Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-08-17
WHY CORN CURLS UP.
The Wallace Farmer Gives Explain.
alton of Cause of Corn Leaves
Curling.

A farmer remarked to us on the
street that some of his neighbors
were complaining of their corn curl
ing up. We asked: How is yours?'
He answered: Il prepared my
ground so thoroughly last spring
that it seems so far to have an
abundance of moisture"
1t is worth while to think little
as to why corn curls up. The curl
ing is the result of the attempt of
the plant to economic moisture.
The exhaling tubes or pores of the
plant are on the under side of the
leaf. When moisture is abundant,
these are kept wide open. AS the
supply of moisture coming in from
the roots become deficient, the plant
contracts these pores and this
draws the leaves together into a
roll. The curling is protective
measure intended to preserve its
existence until moisture increases.
In other words, the curling up of
the leaves shows that the plant Is
not having sufficient moisture to
meet its requirements for growth,
which, so to speak, slows down un-
til moisture is supplied from some
source. OF course, this slowing up
process is followed by lack OF &c
velopment, or in other words, stunt
ing the plant. Farmers have no.
ticed that this curling up occurs in
the heat of the day, when the evap-
Grafton is the greatest and the larg-
est demands are made upon the
slightest shower, or with a heavy
dew, or with the cooler weather of
the evening.
How. then, can this curling up
and consequent stunting and lack
of full development be prevented?
Cured it cannot be, but it can be
prevented to very great extent.
If our readers whose corn is curling
up will investigate little, they will
find that it is worse at the ends of
the rows, where the blowing has
been shallow, or where the soil has
been rendered hard and compact by
the tramping of the horses feet in
turning. They will find that it oc-
ours where there is a gravelly sub
soil, or where for any reason there
is thin soil, or where the hardpan
surface. They will not find it. ex-
cept in rare and extreme cases,
where the land is we'll supplied with
humus, has been plowed deep, the
seed bed we'll prepared, and the
cultivation thorough.
The remedy therefore lies first in
the soil well supplied with humus,
which will enable it to hold water:
second, in thorough preparation of
the seed bed; and third, as perfect
cultivation as possible.
Some weeks ago we suggested TO
our readers that there was every in
dication of season of abnormally
low rain fall, and therefore that
they had better prepare for this dry
season by thorough preparation OF
the seed bed for corn, and by con-
slant and continuous cultivation,
even when the plant did not seem
for the present to need it. We have
nothing to add to this. If our read
ers whose corn is curling. up will
make a little study of the condi-
lions, 1t will be very helpful to them
in years to come.
Up to the first of July. or even
to the middle, in the latitude of
central Iowa, corn requires but little
moisture. Scarcely any season is
too dry for good corn crop, pro-
vided the previous treatment of the
soil has been right, the seed bed
well prepared and the culture of the
very best. Where corn fires before
1t tassels, due to neglect of these
previous conditions, only a very
heavy rainfall during tasseling will
produce even an average crop.