The Winchester news. [volume] (Winchester, Ky.) 1908-19??, 1908-11-18

e. L. Vincent Tells How He Did Little
Investigating That Proved Valuable.

z. 1. Vincent Tells How He Did Little
Investigating That Proved Valuable.
Being of an inquiring turn of mind,
once upon time took it into my
head to follow the roots of a couple
of hills of corn to their source, with a
view to determining as we'll as l could
what kind of cultivation we ought to
give the plant while it 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 it
could do in the way of growth. All
that was left was to bring the ears to
perfection.
With 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. | had not gone far when / made
my first discovery. And that was that
had all my life long been hurting my
corn crop by using cultivators 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 a stiff. rigid
frame. bolted together SO firmly that
1t could not be adjusted to the width
OF the rows. The teeth of that cult
vator were long, scoop-shoVeI 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, | discovered that all, or almost
all, such work does is to tear the fine
roots of the corn plant loose, really
setting it back, instead of furthering
its progress.
After that cultivator, came another
still more lily contrived. so far as it's
use in the cornfield is concerned. than
the first. That we knew as the horse
hoe, a 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 If man wanted to do still greater
damage to his corn crop.
The thing that impressed itself on
me was, that only light cultivation is
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. | found
them far out in every direction, like
the roots of a big tree A little thought
will tell us why this should be so. The
cornstalk is heavy, especially when it
is well laden with ears. When the
wind strikes it, there is a strong pur-
chase and if not well braced, the whole
hill is likely to go over.
l remember how this worked one
year when we were troubled terribly
by the gray grub which works at the
root of the corpstalk. Hundreds of
cornstalks went down in our field that
year; and always when we dug down
at the base of the stalks we found
that the small roots had been cut off
by the grub. Nature is 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 fibrous roots run, in
search for his food If they do not
find it, a small crop is the inevitable
result.
Deep cultivation hinders the plant
from getting this sustenance so neces-
sary to its life and growth. Even
when we send the teeth of the cult
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.