Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-03-06
importance Of the Corn Crop.
[Carolina Spartan.l

F-oFy ~PPASoAooo Viz SoAoo Va
the corn crop. As healthful food
for man, or as horse, cattle and hog
food, or forage, or for silage, corn
stands at the top of the list. No
crop is more neglected. With thou.
sands of acres of bottom lands in this
county there is hardly a bushel of
corn for sale. Even the moonshiners
in the mountains have to import
their corn from other States. Owing
to the great scarcity of corn in this
county every farmer should plant
for large crop. The preparation
should be going on now. The fol-
lowing paragraphs are by Harvie
Jordan, published in the Atlanta
Journal. Read and act.
PREPARING FOR CORN.
1t requires more intelligent thought
and action to successfully grow corn
than it does cotton. In localities
where the cotton crop has been
worked and fertilized about the same,
we find about the same-general av-
erage yield of lint cotton per acre.
Not so with the corn crop, unless sea-
sons have been usually favorable. 1t
is rather the exception in neighbor-
hoods to see perfect field of matur.
ing corn. Corn suffers from drought
much quicker than cotton and rarely
ever recovers from neglect during
the early stages of its growth. We
have here two important truths
which have been learned by praoti-
cal experience, and which we should
prepare to guard against in the cul-
tivation of this crop.
Moisture being of prime import
ance, every effort should be exerted
to 80 prepare the land as that the
largest amount of moisture possible
may be stored up for use during the
growth of the plant. This cannot
be done by scratching the land with
short plow hoes or laying off an un-
broken field hurriedly 80 as to plant
the corn crop, get it out of the way
for cotton, and expecting later to
break the middles. The best and
most approved method employed in
modern culture of all crops is to
thoroughly prepare the land before
planting. This thorough prepara-
ton, in the case of corn particularly,
should consist not merely of deep
ploughing, but to pulverize and
break up the clods and level the fiel6.
SELECTION OF SEED.
The planting seed should be care
fully selected, and none but the
heavy, full grains on the ears used.
If extra care is not taken in the Sc
lection of seed corn results are likely
to be disappointing, no matter how
well everything else is done. The
best time to select seed corn is in the
fall of the year and while gathering
the corn in the field. The finest ear
on every well-developed stalk pro-
ducing two or more ears will soon
produce satisfactory prolific variety.
The small-eared prolific varieties of
upland corn can be planted in rows
closer together than the old fashioned
large ear, big cob variety. Rows six
feet apart and the plants standing
three feet in the drill is close enough
for big cob corn.
Last year l planted small cob
upland prolific variety in rows four
feet apart and left stalk every two
and half feet in the drill. / gath
cred forty bushels per acre, and the
corn did not seem to suffer at any
stage of its growth from crowding.
This was on good land, well fertil-
lied, and cultivated up to the time
OF tasseling, when heavy windstorm
bent the stalks and prevented fur
ther work with the plow. The yield,
however, was entirely satisfactory
and has convinced mo that the small
cob prolific corn is superior to the
old-fashioned varieties. They suffer
less from drought and yiold more
per acre.
CULTIVATION.
The cultivation OF corn, particu.
larly IN the early stages of it's growth,
must not be neglected or disaster
will surely ovcrtake the crop. An
unchecked growth OF grass or weeds
during the first few weeks of tho
plants existence will tend to sap tho
vitality of tho plant, produce yel-
low tinge on the young stalks, and it
is almost impossible to ever work a
recovery. Just as soon az the plant
is out of the ground weeder ought
to be driven across the field so as to
break the top crust and kill out tho
first coat OF woods and grass. A
week later the plows should bo