INDIAN CORN OR MAIZE. 17 



not good, unless they have been artificially enriched. 

 The same is true of gravelly soils low in fertility, and 

 when these poor soils lie on a subsoil of sand or 

 gravel, the condition is still less hopeful. And, if it 

 should become dry, it is still further aggravated. 

 Peat soils are not good in a dry season. Muck soils 

 are excellent when moist, and the same is true of the 

 average dark colored soils of the prairie and of the 

 gray soils of the Rocky mountain region. Hardpan 

 subsoils that come near the surface are not good. 

 They prevent the corn roots from getting down into 

 the soil, and corn naturally ransacks the soil for food, 

 both near the surface and down from it. Subsoils in 

 which the water table lies quite near the surface are 

 not good, since they hinder the downward course of 

 the roots; nor will corn grow in saturated surface 

 soils. Mild clay subsoils are considered the best, 

 since the moisture does not filter too quickly through 

 them, and the roots of the corn can easily penetrate 

 into them in search of food. 



Preparing the Soil. — When preparing the soil 

 for corn that is to be sown for pasture, the aim should 

 be to secure a deep, firm, finely pulverized, moist and 

 clean seed bed. Sometimes, as, for instance, when 

 the ground is plowed the autumn previously, all these 

 conditions can be secured. At other times some of 

 them onl}?- can be reached, owing to the too limited 

 period for giving it the necessary cultivation. When 

 the ground is plowed in the autumn, the plowing 

 should be deep. It should be deep to enable the 

 young roots and rootlets of the corn to penetrate it 

 easily during the earlier stages of growth and to give 

 the soil power to retain more moisture near the sur- 

 face. And the aim should be to plow it in the fall, 

 2 



