St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-07-23
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE CULTIVATION OF CORN.

| ItANMENA AMI / Lam i In
THE CULTIVATION OF CORN
It Makes No Difference How Rich the 81
May BE, Unless Thoroughly Culti-
waited 1t VIII Not Pay.
If the land on which corn be plantet
is fertile and not wet, with good sea
son and proper cultivation it will maxi
good crop. But it makes no differ
ence how rich the soil may be, unles
the crop is thoroughly cultivated fron
the time it is big enough till it is to'
high to plow, the crop will not rewar'
richly. Nothing in the way OF grail
crops requires as much attention as tn,
corn crop; it should be cultivated a
often as seems needed. Some plow tn
corn simply to keep out weeds and tn
ground clean, but the minority plow i
to keep the ground loose and the sol
stirred SO moisture can rise. This i!
far better and does the corn more good
Weeds don't amount to very much il
. cornfield. have seen them as thicl
as could be in young corn, but after ,
few plowings and weddings they wer'
SO completely backset that they never
caught up with the corn, and hence die
no harm. of course, if they are per
mitted to grow nearly to their full siz'
and height they will take great dea
of fertility out of the soil. Jimsor
weeds are the vilest eXtant, but ar,
easily rooted out with a cultivatol
with six fine sharp shovels. Thes.
weeds grow to be five or six feet tall
and will hold up the weight Of man.
They draw on the plant food of the sol
extravagantly, and as rule thrive only
on the richest soils.
We have another weed here that Sc
riously interferes with corn ut a Ger
tain time in the year. Some call il
the silver-rooted weed; I cal
it the square weed. 1t ha.
leaves like mint and looks much
like mint. Its roots are silvery white
and each plant is provided with mul.
titude of them; the canes of the weeds
are perfectly square, as if they were
thus made by planning. These weeds
grow largely in the black, sandy lands,
and are most vigorous a few weeks af-
ter wheat is cut, and they get the ben
eft of sunshine. There is no killing
them out; at least, have never sue
ceeded in SO doing. The best way l
know of to retard their growth and
give them great baciset is to sow
timothy among them, and use the field
which they have about taken for a
meadow. In two or three years the
timothy crowds them nearly out. But
in the corn or wheat field they grow
luxuriantly, and if not checked BY cul-
tivators will rob the crops OF fertility.
Ihave found it good practice to har-
row corn with q tooth harrow as soon
as it comes up. This makes the ground
loose about the roots and cuts out most
of the fine weeds. OF course we have
not yet come to Mr.. Terry's weeder.
The Acme (Nash) harrow does the work
admirably, set to run almost level.
This process pulverises the clods and
makes it easy sailing for the young
corn right in the start when it needs it
most. Some roll the field when the
corn is about six inches high SO as to
pulverize the clods and level the ground,
but l do not approve of this because
rolling makes the ground compact and
smooth and a heavy rain will wash it
badly and wash out the corn. More
over, oftentimes large clods are right ON
top of q hill and the roller comes along
and mashes that clod down upon the
corn and covers it up SO deeply it can
never see daylight Narrowing is much
better and besides smoothing the
ground it cuts out the fine weeds and
is equal to q plowing with a cultivator.
We usually have pretty severe
droughts here in July and August;
sometimes they commence in the latter
part of June. When the farmers see
the drought is at hand many of them
quit rlowing and say it is folly to stir
the ground when it is so dry: that it
will kill the roots of the corn to plow
among them. But this is big mis-
take. In dry weather we do not need
to plow close enough to the roots of
corn to injure them; plow in the mid
die of the rows and stir it deep
ly. This will facilitate the ris-
ing of moisture, and moisture
will invigoratc the crop through
the entire drought. Don't cultivate the
corn crop simply to keep out the
weeds, but to keep the ground stirred.
The first plowing should be shallow.
going deeper each succeeding time un-
til the last plowing, which should be
very shallow and followed by u smooth
ing tool of some kind. The crop should
not be laid by by deep blowing; this
leaves the ground uneven and Liable to
wash badly. Ralres attached to the
cultivator shov.ls will Hi the burrows
and level the ground between the rows.
We plow corn from three to four times,
but five or six times is not too often.
In fact, the more the better, if they
be properly directed. Corn should be
forced to grow as rapidly as possible.
alone will do this.-De
Witt G. Wing, in Epitomist.
THE UNIVERSAL GENIUS.