The Meeker herald., 1908-12-26
WORK THAT PAYS.
e. L. Vincent Tells How He Did littIs
investigating That Proved Valuable.

Being of an inquiring turn of mind,
once upon a time took it into my
head to follow the roots Of a couple
of hills Of corn to their source. with q
view to determining as well as could
what kind Of cultivation we ought to
give the plant while 1t is in the
process of maturing, and must say
that some things learned were an eye
opener to me.
1t was along in August that l did
this investigating. By that time the
stalks were perhaps fully grown: the
plant had. In fact. done almost all 1t
could do in the way of growth. All
that was left was to bring the ears to
Perfection.
With a good hoe and pick / care
fully traced the roots of two hills of
corn, one in one row and one in that
adjoining. directly opposite the first
one. l had not gone far when made
my first discovery. And that was that
l had all my life long been hurting my
corn crop by using cultivaters that
ripped things up away down into the
earth.
That seemed to be the thought In
early times, to dig down as deep as
possible. The first cultivator l remem.
Der seeing was one with stiff, rigid
frame. bofted together SO firmly that
1t could not be adjusted to the width
of the rows. The teeth of that cult
vator were long, scoop-shovel shaped
things. running deep by nature; and
we used to think We ought to shove
them down half way to China or We
were not doing anything worth while.
Now. l discovered that all. or almost
all. such work does Is to tear the fine
roots of the corn plant loose, really
setting 1t back, instead OF furthering
its progress.
After that cultivator, came another
still more lily contrived, so far as its
use in the cornfield is concerned, than
the first. That We knew as the horse
hoe. good tool in its place. but that
place Is not. and never was, the corn
field. That had regular shovel plow
running ahead. with two legs follow
ing. and two more that might be put
on II man wanted to do still greater
damage to his corn crop.
The thing that impressed itself ON
me was, that only light cultivation ID
needed In the cornfield. What we need
is tool that will thoroughly dig up
the soil on the surface and not run
more than two or three inches deep.
Another discovery made was that
the roots Of the corn plant are not all
directly under the stalks. I found
them far out In every direction, like
the roots Of big tree. A little thought
will tell US why this should be 10. The
cornstalk II heavy. especially when 1t
is well laden with ears. When the.
wind strikes It, there IL = strong pur-
cha1e and II mot we'll braced, the whole
hill IL likely to 50 over.
remember how this worked one
year when We were troubled terribly
by the gray grub which works at the
root of the cornstalk. Hundreds of
cornstalks went down In our feld that
year; and always when We dug down
at the base Of the stalks we found
that the small roots had been cut on
by the grub. Nature Ia wise. She,
provides the corn plant with wide,
spreading roots. Still another reason
for this is to be found in the fact that
corn needs great deal OF fertilizer to
bring it to maturity. Here and there,
everywhere. the nbrous roots run. in
search for his food. II they do not
find 1t, small crop is the inevitable
result.
Deep cultivation hinders the plant
from getting this sustenance SO neces-:
sary to It's life and growth. Even
when we send the teeth Of the culti-'
vator far down out in the middle Of
the space between the rows we are
injuring the growth of the plant and
SO lessening our chances for harvest
ing a good crop.-Farmers' Voice.