The Bulletin. 11 



The reason is still within the memory of North Carolina farmers. 

 What farmer has forgotten the spring and summer of 1911? What 

 farmer in piedmont North Carolina does not remember nearly every 

 July and August since he began farming? The early drought of 1911 

 cut the corn crop short throughout that part of the State lying east of 

 the mountains and west of the black-land section of the east. 



In the piedmont section proper, the midsummer drought is of regular 

 occurrence, and yet most farmers fail to make proper and effective 

 preparations for combating it. In this section the corn crop grows off 

 rapidly and encouragingly until the fruiting stage is reached, when 

 the midsummer drought is almost sure to set in and cut the yield down 

 about half. Practically every farmer in this section has had the yield 

 of a field that promised to make fifty bushels per acre cut down to 

 fifteen bushels per acre by the midsummer drought. It is worth while, 

 then, to emphasize the importance of moisture conservation in the pied- 

 mont section especially, and farmers on the gray-soil belt of the coastal 

 plain will do well to keep this in mind, also, as their corn crops are not 

 entirely exempt from the withering effects of our August suns. 



The disastrous effects of the midsummer droughts can be almost 

 wholly offset by the proper conservation of soil moisture in the early 

 spring months, which must be effected through the incorporation with 

 the soil of liberal amounts of vegetable matter ; deep fall plowing ; early 

 spring plowing; thorough disking and harrowing before planting; and 

 proper cultivation of the crop after planting. 



SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF SEED. 



A task well begim is half done. Obviously, the most important part 

 in beginning the task of growing a corn crop is the selection of good 

 seed. Now, there are two kinds of good seed. There is a good variety 

 seed and a good vitality seed. It is needless to say that however good 

 may be the variety we select, our crop will be a failure if the vitality 

 of the seed we plant is not strong enough to give us a good stand. It 

 is, therefore, more important for us to have good viable seed for plant- 

 ing than to have a good variety to plant, in case we cannot get both 

 qualities in the same sample. 



Did you ever select your seed corn from the crib in the spring? Yes. 

 Then it is safe to assume you picked out the finest looking ears you 

 could find. I suppose most of us would do that. But how many ears 

 like the ones you chose for seed were borne on a single stalk — two, three, 

 or four? The chances are that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred 

 not more than one such ear as you chose for seed was borne on a single 

 stalk last year. Why? Because the high yielding, prolific cornstalks 

 do not bear big, showy ears. The ears produced by these plants and 

 these varieties are generally medium to small. 



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