The Huttig news., 1914-03-07
 vel. VII. NO. 45
Get Ready for Planting.

the advantage of much cold and freezing weather, that is so helpful in killing out insect life and loosen ing the soil. but the recent cold snap helped some. A good freeze about 8 inches deep is fine for the soil. It is almost equal to fall blowing. We do not have this .tural advantage like they do in Illinois and Iowa. We need more deep fall blowing than they, and get less of it. It is always wise course to prepare the land we'll be- fore planting. Pulverize the soil thoroughly. where it is of such character as to admit it. Prepare the land for level planting and level cultivation. where your soil and surface conditions are favorable. Conditions sometimes are such as to require bedding to some extent. That is alright where necessary, otherwise not.
 Corn should be planted by the first of April or sooner, and not later than the middle of April. Your corn land should be well drained. If it is, the wet weather will not hurt 1t much. By planting in March yo4r corn will have the benefit of plenty of rain. The drouth seldom hurts if it comes be- fore the first to middle of July If your corn has ninety days the start of the dry weather. it is safe. No man should raise corn on land that will produce less than fifty bushels to the acre, under faYorble condi- tions. If your soil is not good enough to do this begin to doctor it. You can make it so it will yield that much r more. if it is adapted to corn at all. Remember that 1t takes just as much labor to culti- vats ten-bushels-to- the acre land as it does the eighty-bushel kind. Put some of your labor and capital in building up the soil for your corn. Do not plant corn among the stumps, where you have to culti- vate by running around it with a single blow. Select corn land where you can use harrow when it is coming up, and a two-horse cultivator later on. Select your land and prepare it for corn so you can use altogether improved ma chinery and improved methods in cultivating. Otherwise it is not going to pay you to raise corn, yet corn should be your foundation crop. First corn, then hay and forage Have plenty of corn for all purposes, and proportion all other crops accordingly.
 Raise corn to feed stock. Raise pastures to save corn. Raise hay, peas. etc., to go with corn to make a balanced ration. Then get good males and raise plenty of good grade stock to eat it all. and if you have any land or time to spare you might put it in raising cotton as a surplus and money crop. Do not plant cotton on land that will not make 1000 pounds 10 the acre in good season. It will not pay. If the land won't yield that much, go to work and build up the soil. Put it to clover. vetch. peas, etc. and turn under green crop or two before you waste time try ing 1t with cotton. The average yield of corn per acre in Arkansas is about Is bushels. and the aver age of cotton is about 500 pounds in the seed. At this rate the average farmer with forty acres of corn and cotton would make about eight bales of cotton and about 25O bushels of corn. That is not enough for cultivating forty acres. By keeping stock and using plenty of manure he can make the same amount on thirteen acres, eight in cotton and five in corn, and have twenty-seven acres for pasture, where the stock would be daily en- riching the soil A field put to clovar and pa cti,rpd all c,1porn ar r