Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-01-22

corn crop is stunted, especially about
the time it begins to ear, the yield IS
surely reduced.
Humus the First Consideration.
The first thing to be certain of i
the fertilization of corr is that the
crop will have an abundant supply of
moisture all through the growing sea-
son. It is impossible to be absolute
ly sure Of this, but a reasonable water
insurance can be had by observing a
few points. The man who is break
ing his land deeply at this season is
helping to insure sufficient water for
his corn next summer. So of the man
who harrows his land early and often
in the spring, and the man who keeps
adjust mulch over his fields from. the
time thefcorn is planted until it begins
to mature.
But the best insurance of a water
supply through the summer is an
abundant supply of vegetable matter,
or humus, in the soil. Happy is the
corn grower who is now blowing UNI
der a grass Or clover sod, or who has
growing a crop if crimson clover or
or other winter legume to be plowed
under next spring. Humus is the
great moisture holder, and the green
stuff he is turning under will make
humus when it decays. Happyj, too,
the man who. has plenty of manure for
his corn land. He is supplying his
corn with plant food and assuring q
supply of water for it at the same
time. And without the water in abun-
dant supply poor use will be made of
the plant food.
The basis of the economical ferti-
~lization of corn, then, is an abundant
supply of vegetable matter. Pillow unz
der a green crop for your corr and
cover the land with stable manure so
you will be making the best possible
start toward a large and profitable
Germ crop.
When Commercial Fertilizers viii Pay
on Corn.
But do not imagine that when you
have pIowed under the crimson clover
or the manure, or both, that you have
done all you can do. You are then
right where you can buy commercial
fertilizers with confidence.
If you have applied a heavy dress
ing of manure or plowed under a
heavy growth of clover, you will have
given your crop a liberal supply Of
nitrogen. You need not fear giving
it too mech, however, for corp re
quires lots of nitrogen. A 1fty-bush-
Ell crop will use about eighty-two
pounds. This is as much as you
would get in 500 pounds of nitrate
tof soda, as much as you would get IN
1850 pounds of cotton-seed meal, as
much as there is in two tons of an
8-2-2 fertilizer. 1t is clear that one
cannot afford to buy the nitrogen for
his corn crop and pay the 18 TO
20 cents a pound it usually costs in
commercial fertilizers. The way to
get nitrogen for corn is to grow !e-
gumes and to feed live stock and Use,
the manure on the corn crop.
Yet there are times when it will pay
to buy nitrogen for corn. When the
soil is not well supplied it often pays
to use some nitrogen in organic, form
-~cottonseed meal, for example-at
planting time and to apply a side
dressing of nitrate of soda when the
corn is knee high to waist high. II
corn is planted on poor land, as it
should not be, it will pay to fertilize
and run the risk of its paying, rather
than to use no fertilizer and face the
certainty of a poor crop.
If there is plenty of nitrogen avail
able for the crop it will almost surely
pay to apply some phosphoric acid,
with a heavy crop of green stuff turn
ed down or with a heavy application
o. manure, ground phosphate rock will
be the thing to use. 1t is cheap and
can be applied literally Thousand
pounds or more to the acre. If the
land is not well supplied with vegeta-
bic matter, however, the phosphate
rock will become available % slowely !
as to be of little benefit to the quick
growing, impatiently hungry corn
crop. Then acid phosphate may be
used at the rate of 200 to 400 pounds
to the acre. +,
It is quite probable that ~phosphoric
acid in some form should be applied
to the corn crop in most cases. The
quantity used by the average crop OF
corn does not seem large, but it is
likely that more would be used inmost
cases if more were present in an avail
axle form. One can afford to buy