A LITTLE LAND 280 



AND A LIVING 



V of the results of the Agriculturist contest 

 show what can be done. When corn is grown 

 for the ears, and not for the stalk, farmers will 

 plant only such seed as has proved most prolific, 

 and the stalks will be cut back, that all the plant's 

 strength may go into producing more ears. 



If you happen to have poor land and you have 

 brains enough, you can make your neighbors wish 

 their land was as poor too, as one man, Mr. E. 

 Mclver Williamson, of Mont Clare, South Caro- 

 lina, did. He took advantage of the fact that his 

 land was very poor to stunt his corn, and put all 

 the strength of the plant into the ears. 



This was the way he went about it. He planted 

 the corn in the poor subsoil and the best it could 

 do w r as to grow to between two and three feet 

 high, then when the time came for the ears to set 

 he piled on a rich top soil, in other words, fed the 

 plant all it could use, and all the strength of the 

 plant went to the formation of ears; not as in 

 ordinary cases, mostly to stalk and leaves. The 

 consequence was he had a much larger yield per 

 acre than the average, and his envious neighbors 

 complained that they could not do that because 



