The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-05-02
GROW A BIG CROP
WTHLESSLABOR
federal Specialists Make Sug-
gestionS on EConomizing With
Man Power.
INCREASE CORN PRODUCTION
Tractors and Larger Implements viii
Help Farmers-Machine Harvest
ers Rather Than Hand Cut
tiers Are Advisable.

Another big corn crop is needed.
LAST years planting of 100000
acres yielded the largest crop ever har-
vested-3, 159, $4,000 bushels. There
seems to be every reason to believe,
in the opinion Of officials of the Unit
ed States department Of agriculture,
that our own welfare and that of the
allies, as well as neutral nations, make
desirable an even greater production
Of corn in 1913 on an acreage approx
mately equal to that planted in 1917.
Increased production may be accom-
plished in a number of ways, and in a
recent publication of the United States
department of agriculture, 1.-The Agri-
cultural Situation for 1918: Part VIII,
Corn" specialists of the department
make suggestions regarding better
methods. The more extensive use of
1abor-saving implements will make it
easier this year to approximate the
record-breaking acreage of last year.
especially when employed in sections
where corn is now grown profitably
but on a more limited scale than is
desirable, because present methods
require a large amount of man labor.
developed and improved tractors that
are adapted to the uses of the small
farm as well as the large farm would
tend to increase the acreage and to
effect a saving in labor. The use of
larger plows, harrows and other instru-
ments used in fitting the land would
make 1t possible to accomplish more
work per man. Similarly the substitu-
ton of two-row planters and two-row
double cultivators in place of smaller
and less efficient implements would
make it possible to do the same
amount of work with less expenditure
Of labor.
RepIant Missing Hills.
In some corn-growing sections it is
the practice to replant missing hills as
soon as the corn is up to a stand.
Frequently this is done by dropping
kernels by hand and covering with a
hoe A labor-saving and quicker
method would be the use of small hand
planters. These could be used to ad-
vantage for the first planting also in
sections where comparatively small
areas are planted and where it is at
present the custom to drop the corn
by hand and cover with the hoe.
1t is the practice in some localities
to plant a much larger number OF
kernels than the number Of stalks
desired and to thin to the desired
stand when the corn plants are about
six to eight inches tall. This method
may be satisfactory where plenty Of
labor is available, but where it is de-
sirable to economic labor it would be
advisable to plant tested seed at about
the same rate as the stand desired and
do no thinning.
A more general use of efficient har-
vesting machinery would permit q
more economical use of labor. A corn
binder with an attachment for eleYat-
ing the bundles Of corn into a wagon
should be used much more extensively
than it is for harvesting enSilage corn.
There is also on the market machine
that converts the corn into ensilage
in the field, elevating it into a wagon,
from which it is sucked or lifted into
the silo. The use Of either Of these
machines, especially the latter, would
do away with the necessity Of much
laborious work.
Work Done by Hand.
A large percentage of the cutting
and shocking of corn is done by hand
labor. In some sections, because OF
unfavorable topography or other
reasons, it is not practicable to use
machine cutters. However. the greater
part of the corn that is now cut by
hand labor could be harvested by
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