80 The Bulletin. 



In Table XIV is presented a summary of four years' tests at 

 Edgecombe and at Red Springs, and four at Iredell, and five at Ex- 

 periment Station. 



III. Fektilization and Cultivation of Cobn and Cotton. 



CORN. 



Culture. — It unquestionably pays well to thoroughly break and 

 broadcast-harrow land for corn. Using a two-horse plow and run- 

 ning it 8 to 10 inches deep, and afterwards harrowing with large 

 smoothing harrow, puts the land in nice condition. It is also well 

 to run a small-tooth harrow or weeder across corn rows about the time 

 the plants are coming up, and even after they are several inches high, 

 slanting the teeth of the harrow backward. Harrowing in this w^ay 

 saves after-cultivation, and is a quick and comparatively inexpensive 

 way of getting over the land. The land being thoroughly broken 

 before the corn is put in the ground, only shallow, level cultivation 

 with some one of the considerable number of good cultivators need be 

 given the crop during the growing season. The one-horse cultivators 

 cover corn rows in two or three furrows, and the two-horse ones at 

 a single trip. The cultivations should be frequent — about every ten 

 to twelve days — and if possible, just after rains, so as to break any 

 crust formed by showers, leaving a dust mulch to retard the loss of 

 moisture added to the soil by previous rains. Toward the end of the 

 gi'owing season the cultivators should only be run one to one and a 

 half inches deep, so as to disturb as little as possible the roots of the 

 plants, which, by that time, are well into the middle of the rows. 



Fertilizers for Corn. — ^The experimental work on the sandy soils 

 of the east, reports of which have been made previously, has pro- 

 gTessed far enough, we feel, to draw some conclusions in reference 

 to the best amounts and proportions of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash for corn. As the results of the past five years' work have 

 not yet been published, the following formulas,- based on the results 

 of the first two years' tests and tests in other States with similar soil 

 and climatic conditions, are given as good ones for corn : 



For Corn on Land in Fair Condition. 

 No. 1— 



Acid phosphate, 14 per cent phosphoric acid 900 pounds 



Cotton-seed meal, 6.59' per cent nitrogen, 2.5 per cent phos- 

 phoric acid and 1.5 per cent potash 960 pounds 



Kainit, 12.5 per cent potash 140 pounds 



2,000 pounds 



^ 6.59 per cent nitrogen equals 8 per cent ammonia. 



