The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-28

SODoH THVhAS w.
 Today corn Is costing in our com munity 80 cents per bushel cash by the car load. Sold as an advance by the retail merchant on a years credit. it costs the farmer at least $1 to $l.25. Oats in like proportion.
 Corn can be raised and housed for 70 to 45 cents per bushel on ordinary table lands. The writer frequently, from rich suitable land, which requires no fertilizer. cultivates and puts 1t in crib for not exceeding 25 cents per bushel.
 Is 1t cheaper to pay s1 to more per bushel for corn than raise 1t at the above figure? The Williamson plan has but one distinguishing feature pe- culiarly its own. and that is the stunt ing process. His plan Is an expen- sive one, in that it calls for more fer tilizer and requires more labor than generally is regarded as necessary.
 The plan calls for from 800 to 800 pounds of fertilizer and requires about twenty-two to twenty-five terraces by blowing single horse to the row 0f corn. The farmer who obtains his advance on a credit at retail prices. reflects that if after such expense he should fail, he will be so far in debt that he cannot go another year. He Is apt to be deterred from the under taking on account of the cost of ferti- izers and extra labor demanded. have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the publish ed statement in regard to the yield of corn secured by the Williamson process. I do not believe, however, that one additional grain has ever been added to the yield by stunt ing the growth of the stalk. My con- victions were reached from reason long experience in farming, and abso- lute test of the system. Is 1t not con- trary to all reason to hold that a stalk of corn, or cotton. or any other growth. by cutting the roots. or by neglect of cultivation, becomes more productive than by early. shallow cultivation, so as to protect the roots and promote yigor and growth? l venture to as- sert there are very few experienced farmers who have lot learned that if the first working of corn Is delayed until the small stalk begins to harden. 1t will never recover and catch up with corn which received proper attention at proper time. It is an old saying with farmers that "corn will not wait" Will not every farmer admit that if there are two plots of corn, one culti- vated from the start, the other stunt ed" or neglected, and after thai period both are worked exactly alike and no fertilizer applied to either ,the one plot property culIlVated VIII yield twice as much as the other?
 Is not this a complete demonstration that the process of stunting does not add to but does diminish the produc- tive power of the stalk? The advo- cates, however, of the plan, contend that the "stunting" process is neces- sary to put the stalks of corn in prop CT condition for the application of the fertilizer prescribed, which reminds me of the interview between a consult ing doctor and the doctor in charge of the case. When the former arrived, he found the latter administering some extreme practice and when asked why was he administering such treatment the patient replied that he was trying to throw i'm into fits, that he was hell on fits. and if he could only throw him into fits, he felt sure he could save him.
 In other words. if the stalk is so stunted, idem fits" that it cannot grow then the fertilizer will be utilized in making the more grain. Take the two plats again-the one cultivated proper ly from the beginning, and the other set back by cutting the roots or by delay in work-and which of the two are just then in best condition to make corn? Clearly the cultivated stalks. Now apply the fertilizer to both exact ly alike and exactly al the same time and cultivate precisely alike-which are In best condition to respond to the fertilizer just then and to similar cul- tivation? If after corn is from knee high to thigh high q speak as a farm er) one plat is In good condition and the other crippled by stunting. and from 500 to 300 pounds of fertilizer Is applied in two applications to each plat alike, and cultivation is the same, and the corn laid by when 1t begins to branch entasseling or just before-the cultivated plat or stalk will beat the other every time. This is reason, ex- perience and I have made the test as will be stated hereafter.
 The reason why corn has so often failed when quantities of cotton seed meal and nitrate wexe put in the drill, bedded, and corn planted, was because these fertilizers had become exhausted before fruiting time-and there was nothing left to sustain either stalk or hoot of corn at the proper time.
 The reason why in the latter case the