Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-06-28
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CORN As A DRY FARM CROP
By w. r. Porter. North Dakota
Agricultural College.
Supt. Demonstration Farms.

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In all the dry farming areas the con-
servation Of the rainfall in the soil
where it becomes available to grow.
ing crops is the keynote of the sue
cessful agricultural operations.
This is generally done by the cul-
tivation of the soil during the entire
growing season. If no crop Is pro-
duced on the land this operation is
Icalled sumner fallow or summer cul.
ture. Over most of the dry farming
area nearly If not as good grain can
be grown following a cultivated crop
as after the summer fallowed land.
When the bare fallow system is
used whole year elapses without any
returns either on the investment or
for the labor performed. If cult
waited crop can be grown with as good
results following 1t should more than
pay its expense which will consist OF
the cost of seed, planting and harvest
ing; the cultivation would have to be
done anyway so this should not be
counted against the cost of production
of a crop of corn. Corn is pre-emi-
IcllLly Cuo UOSuIAoO ~ PAO-
duces an abundance of cheap feed;
second, it shades the soil during the
excessively hot days of July and Au.
gust thereby preventing loss OF soil
fertility, and, third, corn field has a
cooling rather than a heating influence
on the winds that blow across it. This
may have a very beneficial effect on
surrounding crops when the temepra-
ture is near the 10 degree mark.
On most farms in the dry farming
area enough live stock should be kept
to pay most of the running expenses
of the farm. Hay and pasturage are
very short in such areas and conse-
quently too dear for cheap live stock
production. Enough corn should be
grown to supply: first, the work
horses; second, to supplement the pas
turage of the summer and fall as
soiling crop or in the for moi ensil-
age and to form the bulk of their win.
ter ration; fourth, to supply the sheep
and hogs a cheap food for finishing
them office in the fall.
The first essential to corn culture
on the dry farm is live stock for with
out such there is no way of utiliz-
ing the corn crop, but of live stock
are kept, feed must be had, the corn
crop can be converted into beef, pork.
mutton. wool. butter and eggs; COM
modities that can always be converted
into cash or it's equivalent. The BY
product of live stock-manure-should
go back onto the land to replenish the
supply of humus and fer
tilizing elements too essential to the
large yields.
The second essential to corn culture
is a conviction that it will pay to
grow live stock on the crop produced
and determination to grow corn as
their chief feed in spite of adverse
circumstances. In order to be sue
cessful in growing corn. on dry
farm the selection of the proper vari.
ETY. is essential. In Western North
Dakota and eastern Montana, Squaw,
Gehu, King Phillip and Trump will
probably prove the best flint varieties
while Golden Dent and Northwestern
dent will probably prove the best va
rieties. Good seed is very import
ant. 1t should always terminate
strong and IS per cent or better.
The time to seed is from the 10th
to the 15ta of May in a we'll prepared
seed bed which has been MANFRED
and plowed the fall before and which
has ben narrowed at intervals from
the time the soil had thawed out in
the spring until the time of seeming.
Thorough cultivation is very i'm
portant as it wears the soil, decreases
evaporation of soil water, and forces
the corn ahead very rapidly. On the
dry farms the corn should be cult
waited after every rain as soon as pos
sible, in order to bottle up all water
possible in the soil. AS soon as the
corn is cut the land should be disced
lightly but it should not be plowed.
Should any heavy soaking rains come
after this in the fall the land should
again be narrowed. In the spring
wheat should be sown as early as pos.
sible, but very rarely should the corn
land be .plowed before seeding to
wheat.