590 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



turned to the soil to renew it and strengthen it perpetually. The price 

 of Indiana land has advanced at rapid strides during the past few years, 

 and the cause is easily traced to the added importance that has attached 

 to corn culture. The market value of this cereal, until recently, was much 

 given to radical fluctuations, but it now seems to have established a 

 standard that may be accepted as a reasonably safe guide as a basis for 

 calculations 



lu conclusion, I congratulate you on having formed this association 

 for the advancement of interest in corn-growing in Indiana We are 

 living in an age of progress, of intelligent, practical methods, and the 

 good work in which you are engaged will redound not only to your own 

 credit and prosperity, but likewise to the profit of succeeding generations. 



CORN CULTURE AND BREEDING. 



BY A. D. SHOMEL, IT^LINOIS EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF FERTILE SOIL. 



The important points under the farmer's control in the production of 

 a profitable crop of corn are fertile soil, improved seed, and the best 

 methods of cultui-e. By "farmer's control" is meant that the corn grower 

 can influence the above conditions so that they may be made to produce 

 the largest yield of corn per acre most economically. The fertility of 

 the virgin soils seemed almost boundless to the pioneer farmer. He 

 planted crop of corn after crop of corn, or crop of wheat after crop of 

 wheat, or i-otated corn with wheat, producing large yields of both crops. 

 Little attention was given to the application of the principles of plant 

 growth to our farm crops. In Indiana and Illinois such systems of farm- 

 ing have reduced the fertility of the soil to such an extent that profitable 

 crops can no longer be produced on the old haphazard manner of farm- 

 ing. The early settlers broke the prairie sod or cleared the timber fields 

 and cropped them until they would no longer produce profitable! crops. 

 These farmers then moved into a new spot, broke the sod or cleared the 

 timber, and farmed as before. Sooner or later in any State the new 

 and unbroken fields will all be plowed and cultivated. In Illinois, the 

 children of the pioneers are being crowded back onto the exhausted fields, 

 and it is their problem to find some practical way of restoring the fertility 

 to the soils. Any farming community which practices a one-crop system 

 of farming is found to eventually become poverty stricken. The fertility 

 of the soil is like a bank account. By continued drafts without any 

 deposits the balance will sooner or later be found on the wrong side of 



