
duce eight to ten barrels of corn per
acre in the most unfavorable season
we ever have in Kentucky.-Cor. Farm
ers' Home journal.