Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-03-20
Sweet Corn Not
Hard on Iowa Soil

rev FARMERS III '"e NNh'"s
Northwood, and II happens to be those
who did not raise any sweet corn are
passing the word around that sweet
corn Is hard on the land and takes eic-
ments from the soil which are hard 10
replace. We do not know why people
will make such statements as that
when 1t Is all guess work on their part
and is absolutely false.
MIR. A. Yer Ploeg. manager or the
canning factory, has asked for state
ment OF facts from the Iowa cxpcri>
ment station and Is advised by them
that one crop Of field corn robs the
soil as much as two crops of sweet
corn. There are several reasons TOT
this. One is that the ears Of sweet corn
are taken off before they ripen ana
they do not pull from the soil the
chemicals necessary to harden the ker-
mel and put 1t into shape to carry over
until another season.
Then after the ears are picked from
the sweet corn, there Is left the best
corn silage to be had. II is generally
recognized that sweet corn silage after
the ears have been delivered to the
factory Is OF greater value in the siios
than the field corn, even where that
is put up ears and all.
Prof. A. r. Erwin. Of Ames College,
gives the following comparison Of the
exhaustion of soil fertility from sweet
corn in comparison with field corn;
Field corn consumes SEQ more nitro
gen than sweet corn. Field corn con
sumes 329ot more phosphorus than
sweet corn. Field corn consumes 2l%
less potassium than sweet corn. But
our readers know that our soil con-
tains an abundance of the latter ele-
ment, so consequently there is great
deal less of the fertility Of the soil TAX
en- by sweet corn than by the field corn.
In general it may be said that the
maturing and the filling out of the
seed makes heavy draft upon the
fertility of the soil.
Viewed from, this standpoint the de-
mand for nitrogen and phosphorus Is
very much less with sweet corn than
field corn In the case Of potassium
the conditions are reversed, due to the
fact that this element seems to be d.
rectly associated with the development
of sugar.
The relative value of sweet corn as
silage as compared with field corn sill
age is given by Henry in Feed and
Feeding" as follows Sweet corn
fodder is regarded as superior to field
corn for roughage. its nutritive value
being twice that of dent corn
The local canning factory is asking
!, 60,
of sweet corn because it is necessary
to the success of the factory and be-
cause It pays the farmers better than
crop Of field corn. 1t ia purely a
business proposition! The farmers
working in cooperation with the local
factory will find larger profits for their
work. OF course last year there were
several things which interfered with
the success both on the part Of the fac
tory aAd the farmers The seed was
not as good as 1t should have been
and a great deal of replanting wa.
necessary. Then the extremely dry
weather. hot winds and hail all took
their share of the profits. and let lis
not forget too that the bottom land
which we counted on as being idea
for sweet corr after the danger OF
floods was passed was caught by the
late high waters and rendered value
less for the sweet corn crop.
p Farmers are urged to give the mat
ter Of sweet corn their most careful
considerations. While it means more
work for them. 1t meansNnore pay and
the matter of labor this year is going
to be a great deal better than last
We would like to hear from farmers
around Pella as to their experience
with sweet corn last year. Your let
ters will be interesting to farmers who
contemplate raising sweet corn this
year. E'#