Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1911-10-17
AMONG THE FARMERS.
dMUINU IuE TdnWEnO.
"sPEED THE PLow."
Correspondence on practical Agricultural topic
IL solicited. Address all communications In
tended for this department to HENRY D
HAMMOND, Agricultural Editor Oxford Dem
ocrat. Paris. Ne.
Corn In the Eastern States.
A CERTAIN AND REMUSERATIvE CROP,
WITH PROPER TILLAGE.
"sPEED THE PLow."
Corn In the Eastern States.

the eastern states, after all, In spite o.
the very dry weather of July, which a
one time threatened to ruin 1t, after II
had cut down the hay crop badly. Las
year the corn was good also, after the
coldest late May and early June that any
one recalls. All this means that it still
pays to plant corn In quantity east OF Lake
Erie, and, more than that, it pays t.
take care of it. Let the farmer learn
that he must drop everything when the
corn demands tilling and he will get a
| crop. IL he does not do this he will get,
as rule, hardly enough to pay for his
work, often very little but fodder.
There is no crop that will suffer from
drouth so quickly or so fast as bay, and
there is none that will recover from al
most any unfavorable conditions as fast
as corn, always provided that the farmer
is mp to his business and keeps the
ground we'll titled. II he will not do
that he might as well raise wheat; tha,
does not expect any tillage after 1t is
sowed. Corn is Western or Southern
crop, they tell us, doing we'll only where
there Is great amount of blazing sun.
That is true only in part. The east has
sun enough commonly to mature a corn
crop, and the sorts that are planted in
of sun demanded Of the western sorts,
and they will yield as much grain to the
acre. Not a few successful corn raisers
from Western New York eastward are
now boasting that they have crop COM
ing in that is up to anything found in the
Mississippi Valley.
This is a very desirable beginning, If
the eastern farmer is to return to the
raising of beef, pork and mutton, as is
the talk now. He can hardly do this to
any great extent unless be has the corn
behind him TO finish off his animals with.
But they say that IL costs so much more
TO raise a bushel of corn in the east than
it does in the west that it will be useless
to 60 into the competition. Well, the
reply is that corn is worth more in the
east than it is in the west. 1t brings
about five cents bushel more in Buff
falo than it does in Chicago, matter of
only five hundred miles difference in
distance from the Atlantic seaboard.
This means close to cent for every hun
dred miles, and when the Chicago price
Is called high at 90 cents bushel the
percentage Of advance as we proceed
eastward from the big fields of Nebraska
to New England is big one.
Nobody is trying to say that the west
is not adapted to the raising OF corn. 1t
is; but the west is saying that 1t is not
going to produce the meat supply OF the
country, hereafter as it used to, and so
the east must raise corn or stay out OF
livestock raising.
Some of the prettiest and "eariest"
pieces of corn / ever saw are found away
on the coast of Rhode Island and Massa-
chusetts. / saw them there last season,
and | have just seen them there again
this season. With light soil and fer
tilizer from the ocean kelp, that is often
handy and always excellent, the cost OF
bushel of corn is, or May be, very little
more than ii is in the West, and the add
ed value, along with the use of the fod-
der and the need of it that will insure
its use, will make the eastern corn
raiser a good competitor of the west If
he is only willing to make the trial and
make il thoroughly. If he will not do
that the corn crop is the very poorest
one be can go into, for 1t is the very one
that will suffer from neglect worst Of all
crops.
SO let the eastern farmer study the
livestock problem we'll, but he should
not make any advances in that direction
of account unless he is willing to 60 into
corn for all be is worth and make sue
cess of 1t. He can do it, and the better
farmers all through the east are doing It,.
Many of them can raise the tall Dent
varieties, but as rule, unless they want
a lot of corn for silsge, they can do bet
ter with some good flint variety, that
does not run the risk of getting caught
by an early frost. 1t Is seldom that the
fine sorts are too late in maturing,
though it requires some fine calculation
often to decide just when to cut them in
order to get the best return OF both fod-
der and grain.
In livestock centres of the east there
is any amount of talk of going into cat
tie and hog raising again. They say
that meat is always going to be high,
since the ranch, where pasturage was
had for nothing, is gone. The east used
to raise beef and pork before the days OF
the ranch, and it should return to IT,
now that the ranch is going. No doubt
the effort will be made, but 1t will be at
the best only partial success, unless
there is corn to feed after the pastures
give out in the fall. Certain western
methods of handling the crop and the
animals will have to be learned, but GER
tain other western methods will be well
II they are learned just in order to avoid
them.
We cannot afford either to burn the
fodder or allow it to 60 to waste in any
way. There must be provision for feed
ing IL all. The farmer who understands
corn fodder knows that most of 1t ranks
along with good hay, and if it 10 put into
a silo properly II 10 worth more than hay.
He can even make the stock eat the big
pithy, woody stem down to the ground,
though that is mostly in order to get rid
of it and get 1t back on the way to fertil-
izer as soon as possible. 1t has no great
amount of feed in 1t.
The warm, sunny and mostly rainy
August had q wonderful effect on the
eastern corn fields. 1t found them
looking very discouraged. July had
been too hot and dry, and 1t seemed that
most of the fields were too far gone
when the weather changed, but where q
field was we'll titled 1t has been able to
make a jump that astonishes even the
old corn raisers. They are saying that
corn is the crop for many things. IT the
hay is short the natural change in the
weather will boom corn later on and
give us the roughage that is needed.
When the hay crop was gathered there
was a cry that there would be q bad
shortage OF winter roughage, but to-day
not few farmers are saying that they
have more than they had last year. II
Is mostly due to the corn crop.-John
W. Chamberlain, Buffalo, N. Y, in
Tribune Farmer.
The manure question is the main one
for every day discussion. Does 1t pay IN
the end to use much commercial fertil'
izsr? Does 1t hold up the land year after
T. nf anraad-