The silver star., 1897-12-16

ley. Fulton County, lllinois.--The
corn that l exhibited at the state
fair was raised on second year
sod. In April, 1896. it was plowed and
planted to onions. Tney 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
. failure all around. In May. 1897. we
plowed, narrowed and planted this
ground to corn of the Mastodon varie-
~. but we did not get q stand. Then
We narrowed and planted again May "a,
using the variety known as Golden
Climax. The rows were feet 10
inches apart one way, hills two feet
apart the other. Two or three grains
were put in a hill. We plowed twice
with Eagle Claws. The gophers and
moles took out over 200 hills. This corn
is cross of four varieties-Early 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 | exhibited.
nor was there any extra work put on 1t.
w. Z. Waugh, Warren County, Illi-
nois.-Our corn we exhibited at the
state fair was a cross of the Leaning
and a large yellow we raise. AS to
cultivation and preparation Of ground.
l cannot say that we made any special
enort in cultivating our corn to COM
pete for the prize offered at state fair.
olo 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
thirty-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
loot 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 il
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
SAc'Si ssilu went over IL
twice more with them. making four
times. twice with disc and twice with
shovel cultivators.
Ed. V. Bohl. Fulton County, Illinois.
This is how / raised $50 bushels of
corn to the acre: In April l put ten
.oads OF stable manure per acre on ten
acres of clover and Timothy sod mixed.
The last week of April | broke this
ground, plowing eight inches deep. !
rolled 1t down after the plow and then
worked 1t once with the rotary hoe
instead OF disc harrow. l then harrow
ed twice with ordinary smoothing har-
row and rolled down. / planted May IL
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. / then
cultivated once each way with culti-
vator with large shovels on, plowing
shallow and keeping ground as level as
possible. The gound was ordinary
white oak soil and had been in grass
for four years. being moved for hay
each year. The variety was the Mas
todon. large-eared yellow dent, rip
enins in 105 to 110 days. II was plant
ed three stalks to the hill. The entire
neld OF ten acres will make 150 bushels
to the acre.