The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-17
Prof. Massey'S Advice to Farmers
The Wrong Way of Doing the Right Thing.

Recently there was sent me from
be editorial offices the following let
N-a letter both interesting and dis
coNraging to one who has been trying
3U SO long to teach the underlying
kfinciples Of good farming:
r 81 wish to tell the farmers the
value of their corn stalks as a manure
anG how to use them.
..Refore the stalk is cut. run off
your rows with two or three deep
furrows Then chop or pull up. and
pack them down in this furrOW. Ridge
and plant over them, and you will find
that the dry corn stalk is the best
manure you can get except green pine
boughs-
''Now, why is there manure in the
dry corn stalk and green pine bough?
Because the stalk will take up water
and air Tor the plants and in the
dryest of weather it remains wet and
rotting and gives the roots air and
sweat in time Of need c. p. P"
OF course. the burying of corn stalks
or any vegeta BILE matter to decay in
the soil will in this decay contribute
to the retention Of moisture in the
soil. and will add it's mite towards the
accumulation of humus in the soil.
But our friend starts with the
sumption that the corn has been
left in the field. and that instead of
having something more on the land
than stalks, the farmer is going to
plant that same land in corn or some
other hoed crop. In the first place,
stripping and topping corn is a bad
practice, for it has been proved time
and again that the man who pulls
the blades and tops his corn has lost
just about corn enough to pay for all
the fodder he gets, and thus has his
labor wasted.
The way to handle the corn crop is
to cut it at the ground and cure it
in Shocks and then feed the StOVer,
and all that the cattle do not eat will
be acting as an absorbent in taking
up the liquids. Then if he goes furth-
er and runs the whole through a
shredder, he will have still more Of it
eaten and will have the refuse in the
best shape for absorbing the manure.
Then, if that manure is spread evenly
on the land, he will get more benefit
than from dry corn stalks, and will
not be Obliged to bed over it, but
can plant level and work level and
keep the turning plow out of the field
after the crop is planted.
And more than this, the thoughtful
farmer will have peas and clover in
after his corn crop and will have a
mass to turn in the spring that will
be worth a hundred times much as
a few stalks buried in the row. Bury
ing corn stalks or green pine boughs
in the furrOW is simply an acknOWl-
edgement that the soil needs organic
decay, and placing these things in the
furrOw is simply doing a great deal
of needless work to accomplish what
might be done on a broader scale
over the whole land in a cheaper way,
by growing legumeS and feeding them
and having good manure all over the
land instead Of a few stalks in a fur
row. If cotton were to follow this
burying of the stalks in the beds, the
chances are that before the stalks
could decay you would have the beds
so dry that you would have poor
stand of cotton. If, instead of a few
stalks in the furroWs, you had the
whole land filled with vegetable mat
ter the case would be vastly better
The turning plow should never go
into the corn field after it is planted,
but the smoothing harrow and the
weeder should be used from the time
the corn is planted till it is tall enough
to use the ridding cultivator and cul-
tivate both sides of the row at once
and save the greater part of the la
bOr 7 rode not long since from Will
mington, Delaware, down through that
beautifully cultivated section, and I
did not see a field in which a man
was going two times in a row, but in
every field I saw men riding On
cultivatOr with two horses and work
ing the land level and doing the work
better and faster than two men with
single horses could have done it. And
/ saw there the creaneSt Of fields anu
no clumpS of bushes here and there in
the fields. no patches of broomsedge,
but wide fields of corn and clean,