SOIL AND PREPARATION FOR CORN 213 



corn as a vegetable in California is a greater affair than corn as a 

 grain. It would have even a greater value as a garden plant were it 

 not for the ravages of the ear-worm, which so far defies insectides 

 and which takes its full share of the crop at the times when its appe- 

 tite is good. It is usually the early corn which suffers most from 

 this pest. 



Soil. The requirements of Indian corn are so widely known 

 that it will hardly be necessary to enter minutely into them. The 

 soil should be preferably a rich, sandy loam, sufficiently retentive of 

 moisture and yet easy to keep in fine tilth. Satisfactory results can, 

 however, be secured on quite a variety of soils if warmth and moist- 

 ure can be assured. In the heavier soils there is much advantage in 

 plowing under the disintegrated roots of previous growths of weeds 

 or crop-plants and the best corn often comes here as elsewhere on 

 newly-broken land. 



Preparation for Corn. As the corn plant resents drought so 

 strenuously it is very important that preparation of the land should 

 include efforts for thorough moistening of the land by rainfall or 

 irrigation, followed by surface treatment to prevent evaporation. All 

 that has been urged in these directions in the chapter on cultivation 

 has especial pertinence in preparation for the corn crop. It is vain 

 to expect to succeed by shallow cultivation except where the land is 

 naturally sub-irrigated, and even on such land there must be deep 

 working enough to place the seed below the dry surface layer. Slack 

 preparation on lands which naturally dry out in the summer assures 

 failure and disappointment. 



Planting. Corn is a very tender plant and must be planted not 

 only after frosts are over, but after the soil has become well warmed 

 and warmth may be expected to continue. The date of planting 

 must be determined by the local attainment of these conditions. From 

 this time onward through the summer, planting may be done if 

 moisture enough can be retained in the soil. For this reason, on 

 moist or irrigated land, corn is planted after winter-growing crops 

 are cleared away, and large yields are secured. Near the coast 

 where the corn plant is constantly refreshed by ocean moisture in 

 the air, it will make good green growth with what remains from 

 winter rainfall on land from which a crop of beets or carrots, sown 

 the previous season, has been cleared away. In such rotation the 

 land should be plowed as early as possible after the roots have been 

 taken off, to keep down the growth of grass and weeds and retain 



