St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-08-03
FARMER AND PLANTER.
70 GROW CORN.


It May ~ De.s Successfully. Rain o. No
Rain.
have never known a seed that
would sprout or terminate without
some moisture; in fact, the moisture Is
all that is needed to sprout seeds
Seeds will sprout and come to the sur
face without drawing anything from
the soil but moisture and heat; then
they need something else: a new proc
ess takes place. and the new plant then
draws from the soil and atmosphere.
But after corn is well up. it can be cul-
tivated with very little or no rain-ac-
cording to the nature of the sell and
then yield surprisingly. You at once
ask how it is done.
Well, it is very simple. yet it il done
upon scientific principles. Nature
makes the corn, but you must under
stand her doings, and give her the
necessary material with which to
work. The material consists of hard
bottom and plenty Of loose soil. In
vestigation has proven to me that
certain amount Of moisture rises
through the earth every night. Now
when the land is broken and planted,
the moisture can not rise any higher
than to the depth to which the
ground is broken, hence. to begin
with, we must LAY off" the ground to
be planted to corn very deep with
turning pillow, and drop the corn down
on the hard ground. Cover as deep as
you please, not to exceed six inches
Do not pillow your corn until it is six
inches high, unless it becomes very
foul; then pillow as deep as the ground
was broken, no deeper.
The other plowings should be fire.
quent and shallow, in order to keep the
surface loose and free from weeds
Mr.. Wellborn is right. SO far as corn is
concerned, at least, when lie says roots
will not catch in loose, fresh broken
earth.
So you see what roots your corn does
have are down in the ground where the
moisture will reach them, and you have
no roots near the surface to be withered
by the scorching rays of King Sol.
thereby injuring the maturity OF your
corn.
Do not be afraid Of blowing, no mat
ter if the dust covers you, SO you do
not plow too deep. The more you pillow
the more open and loose the top soil
will be, and the looser the soil the more
moisture 1t will absorb from the at.
mosphere.
Keep weeds and grass down at all
events. 1t is surprising how much one
weed in or near hill of corn will i'm.
pede the maturity Of the corn. More
especially is this the case in time OF
drouKhts, when your crop needs all the
plant-growing elements it can get.
For the same reason that this method
makes corn in dry weather it will also
make it in wet weather; because the
roots of the corn are down on the hard
ground where these pores carry of the
surplus Of water from about the root.
no roots will appear except near thu
hard ground, when corn is treated IL
this manner.
Do not pillow your land too wet; bet
ter not pillow at all than pillow too we
and then let the hot sun pour dowl
upon it.
In 1890, ! cultivated four acres of q
| fifty-acre field TALL in corn, and made
more corn than the other forty-si,
acres made. This may seem unreason
able to some, but l am responsible TO
what say. and should only be glad t
produce any amount of evidence neces
sary. My four-acre patch" was tn
wonder of the season. The othe
forty six acres were pulverized AM
the corn was planted near the surface
on a fine, loose bed. Result very plail
to a thinking man. The season wa
very dry and this corn burnt up" il
the hill. Again, the same thing wa
tried with like results. never fail :
make corn if it comes up and gets fair
~ started to growing before the groun
gets dry. Many make the mistake Q
blowing corn too young. If the weed
grow faster than the corn use tn
hand hoe-pretty tedious but it save
money.-Southern Farm.