Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-08-04
FARMER AND PLANTER.
CORN CROP AND ITS NEEDS
An Interesting Article On the Great
est of Our Cereal Crops BY
Professional Expert.

cattle and hogs and the food CT man
kind combined, and its importance to
the farmers in all parts Of the country
can hardly be over-estimated. And yet
there is no crop that varies so much in
production per acre. Though one soil
expert will make MS believe that all
| soils have the same average amount
of soluble plant food, there is no doubt
| that the understanding roots OF the
corn plant find more food in some soils
I than in Others. no matter how careful
| ly they are cultivated nor how we'll
watered, and the farmer who neglects
! TO accumulate more plant food in his
soil. usually finds that his corn crop
! shows the effects OF his bad treatment
| sooner than any other. Much has been
! said and written of late in regard TO
! the improvement of corn by selection
I Of seed, and there is no doubt that by
proper breeding the corn crop can be
/ greatly increased independently Of the
! Improvement of the soil But botn
should go hand in land. Most of the
! so-called corn breeders give a great
! deal of attention to the character OF
! the ear and grain, and these are i'm
portant points. But the breeding
| that looks simply TO the i'm
provement of a single feature of the
! plant can never be as successful as one
that takes the whole plant into con-
sideration. In breeding corn one must
know what his particular section needs.
| If he is in a region of short seasons
and early frosts, he must take earli-
ness of the plant into serious consld-
GRAFTON, as well as its productlveness.
| If he is in the south, where he has
| time enough to mature any variety or
corn, he need give attention only to the
character OF the plant and its produc-
tiveness. In the south the farmers
| have for generations been breeding
simply for the biggest ears. They have
| gotten the big ear, and only one a
stalk and that, on strong land, up out
| of a mans reach, and such a tall
| growth that it seems necessary to plant
the crop wide apart. The result is
that single stalks six feet apart, with
| a single ear at best on them and some
with none at all, make it impossible to
| get a large crop. The breeding then
| that is needed in the south is breeding
for more dwarf and sturdy plant and
one that uniformly carries two ears or
more. The editor 3f one of our farm
papers recently told an inquirer who
wanted to known how TO overcome the
| tendency Of corn in the south to grow
so tall, that it was a. climate effect
| which no breeding could overcome. But
| right here. in the south, it has been
| overcome and we have a corn that
| bears uniformly two or more ears near
| the ground and OF stature that admits
| Of it's being planted nearly as closely
as in the north, and which on sandy
| uplauds has made IS bushels of corn
! per acre, while the ordinary corn per
! around it on similar land made about
! ten to fifteen bushels. In breeding
| corn, we must form in mind an ideal
Of the plant We want to produce and
breed towards it year after year, for
the result can not be had in a single
season Then we want to remove dis
| turbing influences. In hundreds OF
| fields we see nearly one-third of the
stalks without any ear. These barren
stalks are the strongest males in the
field and, if allowed 10 ripen pollen,
will make more and :uore barren stalks
the next seasons Cut out the tassels
! from such as soon as they show, Their
select the stalks that bear two ears
and to get the plants down to more
! dwarf and sturdy character. Use for
time only the lower ear for seed; it
will not be the best ear, but it will have
tendency to get nearer the ground
and to beat the ear above it, When you
| have the ideal plant then will be time
enough to select the best ears. Corn
is always best when bred in the section
where it is to be planted, and seed
| brought from far north or south of any
locality must always be acclimated be-
fore it will adapt itself TO the new con-
ditions and do its best.
Having the ideal corn plant, the
next important thing is the production
OF big crops is the preparation of the
land and the feeding of the crop. The
one-horse plow has been the cause OF
more poor crops in the south than any
one other thing. The gullies in our hills
have been largely due to the scratch
blowing of the past. The shallow plOw-
| ed soils fills with water and runs of
on the hard soil below and gully is
started and is annually enlarged by the
frosts of winter. We need deeper break
ing of the soil to enable it 10 hold more
water for the crop and TO withstand
droughts and to prevent washing. But
after we have this soil deeply plowed
and well prepared, we 30 not want to
plow in the corn field afterwards. Lay
ing by" corn with turning pillow and
big furrow is responsible for much OF
the short crop and also for the washing
of the land, for the water collects in
the deep burrows till head forms and
breaks over and down the hiil the
This would not happen if the crop was
cultivated shallowly and fat so as to
form no burrows for the water to ae-
J
cuts the corn roots and damages the
crop, and also dries out the land by
turning it up to the sun, and the crop
suffers from drought. But no matter
how well the land is plowed nor how
carefully it is cultivated. if the plant
food is not there in an available form
the crop will not be as large as it
should be. What is most needed in the
Eouth is farming, as distinguished from
the old-tine planting. Corn after corn,
cotton after cotton, one crop continual
Is, will never restore the fertility OF
our lands, no matter how much fer
tilizer or what brand we use We need
to adopt rotation of crops that will
frequently bring in the recuperative le-
gume crops. This is more especially
needed by corn than almost any other
crop. We have experimental many
a.