Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1878 — Breaking Corn Roots. [ARTICLE]

Breaking Corn Roots.

It is a common belief among farmers that young growing corn-plants are {jreutly injured tn disturbing or breaking the roots by too deep cultivation between the rows, and that surface harrowing is therefore the only admissible kind of culture that should be given to the crop. A different view funder proper restrictions) is taken by Dr. E. L. /Sturtevant in his lecture on “intercultural Tillage.” He tested, in the fiijst place, the theory of root-pruning on young plants, by growing them in wkter, and in soil in pots. When the new roots were thrown out, such as grew in the water were shortened with a pair of scissors, and those in the soil with a sharp knife. The result in nearly .every instance was the emission of new and more numerous fibers, giving a much larger root surface than unpruned plants. The treatment was then tried on young plants of corn. “In one case," says Dr. Sturtevant, “to show the success we met, we obtained twenty-three ears of corn from one kernel planted.” In another trial, “two plants, grown from one kernel of corn in either case, and root-pruned, bore each fourteen ears, which contained 2,881 and 2,887 kernels, respectively. Another plant, treated likewise, furnished twenty ears, containing 3,368 kernels. The grain was large and plump, more so than in other hills not root-pruned.” These results are so extraordinary, that farmers will prefer to try for themselves—an experiment easily performed. The theory is worthy of thorough testing, as the young corn plants may be easily’ rootpruned by means of subsoil cultivators, and more efficiently if the corn is planted in hills, so as to be worked both ways, instead of in drills.

Dr. Sturtevant’s theory is that breaking or cutting the roots give a check to the growth of the plant, and thus tends to the production of seed instead of stem and leaf. Although he does not say so, we suppose he farther holds that the immediate or subsequent increase of the root surface, gives an increased development to the seed thus formed, by a fresh start in the growth of the plant, for a sterile soil merely will not do it. This work must be judiciously performed, so as to produce benefit ininstead of injury. If too heavily or too frequently pruned, the plants might be too much checked. — Country Gentleman.