170 THE BOOK OF CORN 



originator has followed it for years and practically 

 illustrates its efficiency. The system consists in first 

 determining the capacity of the land as to spacing", 

 which may be found for a given locality, let us say, 

 five by three feet, one stalk to the hill. The hills, by 

 Dunton's method, are then located double that distance 

 apart, or six feet in the row, but two stalks are left in 

 the hill, instead of one. The claim is advanced that a 

 maximum yield is thereby rendered more certain, on 

 the theory that the root system of a hill, on reaching 

 out laterally for plant food in all directions, soon inter- 

 laces with that of its neighbor, where the hills are 

 spaced a short distance, as three feet apart ; and, as the 

 fertilizer* is distributed in a continuous stream down 

 the row, the foraging capillaries would by earing time 

 have exhausted the available supply. Were the hills 

 spaced six feet apart, the roots, having to travel twice 

 as far, would not have drained the entire reservoir of 

 plant food at this critical period, and the plant would 

 therefore have a surplus upon which to draw when 

 most needed. Two stalks are left in each hill to equal- 

 ize the total yield by giving the plat the maximum 

 number it can profitably sustain under the calculated 

 spacing of five by three, which at five by six would evi- 

 dentlv be reduced by one-half with only one stalk to 

 the hill. 



The theory seems plausible enough, and is stren- 

 uously upheld by those who practice it ; but it must be 

 admitted that the results of careful tests at the Georgia 

 experiment station do not justify it, and tend to con- 

 firm the original (and general) theory that the more 

 nearly the individual plants are equidistant from ad- 

 jacent plants, the better the result. 



* Commercial fertilizer, of course; the theory would not obtain 

 where the land was improved and the soil was uniformly fertile in 

 every portion, but only where the crop depended on an annually re- 

 ceived supply. 



