The Tupelo journal., 1905-03-24
FARMER AND PLANTER.
PREPARING FOR CORN CROP.
The Farmer who Would Attain the
Maximum Yield Must Pay
Attention to Details.

Corn is the greatest crop OF the
| American farmer. There are but lew
sections of the United States in which
it can not be grown with profit. It's
universal a~daptability as a feed for all
our domestic animals, as we'll as It's
culinary uses in the households OF u
land, makes it's nom status
unique. It's constantly increasing use
in the manufacturing trades is a great
factor in extending its usefulness,
which, while creating a market de-
mand for the raw material, seems TO
be able to maintain market prices Ior
the grain in a stiff competition with
its feeding value on the farm.
1t is likely that the lays of very low
| corn prices are past. There are many
farmers and feeders who through lg-
norance or carelessness-and the
farmer who to-day is ignorant is IN
deed careless-in feeding waste corn
extensively, but it is improbable that
n section of our farmers will ever
again have corn ito burn" as their
cheapest source of fuel.
While our corn crop from year to
year is immense in its aggregate, ana
furnishes statisticianS with figures
quite beyond human comprehension,
the average yield to the acre is very
small in comparison to what is pos
sible under favorable conditions. Coca
corn-grOwers who season after sea-
son are growing crops that yield ap-
prOXimately one hundred bushels or
Shelled corn &c the acre are not con-
fined to any single section of the coun-
try. | am personally acquainted with
them in the corn belt on GOTH
| sides of Mason and DiXon's line. Large
yields therefore not being phenomenal
of locality, it follows that they are
the result, broadly speaking, of bet
ter farming-that is, the most careful
selection of seed in regard to its strain
OF productivity, its a~daptability to To-
cality and to soil-conditions; n
ing and preparing the land; planting
the crop in season-rot too early, so
il will have to eXpead vitality over
coming unfavorable weather; not too
late. so that its endeavor to properly
reach maturity is made at expense OF
qualify and quantity-and finally, the
thorough cultivation and successful
harvesting of the crop.
These conditions to good yields are
so Independent that it is impossi-
bic for one to designate the most i'm
portant, so the careful farmer who de-
sires to attain the maximum yield
must pay close attention to all of
them in all their details. The seed
may be from a good crop grown on
good land with careful culture; the
ears may be constructiOnally perfect,
and meet all the finical requirements
Of a college scOre-card, and the indi-
vidual grains, by reason of some sea
sonal influence, be low in terminating
power and vitality; hence the careful
grower will be sure TO test the ger
mination of his seed.
A given strain of corn may produce
excellent crops in Iowa. and planted
directly to different soil in Ohio prove
very disappointing. The seed that
makes me one hundred bushels in
southern Pennsylvania likely would
not do as well for my friend in Con-
necticut. Obviously, then, in our Sc
lection of seed, if necessary to leave
our own farms or neighborhoods, it
would seem wise to make selection as
near home and from as nearly home
conditions as possible. Logically in the
corn crop seed-improvement should be
cto r4oJ onI ~ TO pDl uuharo sab ori
ty begins'-at home.
In the matter of farm rotation Of
crops. while it is not unusual for very
| good yields to be secured by blowing
a sod and planting two years to corn,
it is the exception, and not the rule, to
find the second crop, other conditions
being equal. as good as the first.
Good blowing is necessary. Thorough
pulverization and compaction of the
soil. and the making of a uniform
seed-bed. must be done. The best seed
will perish or fail to do it's best in a
poor bed. An invalid stalk, that grows
no ear. or at best only a nubbin, cuts
the yield. A dozen such stalks or miss
ing hills in each ordinary row will
make the hundred busheI yield impos-
sible. | know an expert corn-grower
so jealous of vacant hills in his fields
that he grows substitutes in spots to
be transplanted in the field-misses.
Does that filing of the vacancies pay?
Does it not cost more than it comes
to?" I suspect it does. But this /
know: The man who will take such
pains is much less likely to have any
vacancies to fill than the man who
thinks a few misses are unimportant.
It is the misses that help keep down
our c~rop-averages. 1t is the man who
works from seed-time to harvest to
avoid the misses who is securing the
| yields that the other man %discredits.
The quality of the farm manure
will, of course, determine its value to
the crop. My preference is to work
the into the plowed land dur
ing the processes of tillage. but I
would not store manure for this pur-
pose, when l might haul it as made
and apply to a sod to be plowed later.
Where the land is good and it's prep
aration thorough, given an applica-
tion Of farm manure, commercial nj
trogen will rarely be found necessary,
potash and phosphoric acid will prove
almost, if not quite, universally prof
table.
These are some of the points in corn
cu1turp Working them oft in detail