Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1902-05-16

success depends on its being used con-
stantly, and killing the weeds before
they get up: If they get up then the
weeder is useless; but the amount of
work it does makes It most economi-
cal tool for the cultivation OF corn,
When you use the weeder constantly,
you preserve the moisture, and In a
very dry season you can make a very
good Weld Of corn. When the corn gets
too large for the weeder, then use any
good cultivator that does not 20 deeper
than two inches, and keep it going as
long as you can, and you will make a
pretty fair crop Of corn, even if It is a
bad season. You must bear in mind
that shallow, and constant cultivation
is the way to make corn, after you have
selected your seed and prepared the
land and planted the crop. Corn roots
do not penetrat deep, but spread out all
over the land, and deep cultivation in
lures them: instead of making corn,
the plant has to heal the wounds that
ignorant culture has made.
II is possible with the tools we now
have to make a crop in spite of an un-
favorable season, but it takes study and
intelligent management of our tools
and land.
1 do not wish to leave the impression
that corn roots do not go deep; when
circumstances are favorable for the
roots to penetrate the earth, they will
do so to the depth of several feet; the
Minnesota Station made some expert
ments, and found that In the spring,
when the surface soil is comparatively
warm, moist, and rich in plant food the
roots start out nearly horizontally,
from the lowest joints of the stem, and
spread to from two to five feet from the
stalk, but as the upper soil grows dry
they turn downward, attaining a
length of from three to eight feet or
even more. The later roots from joints
higher up are at first much larger in
diameter than the earlier ones, but
grow vertically downward and diminish
in size. The larger diameter of the
brace roots enables them to aid more
in keeping the stalk erect.
Many of the earlier roots often die be-
fore the stalk ripens, primary roots
branch into numerous secondary roots,
which have their greatest development
near the surface Of the soil, so that
the principal part of the root system is
within a few inches Of the top Of the
ground.
The farmers of Minnesota have a
deeper soil than we have, and it is pos
sible for the corn roots to penetrate
deeper there than it is with us, so we
must be careful in cultivating not to go
too deep, and thereby destroy the roots,
for when we do we injure the plant,
and it has to recover from the injury,
before it can make corn, and If it turns
off dry we are almost certain to lose
our crop. But most of our farmers
know better, and the most of them
make good corn crops, and l am sure
that Church Hill Grange is entitled to
a large share of the credit for this, as
we really have a Farmers Institute
twice each week at this hall, and hope
that our visitors will see that we are
getting benefits from these meetings,
and when they go home, they will or
ganize, and go to work for their better
ment. If they do they will never regret
it, and will remember with pleasure
their VISIT to us, as l am sure we will
remember it. We extend to them an
invitation to come to see. us whenever
it suits their convenience or pleasure.