Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1917 — GROW CORN THAT WILL PRODUCE GRAIN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GROW CORN THAT WILL PRODUCE GRAIN

(By C. P. HARTLEY, in Charge of Corn Investigations, United States Department of Agriculture.) —-L... It sometimes becomes necessary to do heavy work,-such as hauling water to put out fire, but what’s the use of hauling water from the cornfields to the feed lot and hauling it back again to the fields in the shape of uneaten cornstalks? Very tall-growing corn when sappy and Immature is almost all water, and so is wet cornstalk manure. It used to be that many growers prided themselves on the great height of their cornstalks. The itaore successful farmers, however, have ceased to haul water from the cornfields to the feed lot in the form of coarse stalks which remain uneaten and haul it back to the fields in the shape of wet cornstalk manure. They do not grow such tall stalks and often profitably allow animals to gather the grain, leaving the stalks in the fields to enrich the soil. A fpw years ago silage was thought to have a fixed food value. One cannot take out of the silo any more food value than is put in. Hauling and siloing large sappy stalks is heavy work and not as profitable as putting a good, almost mature corn crop into the silo. A somewhat larger and later maturing variety of corn that will thoroughly mature for grain can be used in the Northern states for ensilage. Even silage corn should be planted early and given sufficient time to make its best growth and reach the stage of maturity at which husks turn brown hnd the ears become glazed. A co-operator In the department s corn work grows a high-yielding variety of corn the stalks of which reach a height of about six feet, while his neighbor grows a big, 12-foot variety.

In helping each other shred their crops the neighbor’s tall-growing corn was shredded first. The stalks were bulky and high loads were hauled from the fields to the shredder. When beginning the shredding of the competitor’s corn, which that year produced over 100 bushels of dry shelled corn per acre, the neighbor put on the accustomed high load, and his team could not pull It out of the field. He got down off the load to make an examina tlon, thinking the rack must be pressing against the wheels. The competitor told him he would have to take off a part of the load, to which he replied that he did not have on a big load and was accustomed to hauling larger loads. After being convinced that It was the weight of the load that stalled his team, they removed a portion and hauled the balance to the shredder, from which they obtained 40 bushels of corn, or almost a ton and a half of ears. What variety of corn should you plant? Since there are thousands of so-called varieties, it is not possible to designate by name the variety you should plant. Furthermore, with corn there Is very little In a name. Two lots of seed of the Learning variety sometimes differ from each other more than two varieties differ from each other. An accurate test of two different lots of the Boone County White variety Resulted in one lot producing 18 bushels more per acre than the other lot. Quality is what counts and the varietal name does not designate qualify. Tlant a variety that has made good in your neighborhood. Plant seed which was grown in your part of the state and was properly field selected and properly cared for during the winter.

FIELD OF CORN PRODUCING 130 BUSHELS PER ACRE.