The Bulletin. 55 



4. Rotation with crops of different habits and characters, and particularly 

 those that serve as summer and winter cover crops. 



5. A more extensive use of legumes. 



6. The keeping of that number of farm animals which will enable the profit- 

 able consumption of these humus-producing crops. 



Farming is a composite occupation, and success does not follow attention to 

 isolated units, but does follow the adjustment of these units into a harmonious 

 whole. Conservation of the soil's fertility is the nucleus around which revolve 

 and from which radiate the elements of successful farming. The conditions 

 and practices which favor gullying or soil wash are the most serious problems 

 in North Carolina agriculture and the heaviest tax upon the resources of the 

 State. 



DOUBLING THE CORN YIELD. 



By C. R. HUDSON, State Agent Farmers' Co-operative Demonstration^Work. 



for North Carolina. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: 



Probably the most important of any one thing in growing a big crop of 

 corn is a well-regulated and abundant supply of moisture, Corn is a plant 

 that requires an enormous amount of water when it is growing rapidly and 

 making the ear. An acre of these plants, with the ordinary distance of plant- 

 ing, requires from 500 to 700 tons, or about 300 pounds of water for every 

 stalk of corn. Every observant farmer knows that either of the two extremes, 

 a wet spell or a dry spell of weather, is detrimental to a good yield. To have 

 a good supply of water without the bad effects of either extreme three things 

 are necessary. They are : 



1. A deep soil. 



2. A pulverized soil. 



3. A humus-fllled soil. 



In a long series of years of farming the Southern farmer has proven that 

 on the average soil a large yield of corn cannot be grown on land that is 

 broken only three or four inches deep. The records show that for forty or 

 fifty years, previous to 1907, North Carolina grew less than 14 bushels per 

 acre, average; South Carolina and Georgia, about 10 bushels; Alabama, about 

 12 bushels. The average depth of breaking the soil in these States during 

 that time probably did not exceed four inches. The shallow soil soon becomes 

 filled with water during heavy rains. If the rains continue for some time the 

 corn turns yellow for lack of air, which is kept out of the soil and from the 

 roots by the water. Two things cannot occupy the same place at the same 

 time. If excessive rains fall the surplus either flows off over the soil with 

 more or less detrimental washing, or if the land is flat and level it stands for 

 some time afterwards. Both cases may be remedied by proper methods of 

 farming. 



When a rain occurs that fills four inches of plowed soil it will in the 

 deeply plowed soil sink downward and allow the air to follow it. If the soil 

 is broken deeply enough no ordinary rain will more than fill it. If a drought 

 follows this the deep soil may contain two or three times as much moisture 

 as the shallow, and may thus carry a crop right on through a drought, when 

 the corn on the shallow soil would suffer for moisture. This deep breaking, 

 however, should be done in the fall on most soils and should be followed by a 

 cover crop of some kind to be turned under in the spring. At no time should 

 the fresh-broken clay be turned out on top. After being loosened up for a few 

 years and having had the action of the atmosphere on it in weathering and 

 having bad the humus worked downward, it may then be turned out, for by 

 that time it is pretty good soil. 



