6 



The vitality, uniformity and reproductive power of seed 

 next claim attention, and will demand detailed consideration 

 later. Frequent light cultivation can never be too strongly 

 emphasized. I am forced to the conviction that after corn 

 or potatoes are 6 inches high all cultivation should be con- 

 fined to the upper 2 inches. By the time the corn is 8 inches 

 tall the feeding rootlets meet between the rows. All food is 

 taken in at the extremities of these rootlets, never by the 

 main trunk roots. Weeds can have no place in the economy 

 of good farming. 



No man can afford to pay for, or produce, plant food to 

 feed weeds in his corn field. A 1-inch dust mulch will save 

 the corn crop on any New England farm. Count out the 

 slackers on the farms and let them be known as leaners on 

 the body of workers. There is no place in the present-day 

 vocabularies for "I guess so" or "It can't be done." Only 

 those ready to say "I can" and "I will" are wanted in the 

 ranks of workers this year. 



Maximum crops alone pay a profit, and for these to be 

 possible the law of conservation must be religiously applied 

 and enforced. This is 1918, and the conditions and demands 

 of the present must dominate with every man. The cry of 

 humanity as well as the necessities of war will force the issue 

 on every corn field as well as every battlefield, and you and 

 I must prepare to do our best, not through extended opera- 

 tions, but intensive, thinking of the greatest possible output 

 per acre. 



Of all farm crops produced on New England soil, flint corn 

 stands at the head as the safest, surest, sanest, and, where 

 rightly grown, most profitable. Found by our forefathers when 

 they landed on Massachusetts soil, grown by the Indians for 

 centuries before that period, it has claims upon our thought 

 to-day, not to be disputed or disregarded. It is the one crop 

 to be increased wherever possible for the good of the farm, 

 the possible increase of live stock and the saving of the nation. 



For three years farmers have been meeting adverse climatic 

 conditions. Whether, in the cycle of the years, we are passing 

 through a period of depression following the profligacy of 

 nature we know not, but this is certain, that all preparations 



