Corn planter

“ On all land we have ever seen, we believe four feet apart each way, with four or five stalks in a hill, will produce the largest yield. It lets in the sun sufficiently around every hill, and the proportion of ears to the stalks will be larger than in any other distance. Planting with a span of horses, and a planter on which a man can ride and plant two rows at once, is the easiest and most expeditious. We can not too strongly recommend harrowing corn as soon as it comes out of the ground. ”

“ Many planters in giving their corn and cotton the “laying-by” plowing, as it was called, would plant in the middle furrows ground peas, chufas, and cuttings from the sweet potato vines, which required very slight additional labor in harvesting the crops; and by the time the crops had all been gathered in and frost appeared, the tubers were well matured, and were great helps in fattening pork, thereby enabling the planter to preserve more corn for the use of the government. ”

“ A load of vegetables at Marien's ready for market.
Soil well adapted to common field corn will produce good sweet corn, thriving best on well fertilized land. Sandy soil is best for the early varieties.
Sweet corn is often grown in drills, but we prefer the hills three feet apart, as it is easier to get an even stand, and cultivating both ways will push the crop. It should be cultivated shallow and never deep enough to hurt the roots. It is well to hoe it once.
Sweet corn is one of the few vegetables which is quite free from serious injury from either insects or diseases. ”

“ Day by day it has been a wonder how the corn has thriven and grown, with what vigour the stalks have thickened, enlarged in leaf, and deepened in green. Side by side in due rank and order they have risen, the blades have extended towards one another in loving embrace, until the whole has become a solid square field of corn, the murmur of which is like the distant wash of a languid sea over a pebbly beach. ”

“ For maximum results the cornfield must be rich in humus, its soil finely pulverized, mellow and well drained. Many successful growers in the so-called corn states find these conditions best assured by plowing deeply in the fall, turning under liberal quantities of organic matter such as stable and barnyard manure and leaving the subsoil upturned to benefit from the action of the elements during winter, following with the disk harrow or other like implement in the spring. Planting is done when the soil is thoroughly warmed and when danger of frost is past. ”

“ Sweet corn is adapted to any soil suitable for field corn, though more attention is given to manuring. A warm, rich, sandy loam is considered most desirable. On the northern limits of the corn belt sweet corn is grown as a field crop because of its rapid growing and early maturing habits. ”

“ Prefer good upland corn ground, with sand or gravel subsoil, north and east slope. I plow deep, and plant large two-year-old trees, shallow, and mound up; shorten roots and branches. Cultivate with plow and harrow from youth to old age. Grow corn in young orchard up to six years, afterward nothing. Prefer a windbreak on south, west, and north, of box-elders, Osage orange, or peach. Rub liver on trees to repel rabbits, and use a knife for borers. To prune with a little saw makes the trees grow faster, and the apples grow larger, and it pays. ”

“ The cultivation of Indian corn on newly cleared lands is very easy, and attended with but little labour; on old farms it requires more. The earth is just raised with a broad hoe, and three or four corns dropped in with a pumpkin-seed, in about every third or fourth hole, and in every alternate row; the seed are set several feet apart. The pumpkins and the corn grow very amicably together, the broad leaves of the former shading the young plants and preventing the too great evaporation of the moisture from the ground ”

“ The all-important object in their existence is corn; the only work they never neglect is the cultivation of that grain. In the same field they plant beans, the vines twining around the corn stalks.
Their method of preparing the soil for seed is exactly the same as that in use by some of the people in Equatorial Africa. In the dry season, trees are felled in any chosen part of the forest, and reduced to ashes in order to enrich the thin coating of loam that covers the very stony soil. ”

“ The one crop trails to an amazing length along the ground, while the other shoots up to the height of several feet above it. When the corn is beginning to branch, the ground should be hoed once over, to draw the earth a little to the roots, and cut down any weeds that might injure it. This is all that is done till the cob is beginning to form, when the blind and weak shoots are broken off, leaving four or five of the finest bearing shoots. The feather, when it begins to turn brown and dead, should also be taken off; that the plant may have all the nourishment to the corn. ”

“ The plants are cultivated with the horse hoe or corn cultivator after they have attained sufficient height and until they are too large to admit of further cultivation without injury to the plants. In the principal corn-producing States of the United States cultivation usually commences about the first of June, and lasts for about six weeks. Where corn is grown in hills, or checks, the direction of each cultivation is given at right angles to the preceding direction, so that the whole of the surface soil may be stirred. Planted in drills it can be cultivated in one direction only. ”

“ This can only be done when it is designed to cultivate the corn but one way. Many fail in attempts to grow beans among corn, by planting them at first hoeing. The corn, having so much the start, will shade the beans and nearly destroy them. [Pg 61] But plant at the same time of the corn, and they will mature before the corn will shade them much, and not be in the way even of the ordinary crop of pumpkins. ”

“ Soaking without rolling in plaster is good, if you plant in a wet time; but if in a dry time, it is absolutely injurious. Once in a while there occurs quite a general failure of seed-corn to come up. Farmers say that their corn looks as fair as ever, but does not vegetate well. When this is general, there is a remedy that every farmer can successfully apply. ”

“ Rotating crops means not always planting the same crop on the same piece of land, but changing every two or three years. It happens that beans are very good to plant before corn. They do not take from the soil, The Chief says, what the corn needs. ”

“ The next morning each man is off to his field at sunrise, carrying the various items of equipment he will need. The seed corn, only a small amount of which will be needed this first day, is carried in a pouch made from the entire skin of a fawn. The head and legs dangle grotesquely as the farmer throws the pouch over his shoulder. At harvest time last fall the finest ears of corn were selected for seed and ceremonies were performed to assure germination and growth. During the winter it was stored where it would be safe from dampness, mice and weevils. ”

