The Forrest City times., 1901-05-31
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE CORN PLANT SECRET.
One Who Knows Tells How He Goes
About IL to secure Good
Results With Corn.

Really it is no secret at all except
the secret of careful work. Let me
tell you how one man raises it and
YOU will see that what / say is true.
The man of whom / am speaking goes
about his work something as follows:
He plows up strip of ground upon
which there is something of turf
left. Some of us make the mistake of
waiting until the last vestige of plant
life has disappeared before we think
it worth while to pillow. This man be-
heves that the better the turf when
he plows, the better may be his crop
of corn. Having determined where to
put his corn for the season, he waits
until almost time to plant and then
hurries the manure out. He has an
old-fashioned idea that the sunshine
and the rains will cause the ammonia
and other valuable elements in the
lowed to lie exposed to the weather
very long. For the same reason he
keeps the manure carefully housed
under the shed until needed.
He gives his land thorough
coating of this rich barn-yard ma
nure, holding that nothing equals
that for bringing a good crop. At
least twenty loads of manure are
spread upon each acre.
AS soon as this is done he follows
with the pillow. What! pillow the ma
nure under? Surely that is contrary
to the usual practice. Yes; but this is
the way the man we are writing
about argues. If spread on the top
of the ground the manure will not be
where the roots of the compliant can
reach it; and the object of putting on
the manure is to help the corn. If
plowed under the fertilizer lies in the
earth until the long roots of the corn
plant get down to it; and, by the
way, do you know how long the roots
of stalk of corn are? Next summer
just notice that.
When the manure is out and plowed
under this man sets the harrow to
work, and he harrows his ground I'M
til it is like an ashheap." Not all of
us are as thorough about this as we
should be for our own good. A mel
low bed for the seed to lie in is a
great start toward future success.
Now follows the planter. Previous
care has been taken in selecting the
seed. The time has gone by now to
discuss that. If he has been troubled
in the past by the ''century-living"
crow he fixes his corn by dropping
say small tcaspoonful of gas-tar in
one half bushel of seed, stirring it
well in and then sitting handful of
land-plaster over the measure, also
stirring that in, so that the kernels
will readily run through the planter.
This done, the man sits down and
waits for nature to work. In a few
days the rows will begin to show.
Then is the time to put on all the hen
manure possible. Rob every hen
roost on the farm. The good wife will
bear you out in it, and your own con-
science will say, "Well DONE" If you
have been wise you will have saved
every spoonful of this rich fertilizer
made on the place; and if you can in
duce any of your neighbors to sell
what they have accumulated, by all
means do it. Nothing is better for
the corn than hen-manure. Scatter
the manure along between the rows
near the complaints. do not like to
have it really touch the stalks, for it
is hot stuff and may burn the tender
leaves.
The man now turns the horse and
hired man into the corn-feld and
tells them to stick to it as long as a
weed remains or the soil needs STIR
ring. There is knack about cultivat-
ing corn. l have seen men cultivating
when it seemed to me they might al
most as well sit on the fence. They
did not seem to care whether the
teeth of the cultivator came any
where near the corn-hill or not. If
they only went through" the rows
that was all that was expected. Now
l don't think they are right, and
neither does "the man." If / am not
careful / shall give away another Sc
cret! / want the teeth of the cult
vator to get right up to the row of
corn. 1t is the corn we are cultivat-
ing, not the ground in the middle of
the row. BY turning the cultivator
slightly one may bring it close up to
the hills and stir the soil all around
them as well as root out the weeds.
That is the lind of cultivating which
pays. If the wheel-cultivator is used,
set it so that the teeth will run close
TO the corn, then drive carefully.
From this time on the only secret
about the compliant is that of the
old mother nature, and she will tell
none of us just how she works. We
know she gathers tons of moisture
from the sky and the dews; that we
can help her by keeping the soil
stirred until the stalks are so large
that we break them by driving be-
tween the rows; that all we can do
now is to wait patiently for the harv-
est, feeling sure that we shall not be
disappointed if we have done our
work well. If we have not, we ought
not IN axpac+ much Of q oro,,