Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1913-06-20
THE CULTIVATION
OF CORN

Successful corn culture depends {
as much upon the know how" as
does success in any other business.
Of course, a deep, humus-filled soil
is the first consideration, but much
depends upon the cultivation given
the corn after it is up. The far
mer who understands and practices
the best principles of corn growing,
who knows the rOot-system, the
movements of soil moisture and
the uses of soil mulches, will make
a good corn crop in spite Of adverse
seasons of rainfall and drought. +
The one who does not understand !
these things attributes his failures
to the wet weather, the dry wealth
er, the hot weather, the cold wealth
er. or something else the eIlecIS .,
which nc should be able to opltate.
In the arm Demonstration Work
last season some big crops Of corn
were made where no rain felI from
tne time the corn was planted till
it was mature Yet the yield OF
corn in this country are more. de
pendent upon rainfall during the
growing season than upon any one
thing else. This should not be.
But let us see that we under
stand what proper cultivation does.
Every good farmer knows that cul-
tivation is to save the moisture to
destroy terminating weed seeds, to
iliberate plant food and to warm
and aerate the soil. If the first TWO
are accomplished the others are
, ftoo. The successful farmer never
! allows his soii to become cGustea
over because he knows that 1t is
then losing moisture. To prevent
+. this crusting also destroy weed and
grass seed that may be coming up
IN the soil. So we see that all that
, is necessary is to cultivate often
enough to keep the soil loose on
;, top. One of the Experiment Sta
: tions has found that during very
dry hot weather a single corn stalk
will take from the soil and evapor-
ate as much as ten pints of water
in one day. lI requires about 800
: pounds OF water to produce one
: pound OF dry matter. SO we learn
v that corn is crop that requires i'm
menSe amounts OF moisture. Yet,
: throughout this section, we have
sufficient rainfall every year to pro-
duce two or three corn crops On Oul
land. The wise farmer is he who
has learned how to catch the rain
tall and keep it in the soil until il
is needed.
n AS to depth of cultivation, We
r must remember that corn belongs
to the grass family and therefore
t. has tine fibrous, extensive roo
a system. BY the time corn is foo
l. high the rOols may be tapping be
10 tween the rows. The roots grow ou
Of Ward through the soil from two t.
. four times as fast as the stalk
= grow upward. To destroy thes
u roots in cultivating is to cut off tn
~ feeding powers of the corn. |
r very often happens that tn
in soil needs a rather deep Stirrin
,e while the corn is small and befor
= - the roots get out far If this is tn
L. case, it should be given, but car
y; must be taken not to cultivate deer
N. ly later. The Indiana Experimer
10 Station has shown that corn cult
~ waited about two inches deep yield
~, ed 1926 bushels; that cultivate
'l0 three inches deep yielded42.56 bust
ne els; while that cultivated:four inche
deep yielded only 1892 bushel
Another station found that shallo,
lis cultivation yielded 61.8 bushels pe
III acre, but deep cultivation gave onl
- 74.1 bushels.
'So AS to the number of times t
IN, cultivate corn, this will depend uK
on on conditions. The thing to kee
he in mind is to keep a mulch on tt
p surface until the corn has fully ta
- seled. In many cases it will pa
ar- to cultivate until some of the silk.
ire begin to turn brown. 1t is a crit