The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-04-27
Successful Burns Farmer Urges Care
In All Phases of Growing

Franklin. Kerr of Burns, Dawson
County has made distinct success OF
corn raising for many years and in a
summary of his methods broadcast
by the radio department of The Mon
tana Farmer through The Tribune
station KDYS, he explains the best
way to select seed and the care of
the crop.
His advice on the growing of corn
is as follows.
"By all means secure your seed
from some reliable source near home
Perhaps one of your neighbors has
been growing type of corn that he
has been getting good results from.
Ii so, there is probably no seed to be
had from anywhere that will be as
good for your locality, as that will
be- Ii you must send for seed, ask
your county agent, or write the sec
retary of the state seed growers as
sociation. They can tell you the name
of growers of the types of corn best
suited to your particular altitude and
locality. After you have got started
with the type suited to your particu-
lar needs, select your seed from your
own field. There is no other as good,
and don't forget to save enough for
at least two years supply. You may
not get any next fall.
Gas | have never yet seen corn
grown on fall plowing or summer fall
low that was as good as on spring
plowed ground, there is no question
in my mind on that subject. Plow
deep, work down to fine bed just
before planting time. If soil is too
loose, follow the. planter with pack
er but this is seldom necessary.
For eastern Montana, the best
results are obtained by early planting
from the Sth to the 18th of May. The
flint varieties may be planted later
than that, but even with these, early
planting proves best While We some
times have our corn frozen down af-
ter it is up, a good narrowing as soon
as the ground is dry enough is all that
requires. In fact | have yet to see my
first field of Montana corn killed by
spring frost. But | have seen a lot
of June planted crops killed by III
frost
my own experience and observa-
tion convinced me years ago that the
only way to plant corn is with check
row planter. While lister may be all
right for some localities, | will frank
ly state that | have yet to find a con-
dition, or locality, where list corn will
get as good results as check corn.
And as results are what l am after,
it is checked corn for mine. If find
any method that gets better results,
will sure adopt that method.
"a good drag or harrow is one of
the best corn cultivators made, up to
the corn is four or five inches high.
If the ground is well dragged twice
before the corn comes up, and twice
more after it is up, the weed prob
lem is easy. For cultivator, one with
eight shovels suits me better than any
other kind, except surface cultivators
which | use mostly. At any rate, avoid
big, long shovels. They tear off too
many corn roots and loosen the soil
too deep. This loses too much mois-
ture by evaporation.
Shallow cultivation, and frequent,
is about all there is to it. In fact, good
seed, early planted and cultivation are
all there is to growing corn in Mon
tana
1--WE are too far from Chicago to be
very much interested in the market
price of corn, because we don't expect |
to market it that way, yet it has
very definite market value. With yell
low dent corn, one bushel will pro-
duce II or 12 pounds of pork. If fed |