Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-09-20

SlIO II is also a sign tndI the HlOsl
is being made of the corn crop.
Waste is largely eliminated.
1t is as impossible TO estimate the
productiveness and value of COW
as it is to guess the exact number
OF bushels of corn a certain field
will yield
The scales and a Babcock tester,
when rightly used will accurately de-
termine whether any of your cows
are "grafters" just as surely as a
pair of farm scales will show the ex-
act yield of corn.
Don't put up with a "robber" COW
any more than you would with a
robber of any kind.
The sort of seed corn to select is
the kind that produces bushels
per acre. 1t is not necessarily the
largest or finest looking ear that has
this desirable characteristic. The
medium size ear, we'll filed out. with
a plump, deep, even, uniform sized
kernel is generally the best sort. A
well filled crib of we'll matured corn
which generally means a good yield
per acre, is much more satisfactory
and to be desired than many first
prizes at the fair The early, care
full selection of the right sort of
seed, when given the right atten-
ton, usually means both a prize at
the crib and at the fair.
In ride through the country one
thing is easy to see, and that is that
the corn which was cultivated to the
1acr nnCGih1n &c holding
the best, is cared the heaviest, gives
promise of the greatest yield and is
best all around, everything taken
into consideration. Many fields laid
by at the usual time are both weedy
and poorly cared. There is no ques-
ton but what the grass and weeds
could easily have been prevented, or
that they have taken the vitality
that the corn should have. In the
struggle for plant food, moisture,
light, etc, that takes place in our
fields between the weeds and grains
there is plain evidence that the de-
sired crop is always worsted.
One cannot help noticing in a trip
through the state the large amount
of damage done and the great ex-
tent VI duSClSu W liz
ages of the chinch bugs.
A few days ago we saw one field of
corn, 80 acres in extent, that was so
badly infested that the owner, in or
der to realize anything at all for his
labor expended on this field. had cut
it before it was ready and placed it
in the silo. Even then the number
of chinch bugs taken in by the bun
dies of corn was so great that they
accumulated about the cutter until
they were scooped away by the
bushel.
The great wonder to us is why did
any farmer, intelligent and progress
sive enough to use silo, neglect
to guard his corn fields by some one
of the several protective measures
known to be effective?
Our state entomologist tells us
that there is every indication that
the number of chinch bugs and the
damage consequent TO increased
numbers will be greater next year
than it has been this.
1t is already too late to do any
thing to lessen the damage this year
but a great amount can be done to
decrease the number of insects and
prevent their damage on next years
crop.
The second brood Of insects is the
one that will mate and lay eggs this
fall. The places they will select are
fall sown wheat, timothy meadows,
weedy corn fields, trashy hedge rows
and fences, under boards, along the
turn rows, in under leaves from the
woodlot or shade trees and, in fact,
in any sheltered, grassy or Uttered
spot
A knowledge of their habits of
egg laying indicates some of the
ways we can decrease their numbers
and protect our crops.
Clean out the fence rows and
hedges; burn all rubbish; pillow the
stubbIe fields carefully and deep, !
leaving no stubble showing; burn
over the meadows and pastures dur
ing the winter while the ground is
frozen, burn, pillow or clear off weedy |
corn fields, and in fact. do everything
possible to disturb the winter quar- |
tiers of the bugs. Run fire over and
everything in which they are
protected or can harbor during the
winter season. If the burning is
done while the ground is frozen lit
tie damage will result to the crop,
otherwise it may be greatly injured.
This winter is one of the years when
1t is at all advisable TO rake and burn
the corn stalks. IF you wait until
the usual time next spring, however,
- Ia T1-itl n
plant food and not the bugs.
Plow all infested fields late this
fall or extra early next spring and
pillow them so deeply and carefully
that the bugs will be below the
sound OF Gabriel's trumpet.
If these precautions are followed
the increased numbers of the bugs
will be so reduced that the damage
next year will be greatly minimtzed.