Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1912-03-28
Corn Club.

In 1892 he called it Mali" after the
natives Of Hayt, Later generations
corrupted this pame to maize. But
my iriead from Texas has an offspring
Of this plant known in the Love Star
State as Milo Maize, The Indian
corn Of those days was far from the
Iowa or Northern corn of the present
time Visit the Smithsonian institute
at Washington where a specimen
ear taken from Peruvian grave
eleven feet deep. The kernels are
thin and pointed, overlapping each
other like pop corn, The ears are
short and not completely covered. It
has been in the last few years by
careful seed selection and modern
methods Of cultivation lha. the full,
long or round kernels which now
gIaddens the hearts Of The members Of
the Boys Corn Club and makes the
rich corn growers Of the Middle
West,
The evolution CT ,his "Naiiz" has
been slow. The early white settlers
copied tbe Indians way Of farming,
planning their corn with stick and
trusting 10 natuaaI conditions to bring
the ear to maturity. Later they hilIed
it and hoed it while it was maturing
and sill later they started to enrich
the soil either by manure or phos.
pilates. ! think some Of those eary
settlers and Indians are still! living
around here. So look out Corn CluL
Boys.
With the opening of the grea
West, this cereal MALI" which hac
been a little brother to wheat oats
and cotton, suddenly became Kini
over night. The crop was announced
10 be a half a billion bushels, th'
following year billion, and sever
years ago the world was startled will
a two billion estimate, and it wa
rumored that farm mortgages har
disappeared from the face Of tn
earth. Then in 1909 when tn
! Government Bureau gave out owe
three billion bushels as the croE
+ automobile licenses began to muIhpI
in country towns, bright, new piano
r sent their music through the rur;
summer evenings, bank president
began to pay interest where they ha
been wont to collect it, railway trav'
was doubled and word went fourt
that the farmer (the Corn Club boS
Of yesterday had come into his ow
Such has been the miracle of cor
But back Of this wonderful growth
wealth lies the power Of mans il
genuity and enterprises. The stra
Cling cornstaIks and the Elusive G
Of Indian crop has multiplied to mai
: bushels per acre. The arduous ear
hand planting hasbeen superseded
corn planters with the check row
that plants two rows at a time in hi
elimating the use Of theaslov al
. costly way Of Indian methods Of farr
: ing with the crooked stick and hoe.
The old slow way (that should
an echo of the past in this age) wi
the chopping and with the one m,
and Georgia stock pIow has Civ
way to the cultivator with vario
attachments whereby you cultivate
row at time and on the largest CO
farm in the world can be seen fl
two.row cultivators with fifty boys al
one hundred and fifty head Of hors
cultivating two rows at time. |
IS backbreaking cutting with a kni
n which is a dark memory to every m
A. who was once farmers boy,
Il given place to the corn binder whi
re cuts and binds without the aid
human hand. And last the &C
picker has caused the blue finger
t. husking days when the frost was
.. the pumpkin to be only historic ass
Citations on up-to.date farms.
Corn planters, corn huskers a
J., shedders. corn binders and &C
pickers have revoIutionized the &C
industry Of the Northern Corn B
Old things have passed away, a
the new teings are working togetE
to make the farmer with his mode