434 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



nous crops, while the cowpeas grown with the corn leave the land in 

 excellent condition for the following cotton crops. 



FERTILIZERS. 



Red clover, cowpeas, and other leguminous plants are the best 

 fertilizers which can be used for corn. On land which has pro- 

 duced a good crop of any of these plants very little additional fer- 

 tilizer of any kind is needed to insure a good yield of corn the 

 following season. The abundant supply of nitrogen furnished by 

 these plants affords a large part of that needed by the corn. 



VARIETIES. 



For all of the ordinary purposes the best variety of corn is 

 the one which will produce the greatest amount of shelled grain 

 per acre, regardless of the time of ripening or of the size of either 

 stalks or ears. In the South the growing season is so long that it 

 is not necessary to select quick-growing varieties. The heaviest 

 yields are commonly secured from varieties which require from 140 

 to 170 days for their full maturity. If the crop is to be planted on 

 ground from which oats, clover, or some other early crop has been 

 harvested, or on land which has been overflowed until late in the 

 season, some of the earlier maturing sorts should be planted; but 

 when the corn is planted early in the spring any variety will have 

 ample time to mature before frost. 



PLANTING. 



Whether corn should be planted flat or on raised beds will 

 depend on whether the land has good natural drainage or is liable 

 to suffer from overflows. With good drainage flat planting is much 

 the better, because preparation is less expensive and because it ex- 

 poses less surface for the evaporation of soil moisture, and thus 

 makes the crop less liable to suffer from drought. 



The rolling lands of the South so often suffer from washing 

 that it is usually necessary to preserve them as much as possible by 

 planting in drills rather than in checks. The rows should run 

 at right angles to the slope of the hill, so as to keep them as nearly 

 level as possible, and although this makes the rows irregular in 

 length and in distance apart, it is the only safe plan to follow on 

 lands which wash. In most cases "circling" the rows around a hill 

 is fully as effective as is the ordinary form of terracing, as each 

 row forms a miniature terrace 4 feet wide and no space is lost. 



CULTIVATION. 



The nearer level and smooth the surface of the ground can be 

 kept the better. Thorough cultivation is needed, but that does not 

 mean deep cultivation. While corn does best on a soil which is 

 deep and loose, the deepening and loosening of the lower soil should 

 be done before the corn is planted, and the shallower the later cul- 

 tivations can be kept the more satisfactory will be the results. Corn 

 [has no large taproot like that of cotton, but is a surface feeder, 

 having a large number of long roots distributed through the upper 

 soil, and whenever the soil is cultivated so deep as to disturb any 

 of the roots the plant is necessarily weakened by having its supply 

 of moisture and nourishment decreased. A constant supply of food 



