The Bulletin. 79 



Cut the corn and shock it, and it will be a firmer grain and heavier than 

 if it had been left to ripen in the field with all the fodder on it, because by 

 cutting and placing the green stalks together, and putting them out of the 

 sun and wind, the sap in the stalk is preserved longer, and the corn has a 

 longer time to mature, and draw from the stalk, and hence a firmer and bet- 

 ter grain. You cannot afford to waste this good feed when your stock need 

 it, and your farms need the manure. After fifteen years' experience I know 

 of no way of getting a greater amount and a better feed for so little cost and 

 labor as cutting the corn. Pulling fodder, cutting tops, pulling corn, throwing 

 it on the ground, picking it up again, hauling to the lot, and throwing it out 

 again, then shucking and throwing the corn on the ground, then putting in a 

 wagon, and putting in a crib, picking up the shucks, taking to barn and 

 throwing out again is too slow and costly and out of date for this progressive 

 age. We must get out of the old ruts, and improve our methods if we expect 

 to grow the corn crop with any profit. 



Farmers, I hope you can get some ideas out of what I have had to say that 

 will be of some help to you in growing your corn. Let us all determine that 

 we will increase our corn yield, and that we will feed our lands and treat 

 them in such a way that we will get better yields. If every farmer will make 

 up his mind to this effect we will see our average go up gradually from 15 

 bushels an acre to 30. 



SOIL IMPROVEMENT. 



By C. L. NEWMAN. 



There is no subject confronting the North Carolina farmer which is of 

 equal importance to the subject of soil improvement. The profit resulting 

 from plant production is controlled by soil conditions. The profit resulting 

 from animal production is controlled by plant production. The farmers' 

 efforts in the care of crops are directed almost solely to the present needs of 

 the present crop rather than to the needs of the soil; and the interpretation 

 of these plant needs too often lead the farmer to practices disastrous to the 

 good of the soil and ruinous to its future usefulness. 



The thousands of acres of land in the State that are exhausted of fertility 

 and many more thousands of acres so reduced in fertility that they are now 

 cultivated at a loss rather than a profit, have been brought to their present 

 condition by the ignorance, carelessness and self-robbery on the part of the 

 owners of these acres. Every idle field, every broomsedge field, every gullied 

 area and every pine thicket are wounds upon the breast of the State and 

 vandals robbing a people of nourishment. The soil which furnishes all the 

 food and all the clothing to all the inhabitants of the world was not given to 

 be used in ignorance and then thrown aside in a greater ignorance. It was 

 given for all time to come, and he who is a careless keeper of the soil 

 intrusted to him is neglectful of his own interests, untrue to his fellow-beings, 

 robs posterity and is recreant to a divine trust. If a man burns his own 

 house he is convicted of arson; if he abuses his horse he is convicted of 

 cruelty to animals and suffers penalties; if he destroys the usefulness of a 

 thousand acres of the earth's surface no penalty is inflicted. In the pretense 

 of progress we have destroyed our forests. Shall we under the false pretense 

 of science continue to destroy the usefulness of the earth's surface? 



The discovery of America is one of the greatest events in the history of the 

 world. What was the condition of our part of this great American Continent 

 when Columbus made it known to the world? Within the present boundary 

 lines of the Old North State there flourished a forest which, if now in exist- 

 ence, would attract and merit the admiration of the world! What has become 

 of it? What have we in its place on thousands of acres? It is true that a great 

 civilization has sprung from the ashes of our great forests, but it was not 



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