“ Frequent, shallow cultivation is a prime necessity in growing this crop. When well up, thin to four stalks to a hill—usually five to seven kernels being planted. A slight hilling when the tassels appear will be advisable. Plant frequently for succession crops. The last sowing may be made as late as the first part of July if the seed is well firmed in, to assure immediate germination. Sweet corn for the garden is frequently planted in drills, about three feet apart, and thinning to ten to twelve inches. ”

“ The ears are therefore not well filled with grains, and the general size of the ears do not seem in proportion to the large stalks. The white flint corn is planted here exclusively, and the same seed has been used from time immemorial, so that a change of the grain is perhaps now indicated for the improvement of the crop. Of course the corn ought to be planted separate from the cotton, and the rows being in closer proximity would secure a better result. ”

“ There are two cornfields for growing the pullets, to be used in alternate years so the ground will be fresh. The corn gives shade and a sense of security, besides furnishing a considerable part of the winter feed. I hope to be able to grow corn for several successive years on the same ground by sowing either clover or rape at the last cultivation to furnish humus for the land. ”

“ But a corn crop is often put in to act as a cleanser of the soil when it has become foul. This end can only be answered by a rigid persecution and destruction of the weeds throughout the whole growing season. Some farmers, strangely enough, will deal thoroughly with their fields, but allow the edges and fence rows to swarm with weeds that luxuriate and ripen seed which the winds scatter all over the field. This is as if a man should busy himself all day long, in driving hogs out of his field, but leave all the holes open where they broke in. ”

“ Do not, like one of my neighbors, cultivate the corn row, that cost only about five cents a row for seed, four times, and leave the tree row, which cost two dollars per row, uncultivated. Do not use a stirring plow; it will hill up earth around the trees too much. With a lister you can list in your corn or furrow out potato rows, running east and west one year, and north and south the next. Growing crops for five or six years is long enough; then cultivation should be done with a disc, an Acme or a common harrow ”

“ The corn is planted among the standing stumps which are left to rot. If grass land is to be brought under cultivation, as much tall grass as the labourer can conveniently lay hold of is collected together and tied into a knot. He then strikes his hoe round the tufts to sever the roots, and leaving all standing, proceeds until the whole ground assumes the appearance of a field covered with little shocks of corn in harvest. ”

“ Besides, I have not attempted to estimate the value of raising almost maximum yields, where weather conditions are unfavorable, by such drainage, preparation of soil, planting and tillage as will best suit local and climatic conditions. No crop emphasizes the value of seed selection in such unmistakable terms as corn. The average stand of this crop does not exceed 60 percent, which means that the farmer spends 40 percent of his time in the cornfield without result. ”

“ If you were to plant only one grain of corn and let it grow until it is ripe, and then plant the seeds again which grew on these few ears of corn, and thus continue to re-plant again and again, we are told by those who have calculated it very carefully, that in only five short years the amount of corn that could be grown as the result of the planting of the one single seed would be sufficient to plant a hill of corn, with three grains in every square yard of all the dry land on all the earth. ”

“ The Indians in their succotash taught us long ago to associate corn with beans, and they hit upon a dish not surpassed by modern invention. This delicious vegetable is as easily raised as its "hail-fellow well met," the bean. We have only to plant it at the same time in hills from three to four feet apart, and cover the seed two inches deep. I have used the powdery fertilizers and wood-ashes in the hill to great advantage, first mingling these ingredients well with the soil. We make it a point to have sweet-corn for the table from July 1 until the stalks are killed by frost in October. ”

“ In May or June the corn is planted. This is done by making little holes in the ground with a pointed stick, putting in a few grains of corn and covering them over. Once in the ground, it is left to take care of itself, and if it will not grow, it is considered that the land is not worth having. ”

“ Squashes.—Plant as advised for melons and cucumbers. They require a rich, well-manured soil.
Strawberries.—Remove the blossoms from newly set plants. Mulch with salt hay or marsh hay or clean straw or leaves those that are to bear. Mulching conserves moisture, keeps the berries clean, and prevents weeds from growing.
Sweet corn.—Plant early and late varieties, and by making two or three plantings of each, at intervals, a succession may be kept up all summer and fall. Sweet corn is delicious, and one can hardly have too much of it. ”

“ By winter, the entire ground is covered with plants, which are protected as will be explained further on. In the spring the coarsest of the covering is raked off, and between the rows is dug a space about a foot or eighteen inches wide, which serves as a path for the pickers. This path is often cheaply and quickly made by throwing two light furrows together with a corn plow. Under this system, the first crop is usually the best, and in strong lands adapted to grasses the beds often become so foul that it does not pay to leave them to bear a second year. ”

“ In some states a common plan of thickening a stand is to let the third crop ripen seed, and then about the last of September disk and harrow the seed into the ground where it grew. This frequently saves the stand and adds many years to its life. But where a field begins to fail after a third year it is usually better to plow it up and raise one or two crops of corn, a crop of oats or of millet, and then reseed. ”

“ Success frequently results from sowing among the sweet corn just before the last cultivation; with favorable weather a crop will mature before severe freezing weather and turnips are the better for a touch of frost.
Open a shallow drill with the hand plough or by dragging the corner of the hoe along the row and scatter the seed very thinly. If the planting167 is in full rows make them a foot or fifteen inches apart. As soon as the plants are large enough, thin to stand three or four inches apart; this is important as fine, smooth roots cannot be produced if crowded. ”