106 One Thousand Questions in Agriculture 



ivhat kind would you recommend? Would you recommend deep plowing 

 follozved by a packer and harrozv so as to preserve the moisture? 



You ought to be able to get 10 tons of silage per acre from 

 corn grown on good corn land. It can be best grown in rows 

 sufficiently distant for cultivation, closer in the row than would be 

 desirable for corn, and yet not too crowded, because corn for silage 

 should develop good ears and should be cut for silage about the time 

 when the glazing begins to appear. If your land needs fertilization, 

 stable manure or a "complete fertilizer" of the dealers would be the 

 proper thing to use. It would be very desirable to plow corn land 

 deeply the preceding fall, followed by a packer or harrow to settle 

 down the land below, but do not work down fine. Keep the surface 

 stirred from time to time during the winter and put in the crop 

 with the usual cultivation in the spring as soon as the frost danger 

 is over. 



Irrigation for Corn. 



What amount of water is necessary per acre for the best possible 

 yield of corn under acreage conditions and proper cultivation in the San 

 Joaquin or Sacramento valleys? 



No one can answer such a question with anything more than a 

 guess. It depends upon how much rain has fallen the previous 

 winter, how retentive the soil is naturally, and what has been done 

 to help the soil to hold it. Nearly all the corn that is grown is 

 carried without any irrigation at all on moist lowlands, which may be 

 too wet for winter crops. If you demand a guess, make it six acre- 

 inches, with a good surface pulverizing after each run of water in 

 furrows between the rows. This water would be best used in two 

 or three applications. 



Eastern Seed Corn for California. 



The question has been raised as to Eastern-grown seed corn, comparing 

 it with Calif or nia-groivn seed. Some claim that the former does not yield 

 well the first season. 



We cannot give a complete refutation of the impression that 

 Eastern seed corn does not yield well the first season in California. 

 It is a somewhat prevalent impression. All that we can announce 

 now is that we have grown collections of Eastern seed corn and 

 have found the product quite as good as could have been expected, 

 and did not encounter, apparently, the trouble of which you write. 



Need of Corn Suckering. 



To insure the best crop of corn possible, does it pay to sucker it or 

 not? 



The removal of suckers is a matter of local conditions largely in 

 California, and growers are getting out of the habit of suckering. In 

 some places suckering is needed, and in others it apparently does not 

 pay to do so, although with very rare exceptions a larger yield can 

 be secured by suckering than without. 



