Thursday, December 17, 1908.
THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER.
u
HOW 1 MADE MY BEST CROP THIS YEAR-JIt
I. How a Prize Corn Crop Was Raised.
One Hundred and Twenty-One Bushels to the Acre at an Esti
mated Cost of $26.00. '
Messrs. Editors: Last Spring I se
lected a piece of gray upland with
red clay subsoil on which I had made
107 bushels of corn per acre in 1907.
On this I put seven two-horse loads
of stable manure to 'the acre; I then
turned land with" two-horse plow,
cross-breaking it with a one-horse
plow. After -breaking the second
time I laid off the rows six feet wide.
Then I bedded out with turn plow,
leaving a five-inch balk.
When ready to plant I broke out
balk with scooter and followed in
the bottom of this furrow with a
Dixie plow With the wing taken off .
Then I ridged on this furrow with
half-shovel still going deeper. I
planted on this ridge,, dropping one
grain in a place every four or five
inches. This was April 13 th.
When corn was small I ran around
it with harrow. Then I ran a fur
row in the center of the middle
which was a high bed, and bedded to
the furrow with turnplow, throwing
dirt from corn. This left corn on
.the clay with very little soil around
it. I then thinned the corn to six
inches in the drill. I did not work
corn again until growth had been so
retarded and the stalk to hard that
it did not grow too large. Exepri
nce and judgment are required to
know, just how much the stalk
should be stunted. ' .
When I was convinced that my
corn had been sufficiently humiliated
I began to make the ear. I ran
around with - 10-inch sweep when
corn was about 12 inches high. In
a few days I put 500 pounds of
mixed fertilizers to the acre contain
ing cottonseed meal, 10 per cent,
phosphoric acid and kainit in equal
parts; This was the first fertilizer
used at all. I put this down in the
old sweep furrow on both sides of
every other middle and covered by
breaking out with turn plow. One
week later I treated the other mid
dle the same way. In a few days I
sided corn in , first middle with 1 6
inch sweep and put 150 pounds ni
trate of soda in this furrow, covered
with one furrow with turnplow;
sowed peas broadcast in this middle,
at the rate of 1 bushels per acre,
finished breaking out with turnplow.
In a few days I sided corn with the
other middle with same sweep; sow
ed peas and broke out as before.
This laid-by my corn with good bed
and plenty or dirt around the stalk.
This was July 7th when corn .was
just bunching for, tassel.- This fall
I gathered 121 bushels per acre.
Expense on corn was $26, leaving a
clear gain of $95, not including fod
der and peas. ' .
f O. P. HILL.
Cherokee Co., S. C.
II. A Cheap Corn Crop.
A Clover Crop Almost Always Insures a Good Crop of Corn
the Following Season.
Messrs. Editors: I take great
pleasure in reading the corn articles
in The Progressive Farmer and
the reports of the big yields per acre.
I consider corn the most important
crop raised in this country. Plenty,
of corn means plenty of feed, good
stock, plenty of .meat, and prosperity
for the farmer. Big yields per acre
are fine to talk and write about, but
I don't think they always mean
cheap corn, since it often takes a
large per cent of the corn to pay for
the extra manure and fertilizer used
to produce such yields. What the
average farmer is most interested in
is how to make cheap corn.
I live in the old tobacco belt; our
land is light, sandy soil with yellow
clay subsoil. It is not an unusual
thing for farmers in this section to
be corn buyers and that means hay
and meat buyers also. .;"
I made some cheap corn on a six
acre lot that .was cultivated in to
bacco, in 1907. The tobacco had a
light sprinkling of stable manure
and 650 pounds of fertilizer per acre
in the drill. The first of September
the lot was seeded to crimson clover
Jit the rate of 25 pounds per acre
without any manure or fertilizer.
