50 The Bulletin 



com removes from the soil about 20 cents worth of plant food. It would 

 cost this much to return the plant food in a bushel of corn to the soil in 

 a commercial fertilizer. A fifty-bushel crop of corn has, therefore, re- 

 moved plant food to the value of about $10. By good fertilization we 

 have produced good yields, and increases over unfertilized areas have 

 been obtained at a moderate cost per bushel. 



Pkepaeation and Cultivation. — Corn delights in a thoroughly well 

 prepared soil. The land should be broken in the fall or early spring to 

 a depth of 6 or 8 inches and the soil may be gradually deepened beyond 

 this to advantage. Before planting cut up the land with a disk harrow 

 to get rid of clods and to make a good seed bed. Four feet is a good width 

 for rows. The distance the corn is left in the row would depend on 

 the productiveness of the land and should vary, usually, between 15 

 and 30 inches. The fertilizer on these soils should, as a rule, be put in 

 the drill before planting and the corn planted just below the level. 

 Weeders and light harrows may be run across the rows two or three 

 times before and after the corn is up and before cultivation with cul- 

 tivators begin. Cultivate with good one or two-horse cultivators which 

 will not require more than two furrows to the row. The soil should be 

 stirred every ten days or two weeks, and as nearly as possible after 

 rains so as to keep doAvn grass and weeds and to conserv^e the supply of 

 moisture. The cultivation should be comparatively deep early in the 

 season, becoming shallow as the crop grows larger and its root system 

 develops. It has been found desirable to continue the cultivation in this 

 way until the com is in silk and tassel, making the cultivation very 

 shallow at last and going away some distance from the corn. 



Varieties. — In the fifteen years' work on the Edgecombe Fann a 

 very large number of varieties of corn, embracing practically all the 

 types generally grown, have been tested. Those giving the best results 

 are the ones belonging to the prolific or two or more ears-to-the-stalk 

 kind. Among these Weekley's Improved, Cocke's Prolific, Biggs' 

 Seven Ear and Hickory King have done specially well. The results 

 of variety tests have been published each year in detail and the results 

 are summarized in the bulletins of this Department. These results can 

 be had for study by any one interested in them. 



Fertilization. — Analyses of these soils show that they are very low 

 in phosphoric acid, high in potash, and have a fair supply of lime, the 

 quantity of nitrogen depending on the amount of vegetable or organic 

 matter in the soil. Experiments show that nitrogen is the one single 

 constituent most needed for the production of com on these lands; 

 phosphoric acid and potash coming next but neither one showing any 

 marked yields when used in different amounts. It is not possible with 

 present results to say just exactly what is the best proportion of these 

 constituents to use for most profitable returns, but it is certain from the 

 analyses of the soil and the field results that the fertilizer should carry 

 a high percentage of nitrogen and phosphoric acid and a low percentage 



