Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-06-19


still going deep. Run corn planter on
this ridge, dropping one grain every
| five or six inches. Plant early, as soon
as frost danger is past, say first season.
able spell after March 18th in this sec
tion. Especially is early planting nee
essary on very rich lands where stalks
cannot otherwise be prevented from
growing too large. Give first working
with harrow or any plow that will not
cover the plant. For second working
use ten or twelve-inch sweep on both
sides Of corn, which should now be
about eight inches high. Thin after
this working. 1t is not necessary that
the plants should be left all the same
distance apart if the right number re-
main to each yard Of row.
| "Corn should not be worked again
until the growth has been so retarded,
and the stalk so hardened, that it will
never grow too large. This is the most
difficult point in the whole process.
Experience and judgment are required
to know just how much the stalk
should be stunted, and plenty OF nerve
is required to hold back your corn
when your neighbors, who fertilized at
planting time and cultivated rapidly,
have corn twice the size of yours.
CThey are having their fun now. Yours
will come ct harvest time.) The richer
the land the more necessary it is that
the stunting process should be thor
oughly done.
| "When you are convinced that your
corn has been sufficiently humiliated.
you may begin to make the ear. 1t
should now be from IL to 18 inches
high, and look worse than you have
ever had any corn to look before.
"Put half your mixed fertilizer (this
being the first used at alD in the oold
s"oop furrow on both sides of every
other middle, and cover by breaking
out this middle with turn-plow. About
one week later treat the other middle
the same way. Within few days side
corn in first middle with 16-inch sweep.
Put all your nitrate Of soda in this fur
row, if less than $50 pounhs. IF more,
use one-half if it now. Cover with one
furrow Of turn-plow, then SOW peas in
this middle broadcast at the rate of at
least one bushel to the acre, and finish
breaking out.
"In few days side corn in other
middle with same sweep, put balance
of nitrate of soda in this furrow, if it
has been divided. cover with turn-plow,
SOW peas and break out. This lays by
your crop with good bed and plenty
of dirt around your stalk. This should
son is very late, and corn should be
hardly punching for tussel.
Lay by early. More corn is ruined
by late plowing than by lack of plow-
ing. This is when the ear is hurt. Two
good rains after laying by should make
you good crop of corn, and it will GER
tainly make with much less rain than
if pushed and fertilized in the old way.
'The stalks thus raised are very
small, and do not require anything like
the moisture even in proportion to size,
that is necessary for large sappy stalks.
They may, therefore, be left much
thicker in the row. This is no new pro-.
cess. 1t has long been a custom to cut
back vines and trees in order to in
crease the yield and quality of fruit,
and so long az you do not hold back
your corn, IL will go, like mine so long
went-all to stalk.
''Do not be discouraged by the looks
of your corn during the process of cul-
tivation. 1t will yield out of all pro-
portion to its appearance. Large stalks
cannot make large yields, except with
extremely favorable seasons, for they
cannot stand lack of moisture. Early
applications of manure go to make
large stalks, which you do not want,
and the plant food is all thus used up
before the ear, which you do want, is
made. Tall stalks not only will not
produce we'll themselves, but will not
allow you to make the peavines, so
necessary to the improvement of land.
Corn raised by this method should
never grow over seven and half feet
high, and the ear should be near to the
ground.
81 consider the final application of
nitrate of soda an essential point in
this ear-making process. 1t should al
ways be applied at last plowing and
unmixed with other fertilizers.
Il am satisfied with one ear to the
stalk, unless prolific varietysis plant
ed, and leave n hundred stalks for
every bushel that / expect to make.
I find the six-foot row easiest to culti-