The leader., 1904-11-26
FARMER PLANTER.
NEXT YEARS CORN CROP.
By Judicious Foresight the Yield
OF Next Years Corn Crop May
BE Materially Increased.

Be Materially Increased.
With no crop grown on the farm IL
taking time by the forelock more inn
portant than with the corn crop. We
have time and again said that in all
the experiments we have made we
could never make It profitable to use q
high grade complete commercial fertil-
izer on the corn crop. OF course. we
can through the use Of such fertiliz-
er greatly increase the crop Of corn.
But If test plot, without fertilizer, is
planted for comparison it will usually
be found that the increased crop has
hardly paid for the fertilizer used. The
best preparation for the corn crop is
legume crop grown the previous sea-
SON, either clover or COW peas. II
these have been literally dressed with
acid phosphate and potash and a
strong growth made, you will have the
best possible place to prepare for the
| corn crop the following season. Either
the peas or the clover will have left in
the ground large amount of nitrogen
in the form OF organic matter that will
| soon become available to the crop. 1t
is the costly nitrogen In the complete
fertilizer that makes its use on the
corn crop lottery, and if you can get
the nitrogen more cheaply it will pay
you to use the mineral elements phos-
phoric acid and potash literally. The
chief manurial needs Of the corn crop
are for nitrogen and potash, for the
nitrogen forms the strong stalk and
the potash is largely concerned in the
formation Of the starch that is such an
important part of the corn grain,
while sufficient amount Of phosphoric
acid will assist in the transfer of
starch in the plant. There is no crop
grown on the farm where the home
made manure from the stables, barn.
yard and hen house can be more profit
ably applied and nowhere will it tend
more towards the permanent improve
ment of the soil and the production of
the succeeding crops. Having pea
stuble, 1t will be well to start in No
vember and plow and subsoil the land,
for the deepening of the soil can be
better done while the subsoil is COM
paratively dry than in the spring.
Therefore break the corn land as deep
ly as the soil will admit in November
and run either regular subsoil plow
or in it's absence bull tongue in the
bottom of each furrow to loosen the
subsoil. Then SOW and harrow in a
bushel or more of rye per acre as
winter cover to prevent the loss of nj
trates during the winter, by having
green growing plants TO take 1t up.
Now, whenever it is practicable to
haul on the land during the winter, get
out all the manure as fast as made and
spread it broadcast on the rye. This
will give you a denser growth of the
rye and still more organic matter to-
supply nitrogen the next summer in
it's decay. Late in March plow the rye
and manure under together, and pre-
pare the land for corn. For fertiliz-
or for the corn mix 1900 pounds Of
acid phosphate and 200 pounds of
muriate of potash and of this mixture
use 400 pounds per acre in the furrow
under the corn and 200 pounds per
acre broadcast. Then when the corn
starts to grow it will have food right
at hand, and when it's roots spread far
and wide it will still find food in
abundance and the amount of organic
matter plowed under the pea roots or
clover, and the manure and the rye
will create conditions in the soil that
will retain the moisture and prevent
damage from drought. Then after the
deep preparation and liberal fertiliza-
tion of the land, do not go to work
with big plows and turn the soil up be-
tween the rows and bank it to the
corn to dry out but let the first ork-
ing be done with the smoothing har-
row and weeder and let the cultivator
run shallow and often, keeping the
soil as level as possible to enable it to
retain the moisture and supply it to
the roots of the plants. The decaying
organic matter will not only furnish
all the nitrogen needed by the corn,
but will, as we have said, keep the
moisture TO the roots and the corn will
have an abundance to dissolve to the
plant food and to keep it dourishing
in the driest time. Then SOW peas
again between the rows at last work
ing, and when the corn is well glazed,
cut it off at the ground and cure in
shocks, NOW the peas, if heavy, and
prepare the land for winter wheat or
oats with the disk alone. Then the
manuring and fertilization will tell on
the wheat crop and there will still be
nitrogen enough so that the wheat
will>need only 300 pounds per acre Of
the same mixture of acid phosphate
and potash. On the shock rows in the
spring you can sow oats and then fol-
low all with peas for the cotton crop,
If in the cotton country, or for tobac-
co in the tobacco section, moving the
peas for hay of course, as the great
means for making more home manure
Or the peas may be mown and the
stubble again disked finely and sown
again to wheat and that seeded to
clover or followed by peas in prepara-
tion for another corn crop. All of
which means that through the liberal
use of the mineral elements of plant
food, aided by the legume crops, we
can rapidly increase the humus con-
tent in our soil, and be able to use the
fertilizers with greater profit in lib
eral manner, because of the moisture
retained in the soil to dissolve them.
Now then, this fall is the time to be-
gin to prepare q big corn crop as the
beginning of big crops of other kinds,
and by using the fertilizers in this
way they can be made of one of the
most efficient means for the permanent
improvement of our land.-W. F. Mas
sey, in Farmers Home Journal.
FOR THOROUGHBRED SWINE.
Plea Of Kentucky Farmer For the