The Indian Corn Crop 179 



letting the manure lie on the surface during the winter, 

 for it will lose far less there than if kept in the barnyard, 

 and the absorptive power of the soil will hold on to its 

 valuable constituents. In the spring the sod and manure 

 are to be turned under deeply, the land thoroughly pre- 

 pared with the harrow and planted. The planting will 

 depend largely on local conditions. On level land it is 

 the common practice in the Middle and Northern States 

 to plant in hills about three and a half to four feet apart 

 each way, so that the cultivation may be in both directions, 

 leaving two or three stalks in the hill, and with the more 

 dwarf -growing flint corns sometimes four stalks in the hill. 

 In the South, and particularly in the Southern hill lands, 

 where there is danger of washing, all rows for cultivation 

 must run on the contour of the hills, and hence com is 

 always planted in continuous rows with a single stalk in 

 each place. On the level lands of the cotton coast belt, 

 the tall growth of corn has led to planting it very thinly 

 —one stalk in a hill, five to six feet apart each way. No 

 effort is made to breed the natural tall growth of the corn 

 down to a more moderate stature, and the general opinion 

 is that the wide planting is necessary there. But where 

 there has been attention given to the proper breeding of 

 the plants, com can be planted much closer, and a more 

 prohfic strain estabHshed. Plants that produce but a 

 single ear in single hills six feet apart cannot produce a 

 large crop no matter how fertile the land, and therefore 

 it is of especial importance to attend to the breeding of 

 the com in the South. We have found that on the hill 

 lands of the South com properly bred can be planted in 

 rows less than four feet apart and fifteen inches in the rows, 