This spring, about May 10, I har
vested a fine crop of clover hay on it
that paid a good profit on the cost
of seed and labor. As soon as the
clover could be cured and removed
from the land I began to prepare it
for corn by breaking with one-horse
Dixie plow. As soon as the breaking
was done it was harrowed with two
horse Acme tiarrow. In ab'out one
'week was harrowed again; was then
ready for the seed. : - "
About June 1st, corn of a yellow
variety was planted 3 feet apart in
rows 4 feet wide. Corn was planted
with planter. When corn was about
hand high and the grass began to
show, the middle was wrapped up by
running a Dixie plow twice in a row,
the bare side to the corn, and then
a three-tooth Iron Age harrow was
run around the corn. Thatleft it
all clean with a big bed of loose dirt
in the middle to be worked back to
the corn as it was needed. Before
next plowing corn was thinned to
one stalk in hill. ' The next cultiva
tion was with a Climax plow with
small fixtures, one; furrow around
the corn. About one week after that
two very shallow furrows were run
in the middle with a Dixie plow.
By the middle of July the cultiva
tion was all done and the corn was
laid-by by running three times in
a row with a Climax plow with 18
inch sweeps on.
Cost of Cultivation.
17 days' plowing, $1.25 per
day . . . ... . . ... . . ..... $21.25
2 days' harrowing, $2.50 per
day ......... ... . 5.00
2 days' thinning, 75 cents per
day . . . . . . . . . . . 1.50
Saving fodder . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Gathering and shucking corn 10.00
Total cost . $47.75
Corn Made on the Six Acres.
45 barrels at $4.50 per bar-
rel ..... . . . ...... . $202.50
2,500 pounds fodder at $1.25 j
per hundred . ........ . . . 31.25
Shucks on 45 barrels corn at
25c. per barrel . . . ...... 11.25
Total value for 6 acres. . $245.00
You will see from the above state
ment that "I have no fancy yield per
acre, but as the fodder and shucks
lack only $ 5.2 5 paying for the whole
cost, I have 4 5 barrels of very cheap
corn made without a manure or fer
tilizer, and on land that has been in
cultivation for more than fifty years.
It is coming to be a general saying
in this section, and a very true one,
that corn will grow after clover. A
good many, of our farmers are begin
ning to use clover to make corn and
most always, get a good crop. I be
lieve a good crop of clover on land
will leave the land in better condi
tion than it was - before the clover
was sown. You can see from the
above statement that there was noth
ing superior about the cultivation;,
and I only attribute the cheapness of
my corn to the clover crop that pre
ceded it. If any of your readers can
show 45 barrels of corn that cost
them less than $5.25 I shall be glad
to hear from them.
O. lu ALLEN.
Granville Co., N. C.
III. Two Good Crops of Sweet Potatoes.
A PROFITABLE WET SEASON
CROP.
A Chance to Make Some Crops Pay
Even in Bad Years.
Messrs Editors: An acre and a
half I planted in sweet potatoes gave
the best results this year. The land
was planted in early Irish potatoes,
but owing to the prevailing rains, the
crop was very poor and barely paid
expenses. So we concluded to put
the land in sweet potatoes, and in
July the one and a half acres were
set in vines with no other prepara
tion or fertilizer except what was
left from the early crop.
. Cost of this crop was as. follows: .
July. 1, to plowing up rows. . . $1.00
July 3-4, to setting vines. . . . 1.50
July 15, to plowing with cul
tivator .... .... ........ .50
July 20, to hoeing. . . .... ... 1.00
July 27- to turning vines,
plowing and hilling. .... . . 2.00
Nov. 10, digging 150 bushels. 4.00
Nov.. 10, carting and bank-
" ing ................... . 2.00
farmer can raise in this section for
hogs and cattle. .
In the general scarcity of corn a
good crop of potatoes is quite a help
in fattening the pigs. D. LANE.
Craven Co., N. C.
A LITTLE PATCH ANDj A BIG
YIELD.
