The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1909-01-12

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

Being of. an inquiring turn of mind.
! once upon a 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 well as | could
what kind of cultivatioS we ought to
give The plant while it is In the
process of maturing. and | must say
opener to me.
1t was along in August that | 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 | 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-shovel 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 its
use in the cornfield is concerned, than
the first. That we knew as the horse
hoe, good tool in its place, but that
place is not, and never was, the corn
field. That had regular shovel pillow
running ahead, with two legs follow
Ing, and two more that might be put
IN If a man wanted to do still greater
lamage to his corn crop.
The thing that impressed itself on
me was, that only light cultivation is
needed in the cornfeld. What we need
S tool that will thoroughly dig III
The soil on the surface and not rur
more than two or three inches deep.
Another discovery l made was thai
the roots of the corn plant are not al
directly under the stalks. | foun(
hem far out in every direction, like
the roots of a big tree. A little though
will tell us why this should be SO. The
cornstalk is heavy, especially when i
Is well laden with ears. When tht
wind strikes it, there is strong pur
chase and II not we'll braced, the whole
hill is likely to go over.
remember how this worked on
year when we were troubled terribl.
by the gray grub which works at thu
root of the cornstalk. Hundreds o
cornstalks went down in our field tina
year; and always when We dug dow
at the base of the stalks We fOun'
that the small roots had been cut of
by the grub Nature is wise. Sh
provides the corn plant with wide
spreading roots. Still another reason
for this is to be found in the fact tina
corn needs great deal of fertilizer t.
bring it to maturity. Here and there
everywhere, the fibrous roots run, i
search for his food. If they do no
find it, small crop is the inevitabl
result.
Deep cultivation hinders the plan
from getting this sustenance so neces
sary to it's life and growth. Eve
when we send the teeth of the cult
vator far down out in the middle G
the space between the rows We ar
injuring the growth of the plant an
so lessening our chances for harves
ing good crop.-Farmers' Voice.