Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — Corn-Raising. [ARTICLE]

Corn-Raising.

Corn is, by common consent, the most valuable grain raised on this continent — and, probably, in the world; and corngrowing in the West is a part of every farmer’s business. A Western farmer’s specialty may be wheat, or tobacco, or cattle, or wool, or pork, or broom-corn, or castor beans, or fruit; but whatever it is, raising a crop of corn is an indispensable appendage to it. He must liave corn for las own use, if not ‘o sell. It is the cheapest of all stock-feed, and its convertibility into so many useful forms increases its homely value. It can be turned into cattle, horses, mules, hogs, poultry" and spirits; and it is considered the most easily- raised of all crops—one breaking up, one planting and four plowings being the regulation allowance of work for an average corn crop. And yet it may be questioned whether Western farmers really understand corngrowing. This is an audacious statement, we know, and the Missouri Granger who has been raising the grain off and on for forty years will, when he reads it, wonder where these city newspapers have learned more about his business than he knows. If there is one thing every old farmer flatters himself he knows all about it is how to raise corn; and to,have his knowledge questioned at\ this time of life is enough to cause his honest face to flush with anger. But let us go to the record and see what the facts are. The amount of corn raised in this country is enormous; in 1870 it was 701,000,000 bushels, and five years before, in 18(55, it was estimated at 982,000,000 bushels—an average of over 2(5 bushels to every soul in the land. Of this Illinois produced the largest portion, 180,000,000 bushels ; lowa came next with (59,000,000 bushels, and Missouri next to lowa with (5(5,000.000 bushels. These figures show how important the crop is—how easily it is raised and what immense quantities of it are consumed. But statistics carefully collected by the Department of Agriculture at Washington, from the year 1865 to the year 1873, force tlfe conviction that the average yield per acre, compared with the maximum yields secured by careful cultivators, is very low —not more than one-fourth what it might be. In Maryland the average is 23 bushels per acre; in Virginia it is22bushels; in Pennsylvania it is 32 bushels; in Ohio it is 37 bushels, and for the United States the average is 24 bushels. The very highest average for any one State is 39 bushels, for Kansas. How insufficient these averages are may be judged when it is stated that there are numerous well-attested eases in which yields of 70 to 170 bushels, and even more, of shelled corn have been obtained from one acre of ground. In 1873 the Carroll County (Md.) Agricultural Society offered a premium of SIOO for the largest amount of corn raised on an acre, and it was taken by Mr. J. Brown, of Baltimore County, who produced 120 bushels of shelled grain and 9,880 pounds of good fodder on the; limited area. The ground was a timothy meadow, broken deep,.subsoiled and lightly spread with stable manure; it was then treated to an application of 500 pounds of bone-dust sown broad-cast, and afterward harrowed and relied. It was marked off in furrows three and a half feet apart and a compost of hog manure, salt and gypsum sprinkled in the furrows; the grain was planted six inches apart on the 1 10th of May. After coming up it was carefully harrow ed several times and afterward plowed with a shovel plow. The result was as we have stated. In 1873 a Mr. Hudson raised- on one acre of ground on the "Oakridge Farm” in Amherst County, Va., 170 bushels of white corn, the fact being attested by Mr. Fortune, a notaiy of the county. A copy of the Virginia Farmers' Register, printed by Edmund Ruffin, fit Petersburg, thirtyfive years ago, has this statement: “"Mr. Meggisfin. of Albemarle County, was reported by the county society to have raised 110 bushels of sound shelled corn on one measured acre of ground, being river bottom and thoroughly cultivated; a large w hite sort of corn.” ’ In the Department of Agriculture report for 1868 there is an authenticated statement that Joseph Goodrich and Luther Pa»e of Worcester, Mass., each ndaed 111 bushels of shelled

•»> I corn oft one acretof ground; and the same I report gives instances in Ohio where 09 i and .101 bushels per acre were raised. The I Rockbridge County (Ya ) society, at its 1 meeting in 1871, gave a detailed statement <>f tlie results of competition tor the prei nvium for the largest yield of corn: J. I). H. Ross raised on one acre 70 bushels, and on five acres*-253 bushels; A. L. Nelson raised 91 Bushels on one acre, and 917 [bushels on five acres; and G. W. Pettigrew raised 97 bushels on one acre, and 400 bushels on five, acres. The treatment in each case consisted of deep plowing from ten to fourteen inches, and the application of home-made compost, a handful to every three hills of corn. At the meeting of the- South X'aroiina Agricultural and Mechanical Society in 1869 the results of two interesting experiments made by John W. Parker were reported. He took a piece, of swamp ground, two acres in extent, and raised corn on it two years •in succession: it wx- thoroughly drained, subsoiled, heavily manured from the cowyard, and the hills additionally fertilized with guano, salt and plaster at* the rate of 200 to the acre; the grain was planted in drills, ten inches apart, and thoroughly cultivated, one feature being the irrigation of the field by turning on it a stream of w;ater so as to flow between the furrows. The first year the yield was 147 bushels per acre, and the next it was 200 bushels per acre. It will be said, perhaps, that this is scientific farming: hut, in reply, it may he asked whether it is wise to sneer at any farming as scientific that yields two to three average crops of com from an acre of ground, in one season. Western farmers cannot apply guano and plaster to their ground but they can break it up deep, roll and harrow it* carefully before, and again after, planting, and then cultivate it thoroughly while growing; and this is the secret of at least half the success in the experiment? noted. * Experience demonstrates that the difference in a crop of corn between careless and thorough cultivation is one-half, the same piece of ground yielding twice as much under good treatment as under careless treatment; and there is little doubt that tlie 66,000,000 bushels of corn annually grown in Missouri could he raised on half the area and with less cost if a more effective method of cultivation were practiced.— St.Louis Republican.