The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-11-30
CORN PLANTING IN GEORGIA
SEED SELECTION AND USE OF
MACHINERY IMPORTANT
An Interesting Letter From Martin
'. Calvin on This and Other.
Farm Subjects.

Farm Subjects.
was very glad to see Illustrated
at the recent Georgia state fair at
Macon the importance and the true
value OF three factors in genuine ag-
rlcuItural progress, namely, a high
average yield of corn per acre, pure
pred live stock, and Iabor-saving
Iarm Implements and machinery.
repeat what l have heretofore
remarked: That the largest yield of
a single acre does not hold for nue.
more than passing interest. do
not would not, disparage the effort
OF the men and boys who have
grown phenomenal crops of corn on
the single acre plan, but l respect
fully contend that the truer test of
possibilities in corn culture can be
made with ten or, better still, TWEEN
ty acres
IT, by using the best obtafnable
seed, by high fertilization, by su-
peTior methods of cultivation, ten
or twenty thoroughly prepared acres
Of average soil be made to yield an
average of 50 to SO bushels per acre
OF understandable corn there would
be present convincing evidence of
real progress and the assurance of
still greater achievements.
II one thousand farmers in each
OF our eleven congressional districts
should, by the process mentioned,
each exact a yield of 25 to 35 bush
els OF corn per acre from one hun
dred acres of average land there
would be given us guarantee that,
in a reasonable length of time, the
general average yield of the state
would be 25 bushels of shelled corn.
This done, Georgia would take
her stand at the front of states
largely or almost wholly agricult-
ural.
The effect would be far-reaching.
so excellent a result would mean
that the average yield per acre of
field peas, oats, wheat, hay, cotton,
etc. had been brought up to a
higher standard. ....
cannot at this moment recall a
fair of the many with which I
have been closely identified at which
deeper or a more substantial in
terest was shown in improved labor
saving farm implements and ma
chinery than at the fair just closed.
have repeatedly expressed my
abiding interest in this department
OF agricultural accessories. The
subject is of vital interest to all our
farmers-small and large. The man
who tills 40 acres must feel as pro-
foundry interested in it as the man
who operates 400 to 1000 acres.
Improved labor-saving farm i'm
plements and machinery must be
looked to as the solution of the
farm-labOr problem at the south.
Gradually we are turning from
broad-casting oats; for we have been
taught by experience that three
years out of every five years At to
So per cent Of oats sown broadcast
are killed by the freezing weather
which comes in December or Janu-
airy, sometimes in March. One may
drill or SOW in the open furrow with
a One-hOrse machine which will
distribute the fertilizer and cover it.
| then drop the oats and cover to a
depth of three inches. Or one may
use a twO-horse planter and distrib-
utor With the former one can
seed two or three acres a day. With
the latter a man can seed ten acres
day. 1t would require zero wealth
err to injure oats thus sown.
A new departure is generally
needed in corn planting. The
practice in the matter of sowing oats
should be applied to corn. In other
words, the old system of planting by
hand should give place to the one
horse and the two horse planter
and fertilizer distributor. There is
an adjustable corn planter and dis
tributOr that will cover ten to fifteen
acres a day planting the grain al
almost any distance that may be
preferred.
Experience and observation have
convinced me that with rare excep.
lions the best distance for satisfac-
tory results is forty-two by forty-twC
inches each way-two stalks to q
hill With liberal use of a high
grade fertilizer rich in the plant
food which corn requires and with
proper cultivation IS bushels OF
shelled corn per acre will be as
sured.-Martin V. Calvin.