Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1912-01-25

how to grow corn, but / want to
show you l can produce the goods.
4 have been asked to give my
re-'ilts in growing corn, and pre-
pairing the land under irrigation.
1t l. a long-used expression, you
must like the work or you Will not
succeed.
My first experience in growing
corn was in Pennsylvania, and q
short time after in Nebraska, WHERE
| grew 20 bushels Of corn TO the
acre, and it only received one light
shower from the time it was plant
ed (the last Of May) until it was
harvested in October. My neigh
bors asked me how | did it. | told
them the best | could. l was only
about 10 at that time. | sold that
corn that year at 30 cents per
bushel.
When | came to Idaho, more
than % years ago, | asked about
growing corn. Yes, We raise lit
tie sweet corn here, and some few
have tried field corn but We have
such a peculiar climate here, the
nights are so cold in summer that
corn suckers very badly, 80 We do
not grow it, and We raise wheat on
the land 10 raise more wheat 10
buy more land TO raise more wheat.
Some Of the old bottom land at
this time would not grow wheat. l
bought 50 acres Of this land, and
they told me the crops that had
been growing there for several years
were sunfowers. | plowed this
land the latter part Of May, about
eight inches deep. Sometime in
June went over it with a harrow
In July l cultivated to get out every
sunhower | could see. During that
winter We completed an irrigation
ditch that had been started two
years before.
During this time l had been
watching for a patch Of corn around
the neighborhood that | could gel
some seed from to plant. | wanted
seed that was acclimated and final
ly succeeded in getting a bushel.
In March the following year w
turned the water into the ditch. !
week later the ditch broke one nigh
and flooded over a part of this lane
that was going to plant to corn
As soon as It got dry enough Il
work, / plowed this with the res
of the tract, about eight acres.
then took an "A" harrow, turne'
it upside down and put a plan
across it and rode the harrow. VIII
did do that? | was going to irri
gate this tract of land to raise cor
on and it had never been leveled
While it did not require much leye
ing, still there were a few bump
on the land, and l was aiming t
settle this ground down as well &
to settle the newly plowed land.
reversed the harrow and went owe
the ground twice, standing on ii
harrow the last time.
About the middle of April
went over to one of my neighbo
and borrowed an old Acme harrow
and went over the ground three {
four times until it looked more Ill
an onion field than a corn fell
and as it was on the side of ma
travelled road l could hear all kin,
of remarks made about that pie
of ground.
Five days after planting tn
corn, it was up and noticed Il
ground that had been flooded W
80 moist and worked so fine tn
when it was time to irrigate d
cided not to irrigate this part b
the rest of the field that ] thong
required the moisture.
Shortly after this irrigating | n
ticed the corn throwing out sucker
while the other side that food
and was not irrigated did not thrt
out suckers. / was interested, a.
did some hard thinking as well
work the next 5 years experimel
ing with corn.
Some of Won will sav that