Total cost $12.00
By 150 bushels potatoes. ... .$60.00
By profit oh li acres. . ..... .$48.00
I do not recommend following
Irish with sweet potatoes; but this
land was comparatively new, culti
vated only five years. Tf it had been
old land, would not have risked the
rotation. -
This yield of 100 bushels to the
acre is a very ordinary crop, as I
have gathered that many from half
an acre a number of times. I wish
to say here that a good crop of sweet
potatoes is about the best crop a
A Rural Carrier's Good Crop Raised
at Small Expense.
Messrs. Editors: I read in last
week's Progressive Farmer about
Capt. W. H. Turrentine's potato
crop. I will give you an account of
m V fiTneriATino with nnfnfnoe thniiffli
I am no farmer only a rural rooter
on a mail route.
Last spring I bought one and oner
half bushels of sweet potatoes and
bedded them about like Mr. Turren
tine, only I did not put any sand on
top; just covered them with manure.
I planted my patch, sold six dollars
and fifty cents worth of slips at 121
cents per 100, and gave away 500 to
800 slips. My patch is about 100
feet square, new ground ; had it
plowed three times and thoroughly
pulverized; opened deeDfurrows, fill
ed them with stable manure; also,
drilled fertilizer in with manure;
. threw up four furrows and planted
out my slips. Now, I did not put a
plow or hoe in that patch any more.
When the potatoes got large
enough to eat we commenced eating
them, and kept on till frost nipped
the vines, then I had them dug. I
put up over forty bushels of as nice
potatoes as you ever saw. Have
tJi. iuc giuuuu clUU SUWiiU 11 1U
j v. hi ,u.x JLL tuc i JfC UUU.C1 ill
spring and make garden.
J. M. HAYES.
Stokes Co.,N. C. ,
IV. Corn Made for 20 Cents a Bushel.
A Crop That Was Made With But Little Expense and at a Good
Profit. V;-:;;:-' :V
Messrs Editors: I will try to tell
how I made corn for less than 2 0
cents a bushel. The land was brok
en with a disc plow drawn by four
mules, early in the spring, laid off
with a turning plow and planted in
checks abput thirty-eight inches each
way. No fertilizer of any kind was
used. .... ' The land was old creek bot
tom that had been in cotton and corn
for nearly fifteen years. This land
also produced thirty-one bushels of
peas. There were eight acres of land.
" Cost of "Cultivation.
Cutting stalks, J day
Breaking land, 4 days . .
Checking off land, 21 days. . .
Planting corn,: 2h days.
Harrowing corn, 11 days. . .
Replanting corn, 11 days. . . .
Side harrowing, 3 1 days
Running cultivator, 3 days . . .
Moulding, 2 i days. . . . . .
Running sweep 1& days....
Harrowing middles, 1 days . .
Cultivating middles, 3 days. .
Hoeing, 25 days. ...........
Hauling corn, 3 days. ....
$0.65
6.00
2.75
2.50
1.75
1.50
3.25
3.00
2.50
1.50
2.50
3.00
1.75
2.25
Total cost
$37.50
The 200 bushels of corn I harvest
ed at 80 cents a bushel would bring
in $160. The cost as given above,
$37.50, deducted from the income of
$160, leaves a net profit of $132.50,
or over $16.50, net, for each of the
eight acres, J. E. GILBERT.
Editorial Comment: . The thirty-
nna fineliala rf naaa elimilil Via nrnvtli
the cost of making the corn crop,
and the peas did the land good too,
The peas should more than pay the
land rent; so that, if the cost of mak
ing the crop as detailed in the letter
of Mr. Gilbert is admitted as being
correct, the corn will be found to
cost 181 cents a bushel. . -
Just one query, however: How
could Mr. Gilbert break land with
four mules to a disk plow at a cost
of $1.50 a day?
"At some time or other every man
has looked upon a hen as a stupid
fowl, and some time or other has
been set back by seeing her dodge
stones and cobs as long as he could
throw."