Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1870 — Hilling Corn. [ARTICLE]

Hilling Corn.

It is Burprising that the barbarous old practice of hilling up corn should still find advocates and followers. After years of effort on the part of the intelligent portion of the agricultural and horticultural press, it is now pretty well understood that it will not do to continually plow and injure the surface roots of fruit trees in the orchard. But we have heard intelligent men say that though they would disturb an orchard as little as pos sible in this way, yet corn was quite another matter. But the laws which govern the nutrition of plants are pretty much the same all through. Roots love darkness, and yet wish to be as near as possible to the surface; and whether it is the root of an apple tree or the root of a cornstalk, makes no difference in the working of this law. If we plow deep and cut off the surface roots, the deeper ones are unable to reap any benefit from the atmosphere; and those covered by the soil plowed over them are in just the same condition. This is the “ science ”of the thing. But better than all this is the experience of those who have tried the matter by careful and intelligent experiments. So far as we know, every sucb test has resulted in favor of fiat culture and against hilling. It is very fashionable to rail at “ mere theorists ;’■’ yet we believe that many of our absurdest practices have resulted in tbe most commonplace theories, and this is one of them. Home one probably noted the little rootlets coming out of tbe joints above the soil, and thought they wanted earth to cover them. Hilling was started in the “ theory ’’ that it was “ helping nature ;’’ or it may have started with some lazy fellow who thought he would not hoe or harrow early, but wait a little longer, and then one good plowing would do the whole job. However, no matter how it originated, it is? a mistaken and bad practice, and should be left to go the way of many absurd things.— Forney's Weekly Press.