The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-02-27
FARMER AND PLANTER.
CORN IN The SOUTH.
The General Average of Yield IL Far BE.
low What it Should Be.

Ane Oenersl average or Yield II Far BE.
low What it Should Be.
"A few years ago, in Marlboro coun-
ty. s. c., farmer grew over ESQ BUSH
els of corn on an acre of land. And
yet th- average yield of corn in the
Carolinas is not over eight bushels per
acre. Now, it must be admitted that
where the first is possible, the general
average is FAR lower than it should be
with any proper system of farming.
The low average yield of corn is the
result of the one-crop system of cot
ton culture, in which no rotation of
crops was practiced. and corn was not
grown to any extent, the cotton grow
ers preferring to buy western corn out
OF the proceeds of the cotton crop,
wrongly imagining that they could
buy more cheaply than they
could grow it. This was proba-
bly, true in the impoverished
state of the land devoted to constant
clean culture in cotton. Tut with the
fall in price of cotton the nece ssity for
growing food crops, which the cotton
would no longer pay for, was forced
on the southern farmer.
More attention is being paid to the
corn crop, and there is general de-
sire to improve the production. One
OF the chief reasons for the lack of pro-
ductiveness in corn in the south is the
lack Of systematic effort to improve the
seed planted, by careful selection in
the field, from the most productive
stalks. Corn must be improved for
cultivation in the latitude where it is
to be grown. The sending north or
south is not the way, for either must
be acclimated to the locality to do its
best. The number of stalks in our
corn fields entirely barren of ears is
astonishing to one accustomed to good
corn growing, and these barren stalks
all bear tassels and pollen to aid in
perpetuating their kind. In q field
where seed corn is to be saved no stalk
withoutan ear should be allowed to
mature tassel, and the seed should
be selected from those stalks that pro-
duce the most perfect. ears. and from
the ear nearest the ground only. Per-
sistent saving of seed in this way will
OF itself materially increase the yield.
But it is to the increased fertility of
the soil that we must look for the per-
lection OF our crops. The lands of the
cotton belt have by the long, clean
culture in cotton and winter exposure
to rain, been SO exhausted of their
humus that any effort at improvement
must include the restoration of the
vegetable matter. With plenty of
vegetable matter in the soil corn needs
no application of heterogeneous manure,
rs it grows all through the hottest
weather, when the nutrification in
this vegetable matter is most active.
This is one reason why stable
manure has better effect on
the crop than artificial fertiliz-
ers applied directly to it. The
vegetable matter in the manure keeps
mp the nitrifying process all summer.
But unfortunately in the very parts of
the country where these matters are
needed most, stable manure is not
plentiful. from the fact that so little
attention has been paid to stock raising
In the cotton belt. We are, however,
able SO to initiate the action of stable |
manure by means of leguminous crops.
In connection with potash salts and |
acid phosphate, that its absence
need be no drawback to the improve
ment of our lands for either corn or |
cotton.
The farmers in the north discovered |
long ago that the best crops of corn
Are grown on an inverted sod, buried |
deeply. and the corn buried very shall |
lowly above it, SO that the decayipp
sod would feed the roots all summer. |
While it is not possible, in many parts |
Of the south, and particularly in the
cotton belt, to have the sod that the |
northern farmer finds so valuable, we
can still get an equal, if not a better
snect, from crop of peas buried in |
The soil. Let the peas attain their full |
growth and die upon the land, and in
september sow crimson clover on the |
and among the dying peas. The |
clover will grow all winter and in the
spring all can be plowed under deeply
for corn.
There is no crop with which the
deepening of the soil can be better
lone than with corn. The practice, SO |
common in the south, of cultivating
;orn with pillow is all wrong. II the
and is well broken in the first place.
he subsequent culture should be per-
ectly level and shallow. Never "lav
'y"corn with pillow, and big ridge, I
lnder the impression that the ridge
seeps it from falling down in high
winds. 1t will throw out better brace
'oots and stand the wind better on a
evel surface than on a ridge, and the
'rop will be far better for the shall low
culture than IT the roots had been
INITIATED by running pillow through
The rows late in the season.
Another practice in corn culture in
he south which have proved to be an
'rror is that of giving corn, at least on
'ur red clay soils, so much distance.
IN land deeply broken, and with a
rood supply of vegetable matter