56 The Bulletin. 



Many farmers think that it does not pay to harrow or to roll and pulverize 

 the clods. If the land is too dry, so that it breaks into clods the seed are put 

 in among the clods with the expectation of securing good results, forgetting 

 that plants have about as much use for rocks as for clods. Every clod has a 

 given surface area which holds a given amount of film water. This is not 

 the water that lies between the clods or that which is in the interior of the 

 clod, but it is that which clings around the clod after the surplus water has 

 passed off, or has been used by plants. If the clod is broken into two pieces 

 the two fresh surfaces represent the increased surface area which the clod 

 has for holding film water. If the two parts are again broken its area is 

 further increased. If the clod is crushed into fine particles its surface area 

 and therefore its water-holding capacity is increased many times. Of course, 

 this is what is needed for both wet weather and for dry weather. 



HUMUS (CONVERTED VEGETATION). 



Much has been said and is still being said about humus in the soil, but its 

 importance has not been overestimated. Aside from its value in supplying 

 plant food, in making the soil work easily and in furnishing a valuable me- 

 dium upon which bacterial germs live, humus is a very absorptive material. 

 It is a fact that a pound of humus in the soil absorbs three times as much 

 moisture as the same amount of clay, and retains its moisture twice as long. 

 It takes up seven times as much water as sand and holds it five times as long 

 (shown by an experiment). This, again, is what we need, both in times of 

 excessive and of scanty rainfall. Stable manure is a most valuable material 

 for the same purpose, while at the same time adding valuable fertility. In 

 fact, land without vegetable matter is but the skeleton of soil, since soils are 

 forced by the disintegration of rocks. The amount of stable manure produced 

 on the average farm, however, being necessarily limited, the practice of grow- 

 ing large areas of cowpeas and clover should be resorted to. 



PRODUCTIVE, HOME-GKOWN SEED. 



The farmer who is interested in making profitable corn crops either grows 

 and improves his seed corn from his own seed patch or buys from a neighbor 

 who understands and properly follows up good lines of improvement. Seed 

 from a distance or outside of his own locality may or may not be the best 

 for his special conditions. More often they are not. Too often all he knows 

 about the corn is its appearance or its yield under conditions which may be 

 entirely different from his own. Its former large yields may have been due 

 to heavy application of commercial fertilizers, and may have been made at an 

 expense instead of at a goodly profit. It is not always the ear that ranks 

 highest by the score-card or by the eye that makes the largest yields. It 

 should have inherited the capacity to make the most bushels per acre where 

 it is to be grown. 



CULTIVATION. 



Many corn crops are stunted and the yield considerably reduced by lack of 

 sufficient early cultivation. A stunted calf, pig or colt may afterwards be 

 highly fed and cared for and make a comparatively good animal, but it will 

 never make quite the animal that it would have made otherwise, while the 

 cost of getting it back into a strong, growing condition is considerably in- 

 creased. The same is true of stunted plants. With a wide-reaching weeder or 

 light harrow the young corn can be gone over often enough so that no weeds 

 or grass will ever be allowed to choke it. In fact, they never should have a 

 chance to show themselves above the surface, being dislodged in the soil and 

 killed while germinating. The soil should at all times be kept loose on top 

 in order to prevent the evaporation of moisture as well as to destroy weeds. 

 It often happens that from one to three late cultivations will add several 

 bushels of corn per acre. It is a critical time with corn when it is completing 

 its stalk growth and making the ear. Good conditions of cultivation, season, 

 etc., may bring the corn along all right up to this period, but if cultivation is 

 discontinued too early, and the season becomes dry, the soil may become com- 

 pact, dry out, and the yield of the crop shortened. 



