Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-01-22
uprE DONT'S TO BE OBSERVED
= JEFFERSON CORN GROWERS.
MAN.. Plant on Poor Land; Without q
Good Seed Bed and Don't Plant
Poor Seed.
Southern Farm J~ournaI.)

Ono fine spring morning, so / have
- a farmer and his sons, driving
Lang the road, PASSED by where an
thor farmer was busy blowing in a
very poor field.
aWbat are you going to plant there,
y, go asked Farmer No. 1.
Corn" said Bill.
"But that land is too poor to make
anything"
81 know it," admitted the plowman,
abut lacked a little of having a full
crou and 1 just thought I'd put this
in"
This story is said to be true, and IL
uas told to me as an example of ex-
IRENE folly.
That it is a fine example WI must
all admit; but there r thousands and
thousands and thousands of farmers
who will, this spring, commit this same
folly in only slightly less degree.
Every man who plants corn on land
from which he cannot reasonably ex-
rect more than twelve or fifteen bushg
els to the acre is repeating "Bill's"
folly. Indeed it is not too much TO
say that the average corn crop of the
south is not a profit-paying crop, and
that the farmers who plant it would
see this if they: would but stop TO
figure a little on the cost of the crop
and what they get out of it.
II is against all reason and good
sense for a man to plant a crop of
corn on poor land-that is, on land
that will yield only the fifteen OF eigh-
teen bushels some southern states
average. Corn is not a poor land
crop. 1t is a crop that requires much
labor and time in the making, and that
simply will not produce good yields on
poor land.
If the field will not yield in an Of
binary season at least twenty or TWEEN
t-ive bushels of corn, it will pay
better to put it in soybeans or cow
peas. These crops on such land will
give as large or larger cash returns
than the corn crop, after the labor
expense is charged against each; and
they can be so charged against each;
and they can be handled as to add TO
the fertility of the soil.
Each bushel of corn takes from the
land, in the grain alone, about 20
cents worth of plant food, and on poor
land, where the proposition of stover
to grain is large, an even larger
amount in the stalks and blades are
taken.
Add this to the cost of raising the
corn when only fifteen bushels is made
to the acre, and then, if you can, fg-
IRE out a profit for the grower at any.
reasonable price for the corn.
This, then, is one thing to remember
about the corn crop: 1t does not pay
TO plant corn on poor land.
Another thing to remember is that
II does not pay to plant corn on land
poorly prepared. Every man who has
grown corn knows that he cannot
count on a good crop, except under
very favorable conditions, if the land
Is not we'll broken and not put into
good filth before the corn is planted.
All farmers know this, yet there are
armer who will break their corn land
mree or four inches, even with a hard
pan beneath it, and trust that in some
mysterious way providence will favor
tnem with a good crop.
others will get in a hurry to plant
and plant among the clods or with a
crust over the land and trust to get the
land in proper condition when they
90 to cultiHating. OF course they may
10 this, but it isn't often they do, and
always the cost is far greater. than it
"0uld have been had the work been
June at the proper time.
Flow deep and thoroughly, then for
Tue corn crop, and don't plant until
" good seedbed has been made.
IN the third place it does not pay to
pant poor seed. Good seed corn Is
0Ouno' carefully selected seed, not
lure than n generation removed
nOn the breeding plot of a man who
e"llV breeds his corn with a definite
Oe"l IN view. Such seed corn as this
rather hard to get for the simple
Jason that very few people are pro-
1luglt II. There are some such breed
- however, and before any reader
toSS a high price for seed cor it will
70 his interest to ask the seller for
uennlte statement as to whether he
selling it.
one can afford to pay a good, round
Tor seed corn that is of high