Fanners' Week in AgricnUuval dollcge. 219 



place, than we found in these dozen varieties picked up all the way from 

 Kansas to Ohio. So you see what a chance for changing your variety 

 it gives you if you will get to working with individual ears, going to 

 your fields in September and selecting for what you want — for early 

 maturity, if that's what you want; for low ears or high ears, whichever 

 you want. You can make changes year by year, as I should like to show 

 you if I had time. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. Don't you think there is a great deal of corn lost by being 

 planted too thick? 



A. It is possible. With five plants per hill in rows 3I/2 ^^et apart 

 we secured, as a five year average, a little over 60 bushels of shelled corn 

 per acre. With three plants per hill we averaged 59 bushels. Now 

 five plants is too thick, in my judgment, and yet there are the figures on 

 shelled corn. 



Q. How did the quality compare ? 



A. If you mean size of ear, the ears were of course, much smaller. 

 The shelled corn, however, was equally good. The five plants per hill 

 in rows 31/^ feet apart would give you 17,000 plants per acre. I don't 

 recommend that many. There are more farmers in our State with less 

 than 7,000 plants per acre than there are with 12,000. The latter figure 

 is about right. 



Q. How thick would you recommend drill corn? 



A. On good rich land I would plant a kernel every 12 inches. We 

 have averaged 41^ bushels more shelled corn per acre with com in 

 drills than in hills where we had the same number of plants per acre. 

 That is not very much more, but it amounts to something. 



Q. In regard to commercial fertilizers, don't you have to try them 

 for a good many years to know whether the results are permanent ? 



A. We have a series of plots that have been treated with com- 

 mercial fertilizers for 17 years, and the yields have gradually increased 

 just as they have with manure. This does not mean that it will pay 

 a man to be careless with his manure product and buy fertilizers; but 

 he can supplement the manure product of the farm with fertilizers. 



Q. What is the best way to apply a commercial fertilizer? 



A. Our experience is that if you are going to use very much — 

 much above 100 pounds — it is better to drill it all through the soil be- 

 fore you plant the corn. The corn roots will find it all right. If you 

 simply M^ant to give the corn a hurry start so as to get it out of the way 

 of weeds and insects, you can use 75 to 100 pounds with the planter with 



