Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-12-16
successful Corn Rsi.lnr.

'1j1l4ak jN59
Successful Corn Raising.
Two weeks ago we published the ex-
periences of a number of farmers that
exhibited corn at the Illinois state fair.
Since that time more reports have
come in and we give them herewith:
Chas. j. Shepley, Fulton County, Illi-
nois.-The corn that exhibited at the
state fair was. raised on second year
SOD. In April, 1896, 1t was plowed and
planted to onions. They failed to come
up and the ground was planted in po-
tatoes. Later the potato bugs came in
and took possession and the result was
a failure all around. In May, 1897, we
plowed. narrowed and planted this
ground to corn Of the Mastodon varie-
ty, but We did not get stand. Then
we narrowed and planted again May "a,
using the variety known as Golden
Climax. The rows were 8 feet 10
inches apart one way, hills two feet
apart the other. Two or three grains
were put in hill. We plowed twice
with Eagle Claws. The gophers and
moles took out over 200 hills. This corn
Is cross Of four enthusiastically yell
low Rose. Knox County Premium, Lea
man, and large yellow and red corn
called Blackaly corn. There was no
thinning of this corn that I exhibited,
nor was there any extra work put on it.
w. E. Waugh, Warren County, Illi-
no1s.-Our corn we exhibited at the
state fair was cross of the Leaning
and large yellow we raise. AS to
cultivation and preparation Of ground,
l cannot say that we made any special
effort in cultivating our corn to COM
pete for the prize offered at state fair.
did not get any notice of prize Of
that kind being offered until June. 1t
was then too late to do any extra work.
Our ground was second crop from the
sod, and our acre was taken from a
thlrty-acre field. We plowed our
ground before planting, then harrow
ed, then put on the plank drag to level
and break clods; then planted with
8 foot inch planter, and used foot
. inch check wire, and regulated our
planter to drop from three to five
grains. Just before coming up we put
the harrow on again and then the
plank drag. AS soon as corn was large
enough to cultivate, we went over 1t
with riding disk cultivator both ways.
Had expected to continue cultivation
with disk cultivators. We got heavy
rain about that time that made the
ground too wet for discs. We took
the shovel cultivators and went over it
twice more with them, making four
times, twice with disc and twice with
shovel cultivators.
Ed. V. BOIL, Fulton County, Illinois.
This is how I raised $50 bushels of
corn to the acre: In April put ten
loads OF stable manure per acre on ten
acres of clover and Timothy sod mixed.
The last week of April 1 broke this
ground, blowing eight inches deep. !
rolled 1t down after the plow and then
worked it once with the rotary hoe
instead of disc harrow. 1 then harrow
ed twice with ordinary smoothing har-
row and rolled down. planted May II
and IL, checking feet inches each
way. No commercial fertilizer of any
Kind was used on this corn. AS soon
as this corn came up cultivated once
each way with the rotary hoe. I then
cultivated once each way with cult
vator with large shovels on, blowing
shallow and keeping ground as level as
possible. The gound was ordinary
white oak soil and had been in grass
Tor four years, being moved for hay
each year. The variety was the Mas
todon, large-eared yellow dent, rip
en1ng In los to ITO days. It was plant
ed three stalks to the hill. The entire
field of ten acres will make $50 bushels
to the acre.
Wheat in the South.-The Dixie Mil
Ter, Nashville, Tenn, says: Six weeks
ago indications pointed to the seed
ing OF the largest area of wheat ever
sown in the South. It is needless to
say that the drought has largely up-
set these calculations, while many
small growers will SOW little or none,
owing to the high prices of seed wheat.
Conditions have improved some during
the last week, as We have had light.
though general rains. This will only
help the situation insofar as the wheat
already sown is concerned, as wheat
soWn now can not promise good re-
turns with any degree of certainty.
With all these hindrances we believe