FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 47 



POOR STAND OF CORN. 



A ' 'poor stand" of corn is responsible more than anything else, for the 

 low average yield in the central west. The ground may be rich, the prepa- 

 ration good and the corn receive the best of cultivation, but if the stand is 

 poor, the yield will be correspondingly poor. 



Careful counts of the number of stalks per hill were made last year in 

 more than a thousand dififerent corn fields and it would be safe to say that 

 there were not to exceed sixty-six per cent of a perfect stand on an average 

 and in some cases it fell as low as forty per cent. This means that the State 

 devoted nearly 9,000,000 acres to corn and produced only a 6,C00,000-acre 

 crop, or to put it another way, with a perfect stand the present average 

 yield of thirty-two bushels would be increased to fifty bushels per acre 

 or an increase to the State of 153,000,000 bushels. This does not take into 

 consideration the increased yield made possible through the use of improved 

 varieties, better bred seed, elimination of barren stalks by means of breed- 

 ing, better methods of cultivation, etc. 



The real seriousness of the situation will be more apparent from the fol- 

 lowing counts illustrating the stand in the poorer, medium and better fields 

 of Iowa. The following figures illustrate the number of stalks per hill in 

 the poorer fields: 222032013011131 1023012100213. Each 

 of the first three hills had two stalks, the fourth hill was missing and the 

 next had three stalks, etc. 



That the results might be as accurate aspossible, counts similar to the 

 above were made in three places in each field. The hills were taken just as 

 they came in the row and generally crosswise of the way the corn was 

 planted. The field above represents only fifty-two percent of a stand of 

 corn. Twenty-five per cent of the hills were missing. Thirty-five per cent 

 had one stalk. Twenty-five per cent had two stalks and twenty per cent 

 had three stalks per hill. If the poor stand was largely due to seed of low 

 vitality, which is generally true in case of very poor stands, then the same 

 influence which killed a portion of the seed must also have greatly weakened 

 that which did grow and, as a consequence, the yield is even much less 

 han what is represented by the stand. 



The above represents what is found in hundreds of cornfields every- 

 where in Iowa. Many fields were found in which the stand was as low as 

 forty per cent. The following will illustrate very closely the average stand 

 in the State: 2312101133131222303120212. On the average 

 soil of the State this would represent about sixty-five per cent of a stand of 

 corn. Twelve per cent of the hills were missing, twenty-eight per cent of 

 the hills had one stalk, thirty-two per cent of the hills had two stalks, and 

 twenty-eight per cent of the hills had three stalks. The following repre- 

 sents the stand in some of the very best fields in the state: 343213333 

 23333233333333 3. In this field, there was no hills missing, four 

 hills had one stalk, twelve had two stalks, seventy-six had three stalks, and 

 eight hills had four stalks. 



This represents not less than ninety-five to ninety-six per cent of a per- 

 fect stand. 



If we go into our fields at husking time and make a study of the stand of 

 corn, we will be convinced of the serious losses to ourselves and to the State 

 each year from a poor stand of corn. 



