St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1914-03-07
LENTEN SERVICES IN ST. PET
ER,S rHrRCu CnvIN(,T0N
THE Low YIELD OF CORN IN ST
TANlNIANY PARISH.

l
1 The average yield of corn n this
Iparish. do not tn nix, will go over
ten bushels to the acre, and / base
my estimate upon what saw last
fall in driving over the parish. The
average yield should go at least 25
bushels to the acre. There are many
reasons why the yield is so low and
am going to try and point out to the
farmers who read this paper few
of them and give as many as possible
an opportunity to change the meth
DDS of growing the crop.
1. The corn plant to do its best
must have we'll prepared seed bed.
By well prepared seed bed / mean
that the land must be plowed deep,
| that hard pan broken, and all ciOds
crushed. Then tn s bed must conta n
a fertilizer to suit corn on that par
tscular soil. The hard pan under the
surface soil makes the corn fire in
wet weather as we'll as in dry
weather. The surplus water cannot
be taken up by the subsoil where
there is hard pan, and as a result
in rainy weather the soil continu-
ally water sobbed and the corn is
robbed Of the opportunity to enjoy
its sun bath and breath ng fresh air
throuh the roots, and OF course turn
yellow and makes failure. Pillow
deep and give the corn plant plenty
OF soil to grow in and give the sur
plus water chance to drain off.
2. Do not place the rows too
close together, better have them four
and One-half feet apart, and crowd
little more In the drill. By hav ng
the rows this distance you can get
up and down the rows much better
with cultivators and harrows. Then
in the case OF a ra ny spell Of wealth
er and the corn has plenty of COM
pany-grass and weeds-you have
better chance to clean the corn W tn
out blowing it up to kill the grass
and weeds. To get best results on
ordinary land anG when the rows are
four and one-half feet apart the corn
should be left two and one-half feet
plenty Of barn lot manure is avail
able and potash and phosphoric acid
mixed with t IN the right proper
ton the corn can be crowded more
in the drill.
8. Do not try to cultivate your
corn with turn ng pillow, this nipple
ment was made to pillow the land and
not to cultivate the crop with. The
pillow turns up the roots to the sun
to be baked that the corn plant needs
so much to develop itself. The p'ow
does not make dust mulch either,
which IS necessary to carry cren
through a drought Use cult vators
and sweeps. to cultivate the crop with
and at laying-by time do not throw
up too high a bed. This bed IN
creeses the surface of soil and ds
in evaporation of much needed mols-
ture, and at the same tine the corn
does not have a chance tc send out
its roots in every direct on as it
should have.
4. Get good seed. Do rot go in
your crib and take the first sound
ear that you can find, and call it good
seed corn. Get a variety Of corn
that has been selected for number
of years and then keep up yourself
by selecting in the field lat gathering
time. There are several good ware
ties OF corn that W II do we'll under
cond tons here The New Era. Dabbs
Prolific ara both good ana accl 1nalesi
here, which is an :mporta ut point III
corn grow ng in the South. ! can
get the genuine New Era fer any one
who wishes to try good corn. and
l am confident that the yield OF corn
would be increased tn rty per cent
by getting good seed. There IS SO
much to be sad about different va
rieties of corn that will not try t.
discuss 1t here, but / will say that
the two above mentioned var cites @
corn will give good results tnfs
parish as it Is a native corn.
II the above suggestions could De.
followed in every field all over the
parish the corn crop for 1914 would
average oeer ten bushels to the acre
and be produced at lower cost per
bushel.
G. C. LEWIS,
Farm DempnstratOr.