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There are advocates of both deep and shallow planting, 

 each claiming superior success. My thirty years 7 exper- 

 ience and observation in the soil and climate of this state, 

 warrants the belief that the sooner corn can be gotten above 

 the surface up, the better. In other words, plant shallow, 

 get the corn up, and give roots depth with after culture. 

 It is important, under our hot suns, that roots be well down 

 in the soil, with a downward tendency, at least, until the 

 top has sufficiently advanced to shade the roots. While 

 it is true the atmospheric conditions are not the same on 

 similar dates for different years, the effect on plant growth 

 is as important as though the seasons obeyed fixed laws. I 

 repeat, the sooner both the functions of root and leaf are 

 brought into joint exercise and duty, the better. 



Another somewhat vexed problem, but which I think 

 practical experience has solved, is, how close shall corn be 

 planted to secure best results in matter of yield? The old 

 rule when I was a boy on the farm corn was planted four 

 feet by four, marked off by an old-fashioned bull tongue 

 plow, dropped by hand, four to six kernels in a hill, and 

 covered with a garden hoe. Now, with the modern im- 

 proved planters, rows three and a half feet apart, kernels 

 can be put in any distance apart and as many in a hill as 

 desirable. It has been demonstrated that a stock of corn 

 requires about fifteen inches by three and a half feet. The 

 highest yields have been produced with rows three and a 

 half feet, two kernels in a hill, fifteen inches apart. The 

 next best yield, one kernel in a hill nine inches apart, and 

 the next, two kernels in a hill twenty-four inches apart, 

 rows all the same distance three and a half feet. The 

 highest ear development was produced from the single grain 

 hill nine inches apart. 



