The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1910-05-20
EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT ON FORAGE CROPS

The great American gram IoOu LOT
men and stock upon the farm is corn.
Therefore the growing of an abundant
supply of corn is one of the essentials
of good farming.
The Southern farmer should grow
enough corn for every possible need
on the farm. The reasons for this are
plain. 1t has been demonstrated thor
oughly that with proper preparation
and cultivation he can grow as much
per acre as the farmer in the best corn
growing sections. At prevailing prices
it is cheaper to grow it, even with II
and IS cent cotton. The best farm
ing requires systematic rotation of
crops on all lands Corn is a standard
crop and is especially valuable from
the fact that we not only get the corn
crop, but can grow with it a heavy
crop of peas, which will give a liberal
supply of nitrogen and humus, two of
the most valuable things in building
up soils.
Corn is a tropical plant, and all 9th
err things being equal it should thrive
better in the Southern than in the
Northern states This, however, is not
the case. What is the reason? The
main cause is the lack of suitable seed
beds in the South.
Experiments have shown that, while
it sends many of it's roots 3 or 4 feet
deep, the corn plant places the great
body Of its feeding roots from to -
inches below the surface where the
soil is made loose enough by blowing
or by frost to permit it. The roots
send out in every direction an in
finite number of hairlike growths which
absorb moisture and food On soils
properly prepared and in sections f
fair rainfall the feeding ground for
corn in usually from 2 to u inches be-
low the surface This is strictly true
in the great corn belt of the Northwest
In the South there has been too much
shallow blowing. Breaking or 4 in
ches is not deep enough to make a suit
able feeding place for corn roots; on
average land it furnishes neither suff-
cicnt food nor sufficient moisture for
the plant to do its best The trouble
with a shallow seed bed is that it is
too wet under heavy rainfall and too
dry in periods of drouth A long ad-
vance will be made toward increasing
the average five fold if the following
suggestions are carried out:
0) Make a deep seed bed, suited to
the requirements of the corn plant.
(2) Fill this seed bed with vegetable
matter and give it good drainage.
(3) Use the best seed.
az Practice intensive cultivation
The disc pillow, the adjustable section
harrow and the weeder are the valuable
aids in producing the corn crop.
The Cowpea Crop.
The cowpea is a part of the corn
problem in the South, and the plan gen
orally adopted Of broadcasting half a
bushel Of seed to the acre at the time
of the last working of the corn and cul-
tiva+ing it has given good results.
The corn should be gathered as early
as practicable and the stock turned in.
Fortunate is the man who has tight
fencing, so that the pigs as well as the
work stock and cattle can have
chance at the cOwpeas. On some of
the poorer lands the corn rows may be
made feet apart and a row of peanuts
planted between them; this will add
to the value of the fall pasture when
no cowpeas are planted. AS soon as
the crop of cowpeas has been fairly
we'll grazed, break deep, setting the
furrows on edge; harrow; sow to oats,
vetch, winter barley, or rye, and turn
this under in the spring. This plan
will economically improve the soil and
greatly increase the average crop pro-
duction.
Where the season is too short to sue
cessfully carry out the foregoing plan
it has been found that planting vetch
and rye or crimson clover in the corn
and turning them under in the spring
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