COBN TILLAGE 177 



practicable to plant only one or two kernels in a place, 

 thus reducing the labor of thinning. 



166. Thinning corn. — Since an excessive number of 

 grains is planted, subsequent thinning becomes necessary. 

 This should usually be postponed until after the plants are 

 10 to 12 inches high, by which time the young plants will 

 have ceased to die from injuries inflicted by budworms. 



Thinning is usually done when the ground is too wet for 

 other work, by pulling the young plants, with the assistance 

 of a long paddle to uproot any that may break. Some 

 soils are injured if the thinning be done while the land is 

 very wet. Thinning is also done with a hoe, in which case 

 care must be taken to cut the young plant below the crown, 

 else it will again grow out. 



167. Number of plants per hill. — Throughout the 

 greater part of the cotton-belt, except in its northern edge 

 and occasionally on rich bottom lands elsewhere, it is cus- 

 tomary to leave but a single corn plant in a hill, while in 

 the North and West it is usual for from 2 to 4 plants to 

 grow in one hill. 



The Southern practice of leaving only one plant in a hill is 

 due to the following conditions usually found in the South : — 



(1) A thirsty soil-; 



(2) Comparatively shallow range of roots ; 



(3) The large size of Southern corn plants and their consequent 

 greater need for moisture ; and 



(4) The fact that but little corn is planted in checks. 

 Under ordinary conditions and on land producing not more 



than 25 bushels of corn per acre it is doubtless best to leave only 

 one stalk in a hiU. However, where the land is capable of produc- 

 ing 35 or more bushels per acre and of being planted in checks, 

 it will sometimes be advisable, in checking corn, to leave two 

 plants in a hill. 



