The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1908-02-05
TALK ON CORN
j. o. Pettis Writes From His Missouri;
Home.

Editors Denison Review:-Although
an unpleasant task, you have done
Crawford county corn growers a ser.
vice by reporting the decisions of the
judges at your late corn show. We
can hardly believe the case is as bad
as your experts made out, for Craw-
ford county soil is far from being ex-
hausted, but methods pursued there
will in time bring humiliating results.
Continued cropping with corn and
deep culture will work irreparable mis-
chief, especially to hillside lands.
In the early days of Crawford we
we're about compelled to do this.
Small grain though usually a fair
crop was subject to blight, rust, dam.
age by insects and storms. To grow
it involved large outlay for seed,
machinery, granaries, with expense of
harvest and threshing and when sold
in competition with Minnesota and
Red River wheat brought less net re.
turns than corn.
Corn was king. 1t was sent east.
ward. At the seaboard much of it,
also thousands of tons of oil meal,
were shipped to England and used by
John Bull to fatten his mutton and
beef In the south where cotton was
king the same processes were car
ried on for a century.
Planters impoverished their land
growing cotton for English mills Mr.
Bull paid for these soil robbers in
manufactured goods, pitting his steam
power against our hand labor with the
result an American citizen, as a labor
er. did not earn as much as one of
Johns spindles. In time we found
way out by using cattle and hogs
as minis and converted our corn bull
ion into gold dollars right at home.
The south never discovered their fol-
~, but raised war when they could
not take their slaves into the territor-
les to continue the soil depicting in
dustry.
Aside from the sacrifice of human
life the war has been worth to them
all it cost. The awakening of south
ern farmers dates to the time Presi-
dent Harrison made tour of their
states and from the platform of his
car preached the gospel of agriculture
from the text Diversity Your Farm
ing"
Conditions have changed. Soil till
ers have better present than past
and may expect better future than
present.
Government statistics of agricul-
ture for 1907 are forthcoming and are
interesting, more so, when compared
with reports of previous years. While
the corn crop fell a little below 1906,
1t was up to the average of recent
years. Illinois, Iowa and Missouri are
yet the center of the corn belt, each
state producing far and away more
corn than any state outside this trio
crop and we believe within five years
Will be in the lead. 1t appears that
Illinois and Iowa have reached their
acreage in corn growing Their mum.
erous mines, railroads, manufacturing
plants, etc, require many thousands
of workmen. BY combination or trust
they are able to compel farmers to
compete in the labor market for helm
at wages that can scarcely be earne d
in the cornfield. Also land values.
taxes and rents are so high-the pop.
ulation to be fed so dense. farmers
can now raise corn crops that will
scarcely bring larger net returns Der
acre. Dairying, the raising of meat
animals, fruits, ETC., are now lucrative
industries, which admit of rotation
and require less manuel labor. A
large per cent of corn land will be
sown to alfalfa-the farmers out go
for hired help diminished his income
increased by the sale of higher priced
products and his land constantly i'm
proving in fertility instead of being
depleted by continued growing of corn
which perhaps exposes the soil to the
wasting of the elements more than
any other farm crop.
In Missouri, conditions are different
land values are lower labor cheaper
The area of corn culture will be in
creased by many thousands OF acres
yet unimproved, such are forest lands
now being cleared and rich bottom
lands being redeemed by engineering
skill. In three counties of southeast
Missouri, six hundred miles of drain
age canals have been constructed
within the last three years reclaim
ing a large area of as good corn and
cotton land as there is in the Missis
sippi valley. For hundreds of miles
along the Mississippi the Missouri