Lower coast gazette., 1910-05-28

In these days when in our local market corn
is worth pound for pound nearly as much as
rice, a we'll defined intention to greater care in
corn culture is developing Itself Throughout the
state. Serious studies along these lines. have
been inaugJr2ted in our schools and are being
pressed by many Of our leading farmers and
planters. Some experiments have recently been
lrade at the Florida Experiment Station and are
reported in the y. s.. Experiment Station Record
for May, wherein it is definitely demonstrated
that northern bred corn is too soft and starchy
for ordinary purposes in florida. Similar eX-
perienceS have been had in this state and il is
generally recognized that corn grown from
northern seed is more liable to attacks Of Wecvil
than our S0-called Creole corr, or corn produced
from seed grown in these attitudes. The latter
is harder, flintier and hence less susceptible to
the weevil. Apart from this, it is stated that
in Florida the northern bred corn is more liable
to mold end decay than are the varieties pro-
duced generally in the Gulf States.
Many Of our southern farmers and planters
are not familiar with corn harvest as It is prac-
tised in the West. There they generally cGt
tie corn when the ears look ripe and shock it in
tie fields, leaving it there to dry in the shocks
for an indefinite period, frequently for some
months. In our land Of greater rainfall we are
not in the habit Of shocking it at all, but gather
tie corn in the so-called slip shuck, leaving the
S ak and the outer shuck standing in the fields.
This slip shuck corn, so gathered, is always IN
danger of spelling if any moisture be left in the
plthy part of the cob. The corn may lock to be
entirely ripe and sufficiently dry for housing and
yet if there be any moisture left in the cob as
can generally be told by breaking the ears and
catching the CLINT Of the sun on the little atoms
OF moisture. IN the cob. it will almost surely
spoil if housed in large quantities. With US,
therefore, corn must remain in the field until
there is nothing green about the leaves or stalk
Of the plant. This makes q good rule of
thumb" that We have generally found effective
in these ATTITUDES. All this, however, leaves
open one point on which our northern friends
frequently question us, and that is why we do
not cut our corn earlier and shock it in the fields
and thus give it ample opportunity to dry in the
field, as is done in the West and North. The
trouble here seems to be that we have not vet
learned to appreciate the value Of corn stalk
forage, which is said to be very excellent when
properly shredded and again, the desirabiIity of
fall blowing in these ATTITUDES and the fact that
in the sugar section of Louisiana the only avail
able time for fall blowing lies between the corn
harvest and fall cane planting. These eondi-
tons render it necessary to have the fields clear
of the corn and leads us generally to gather the
corn in the slip shuck and housing it in great
AS corn culture promises to he a more
conspicuous one in the future than it has been
in the past, our W State Experiment Stations
may perhaps devote themselves to this phase of
the question, that = as to whether or not there
can be to US any economic or industrial aavant-
sge in the earle. harvest of the corn crop and