114 GARDENING WITH BRAINS V 



principles which underlie the most successful methods 

 of corn cultivation. 



Corn is a vigorous surface feeder. Three-quarters of 

 the roots will be found in the plowed soil, and it is here 

 that the plant gets its heavy requirements of fertilizing 

 elements for rapid growth. Cultivate this surface soil 

 three or four inches deep and you not only injure some 

 of the corn roots, but you deprive them of about one- 

 half of that rich feeding area which is available when 

 weeds are killed without stirring the soil by just scraping 

 with a hoe. Hence the 6.7 bushels increase. But how 

 about conserving moisture? Is a loose surface mulch 

 not necessary? In the subhumid or semiarid section 

 cultivation to conserve moisture is an all-important 

 matter ; but under the humid climatic conditions of the 

 Corn Belt the Illinois station found that little or no soil 

 moisture escapes after the dense network of corn roots, 

 radiating in all directions, becomes established. 



In other words, the surface soil is of more value as a 

 source of plant food than it is in saving moisture. This, 

 of course, does not mean that it is practical to scrape the 

 weeds out of our corn fields with a hoe, but it does mean, 

 most emphatically, that corn should be cultivated deep 

 enough to kill the weeds and no deeper. It means that 

 we should cultivate shallow enough to reduce the root 

 injury to a minimum, and shallow enough to provide 

 the roots with as much surface soil as it is possible to 

 give them for feeding purposes. 



