Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1909-01-05
Williamson Describes
His Fine Corn Method.
By E. McIver Williamson in
MontgomeryAdvertiSer

reading it carefully.
In 1885 / began to farm on a
sandy slightly rolling place. 1t
had been under exhaustive Guilt
walton for many years, and the
soil was thin, making about SIX
hundred pounds of seed cotton per
acre, when well cultivated by the
use of four bundled pounds OF fer,
tilizer, costing 81, or ten bushels
of corn with 81 worth offertillzer.
[ followed the old way of early
fertilizing, planting high, working
rapidly, aud buying corn. 1t al
ways made a big flourishing stalk,
and was an annual joy in the spring,
and in the fall | was in annual
sorrow. I knew that the farmer
who did not makeprovisions always
failed sooner or later, and in my
case all signs pointed to it being
sooner. So [ applied more fertil-
izer at planting times, and gave it
more work. 1t grew still larger
than before, and made even less,
and [ continued to buy corn. l
was getting out of trouble as fast
as the frog was getting out of the
we'll.
[ had seen real farmers make
more corn on much smaller stalks.
| had laughed at them in the spring
and they at me in the fall, they al
ways, however laughed last. So
profting by their success as well
as my failure, l began to plant
lower, and fertillAe later, but it
was not until had allowed it to
stand on small ridge with the
second working burrows left open
on both sides, that the stalk could
be making it's ear.
The smallness of the stalk itself
now suggested that it could be
planted thicker in the drill.
Thus for more than ten years [
kept on studying and experiment.
ing, planting lower and thicker,
and S ting the stalk growth, at
ter which all fertilizers were appli-
ed nitrate of soda being saved for
last blowing. My yield gradually
increased, until in 1904, when
with $11 worth of fertilizer per
acre, on my crop of 10 acres, the
land being good, rows six feet
apart, and corn eleven inches in
drill. I was then convinced that
the principles of the method were
correct, and that by it's use corn
could be made more profitable than
cotton. So in 1905 | increased
my crop to seventy acres on poor
land, and made 50 bushels per
acre, with 81 OF; in fertilizer; rows
six feet apart and thirteen inches
in drill. In 1907, IS acres yielded
SIS bushels per acre, with $9.0S
per acre, stand irregular
from hail; rows six feet
1905 was very dry here at ear
ing time.
1907 crop was greatly injured by
hail on June 4th.
This method which has been so
successfully followed in this sect
ion, is given in detail. With such
notifications as any practical far
mer can make to suit own soil and
climate, 1 believe that it can be
used with much profit throughout
the entire south, especially upon
sandy soils. The tools named are
such as every one-horse farmer has.
Labor saving implements can be
used, for have known a crop
practically made with two-horse
riding discultivator. 1t is my
purpose, however, to keep this
method within reach of the one
horse farmer, and to so describe it
that he may derive its full benefit, |
with the tools that he has and |
under the conditions by which he |
is surrounded, and not to tell how