The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-01-20
Champion Acre of Iowa Corn.
An Iowa correspondent writes:

An Iowa correspondent writes
Il would like to have published il
your paper an account of how Wade
| Hauser, of Hardin county, Iowa
| handled the ground on which 1t
raised $50 bushels of corn to the
acre. What is the natural condition
Of the ground; how long has it beer
under cultivation, and what has beer
the rotation of crops? My object is
to FIND out how long it takes to ge
gronnd in condition to produce sucl
large yields"
The soil on which Wade Hausel
beat the Iowa record for large yields
of corn is river bottom, and is fire.
qtently subject to overflow. Wher
the contest was announced las
spring. Wade persuaded his father tt
let him have certain narrow striI
OF land along the Iowa river for a
corn field. While this land had never
been MANFRED or fertiliZed, it had
been enriched by deposits from over.
flow, and the year before wheat on
it went forty bushels to the acre.
The grocnd was plowed during the
fall Of 1914, and was left until in
the spring, when it was disked and
narrowed a few times. The corn
was planted about the middle OF
April, but it got rather slow start,
on account of the backward season.
When it did begin to grow however,
it came on fast, during which time
Wade kept it we'll cultivated and
weeded. During the season, the field
was narrowed twice and cultivated
SIX times, with One-horse cultivator.
The rent and labor cost of raising
the acre of corn was $40, the same
as for the large field from which the
prize acre was selected at harvest
time. Rent was figured at Sc an acre
and usual wages allowed for blowing,
diskinS and dragging, cultivating and
husking.
When the corn from this acre was
weighed up, the total yield was found
to be exactly 1928 pounds of she'll
ed corn. The moisture content was
found to be 1913 per cent, which left
1901 bushels of standard corn. This
is the largest yield ever recorded in
Iowa. exceeding that of Earl Zeller,
OF Gleer county, by nine bushels, and
THAI of John Sunderburg, of Monona
county by ten bushels. According to
the rules of the contest, the harvest
ing and weighing were supervised by
two disinterested parties, and the re-
suits were carefully checked over by
E. G. Bishop, who has charge of the
state club work.
The variety of corn is mixture of
some which the Hausers have been
growing for number of years, with
Reid's Yellow Dent and Shenandoah
Yellow. 1t is an earlier maturing
corn than Reid's, and by the time of
the first killing frost in Hardin coun-
ty, this corn was cut of danger. With
an expense of $40, and an acre value
of 9l26 for the product, the profit
made was $1O6. Twenty bushels
were sold from the field at So a BUSH
ell, and the rest of it was figured at
SO cents bushel, the prevailing
price at harvest time.
More than a thousand boys enter
ed the corn contests last spring. In
many counties provision was made
for giving the boy with the greatest
yield a free trip to the San Francis
co fair. Rules of the contest requir-
cd those who entered to do all the
work themselves. They were permit
ted to plant as many acres as they
wanted to, and in the fall they were
to measure out the acre
they wanted to count in the contest.
The weighing had to be done by out
side parties, and the actual yield de-
termined by a moisture festival
laces' Farmer.