THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



243 



together with some of his corn-raising 

 methods in general: 



' ' The portion of my crop giving a yield 

 of 104 bushels of husked, well-dried 

 (fifty- six pounds, shelled) corn per acre 

 was five acres of fifty -seven I planted last 

 year. My land is slightly rolling prairie 

 and about a fair average of Kansas soil, 

 with a hard, impervious subsoil. The 

 five acres mentioned were at one end of a 

 twenty-five-acre field, part of which had been 

 in potatoes for two years and the last crop 

 dug with a listing plow late in October, 

 which was equivalent to a deep fall plow- 

 ing. 



"In spring the ground was much like a 

 bed of ashes. It was then deeply plowed, 

 made fine and smooth with a plank-drag 

 and drilled the first week in May with a 

 'Farmer's Friend' planter of medium 

 width, with a deep-grained yellow Dent 

 corn ; about the same quantity of seed was 

 used as would have been if from three to 

 somewhat less than four grains had been 

 placed in hills the ordinary distance apart. 

 This was cultivated four times with com- 

 mon gang cultivators and hoed three 

 times -the last hoeing after it had been 

 finished with the cultivators. 



" I am a strong believer in deep and 

 thorough cultivation, and long since 

 learned that a good crop of corn and a 

 rank growth of cockle-burs, crab-grass and 

 similar weeds cannot occupy the same 

 ground at the same time. I have not 

 subsoiled for previous crops, but last fall 

 invested in a Ferine subsoiler and used it 

 on fifteen acres. I intend planting 100 

 acres in corn this season and aim to have 

 it all subsoiled. Am subsoiling my fields 

 the narrow way first (they are from forty 

 to eighty rods wide and 120 rods long) as 

 deeply as four horses can do the work, at 

 distances of two and one-half feet. Will 

 then throw up the ridges cross-wise of 

 this with a listing plow, following it in 

 each furrow with the subsoiler as deep as 

 three horses can pull it, and drill the seed 

 immediately in the track of the subsoiler. 

 This will leave the land subsoiled in both 

 directions. 



"My whole crop for 1895 averaged 

 only fifty- seven bushels per acre, yet 

 would have made seventy-five bushels but 

 for an unfortunate invasion just at the 

 critical time by an army of chinch bugs 

 from an adjacent thirty-acre field of oats. 

 With proper treatment of our soils and 



thorough cultivation I am of the opinion 

 that in all favorable seasons such as last 

 we should raise from seventy-five to 100 

 bushels of corn per acre instead of the 

 more common twenty -five to fifty bushels. 

 I am always careful to avoid cultivating 

 when the land is very wet, and think 

 many farmers make a serious mistake by 

 working their corn when the soil cleaves 

 from the shovels in chunks. The sun is 

 likely to then bake the ground and the 

 growth loses its bright, healthy green and 

 turns a sickly yellow. " 



SUGAR TO REPLACE WHEAT AND 

 COTTON. 



BY W. C. FITZSIMMONS. 



FROM the Florida Farmer and Fruit 

 Grower we take the following: 



"We pay annually about $125,000,000 for 

 foreign sugar. It should all be made here. 

 The sugar beet crop should take the place of 

 wheat on the great prairies where farmers are 

 in poverty because wheat no longer yields a 

 paying crop, and the cotton fields and the re- 

 claimed glades of the South should be turned 

 into cane fields where they will produce from 

 $50 to $100 per acre without bounty." 



The above is in some respects a mis- 

 leading statement; especially that part 

 of it relating to the feasibility of planting 

 the wheat fields of the North and the 

 cotton fields of the South with sugar-beets 

 or cane in the hope of realizing $50 to 

 $100 per acre for the crop. It is im- 

 possible. Such results have scarcely yet 

 been assured by the best land in the world, 

 when planted on so large a scale, and can- 

 not be on the worn wheat and cotton lands 

 of the North and South. 



The total importations of sugar are 

 enormous to be sure; and for the year 

 ending June 30, 1894, amounted to 4,261,- 

 360 004 pounds, valued at $124,720,681. 

 For the previous fiscal year the imports 

 were 3,731,219,367 pounds, valued at 

 $114,959,870. While it is certain that 

 this immense quantity of sugar can be 

 and should be produced in the United 

 States, it should be also remembered that 

 all land is not adapted to sugar beets or 

 to cane. More than 20,000,000 acres are 

 annually planted with cotton in the 

 United States and the yield averages less 

 than 200 pounds of lint per acre, worth 

 last year about $10.90. The 34,000,000 

 acres of land planted with wheat last year 

 yielded but about thirteen bushels per 



