Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1913-03-28
CORN GROWING

The Oregon-W ashington Railroad
q Navigation Company purposes
holding corn show at Colfax, Wash.
in the fall or early winter of 1913,
open to farmers tributary to their
lines in Washington and northern
Idaho, and also at Pendleton, Ore,
for farmers tributary to their lines
in Oregon. Cash prizes will be Of
fered for the best acre of corn and
the best ears of corn. The company
believes that these shows will dem
onstrate the possibilities, the prac-
ticability and the profitableness of
corn growing in the Pacific North
west, and that they will stimulate in
terest in diversified farming, dairy
ing and stock raising. These shows
will be the first of the kind under
taken in the Pacific Northwest.
Among the reasons why the COM
pany is interested in the stimulation,
encouragement and success of the
more diversified system of farming.
is the fact that such a system will
not only maintain, but will greatly
increase the productive capacity of
the land, 1t will furnish a more
continuous demand for labor and di-
vide the available labor over longer
period of time. Such a division of
labor would be more profitable and
satisfactory to both employer and
employee. 1t would necessitate homes
for more people on the land and
lead logically to an increase of rural
population, to more extensive and in
telligent methods of soil cultivation,
more careful selection of seed, bet
ter live stock, better social and bust
ness conditions.
There are a great variety of rea-
sons why the corn crop is regarded
as most valuable factor in sys-
tenn of diversified farming. It pro-
duces under average conditions, a
larger measure of feed per acre of
land and the labor involved than any
other crop grown. 1t can be success
fully and profitably grown under a
wider range of climatic and soil con-
didons than any other crop. It is
in every sense cultivated crop and
for this reason fits admirably in any
system of crop rotation.
Following the breaking up of a
grass, clover or alfalfa field, a we'll
cultivated corn crop leaves the
ground in first class condition for
any of the small grains, such as
wheat, oats or barley.
The corn plant possesses the happy
characteristic of adapting itself to
environment and conditions to a
greater degree than any other of our
economic plants, therefore, its area
OF successful and profitable growth
has continuously extended and ex-
panded from the Atlantic to the Pa
ciftc, from the Gulf of Mexico clear
beyond the headwaters of the Mis-
sissippi, varying its season of ma
turity from ninety days in the ex-
IRENE northern sections to six months
in the lower Mississippi valley and
gulf states.
Whether north or south, east or
west, the profitableness of the crop
seems to be more largely controlled
by the farmer than Is the case with
any other farm product, while there
are widely varying results found in
every section, such as yields run
ming from ten bushels per acre up
to over one hundred bushels per
acre. This difference seems to be
a matter of seed selection, prepare
ton of the land, careful planting and
thorough cultivation. The widely
varying yields seem to be due to
these factors rather than to either
soil or climatic conditions. In other
words, the yield of corn per acre de-