The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-06-21
R O A EXCHANGES
Cultivation Of Corn.

very beginning of their existence. The time tc
kill weeds is when they first put their leaves above
ground. Then, with the proper Instruments, they
can be killed by the millions. Therefore the most
efficient instrument for killing weeds in the earlier
stages of the growth of the corn plant is the har
row and the weeder, which not only do the bust
ness most effectively right among the corn and
without injury to it, when properly handled, but
also aid other objects for which cultivation is in.
tended. Where, however, there are deep rooted
weeds, such as the pestiferous morning-glory OF
cocklebur, or where weeds have been allowed to
strike their roots deep into the ground, the %cultiva.
ton must be as deep as the roots, whether it in
jures the corn plant or not. In that case it is sim,
ply a choice between two evils; and the evil of
weeds is so much greater than that of moderate
laceration of the corn roots that they must be ex,
terminated at all hazards. The earlier this can be
done in the corn cultivating season the better
Deep cultivation is therefore entirely proper on
foul ground or an improperly prepared seed bed
until the corn is from a foot to eighteen inches
high and spreads its thick network of roots
through the entire soil, which is we'll supplied with
Moisture.
Farmers must not forget that the plant food of
the soil is being prepared while the corn is grow
ing; that is, the plant food which exists in an
0HN w" PASPoAON HOACO oPAA " CO
cultivation which the corn receives. The corn
plant and all other plants feed, so to speak, on
food previously digested by the microbic life with
which every fertile soil teens. A soil without mi
crobes is as barranasa granite rock, no matter
How much fertility there may be in it as shown by
chemical analysis. 1t is the function of these
germs or microbes in the soil to digest the mineral
and vegetable matter and allow it to be put in So
luton nooE5p0 IF ovoiloh1o for moo 90 p1oDt food
Cultivation hastens this process, and therefore
it is not merely to kill weeds that we cultivate
corn, but to develop plant food.
This is most strongly illustrated in the sugar
beet country, for sugar is not manufactured in the
factory, but on the farm; and the farmer who
fails to keep everlastingly cultivating his sugar
beets is the man who will draw small checks when
the factory makes up it's books. What is true of
the sugar beet is true of everything else. A
thoroughly cultivated corn field produces not
merely more corn, but better corn, with more
starch in it, more gluten, more oil, more of every
beast.
The control of the water content of the soil
must not be overlooked. Farmers have been dis
posed to smile when we have talked about con-
serving the moisture of the soil for the last two
years, but they should remember that the object
of cultivation is not merely to conserve moisture,
but to control it, to get rid of it in times of sur
plus. moisture, and to conserve it in times when
moisture is deficient. Shallow cultivation, under
proper conditions, paradoxical as it may seem,
serves both ends.
It is the field upon which no crust is allowed
to form that will hold the most moisture in a
dry time. 1t is the well cultivated field that will
dry out the quickest on the surface, provided the
ground is in proper condition. In other words, the