LISTING CORN 173 



a distance of 14 or 16 inches produce heavy yields. Suckers are pro- 

 duced quite abundantly on sod land. Thicker drilling will have a ten- 

 dency to eliminate this evil. 



At the Illinois Station, corn checked three feet eight inches apart 

 and plowed but one way, produced 71.7 bushels per acre, compared 

 with 60.8 bushels where the field was drilled in rows three feet eight 

 inches apart, with the stalks 1 1 inches apart in the row. This dififer- 

 ence is accounted for by the fact that although the checked piece was 

 cultivated but one way, it was much freer from weeds. 



The number of stalks per acre in a field of corn drilled in rowd 

 three feet six inches, with stalks ten inches apart in the row, will be 

 14,934. If 14 inches in the row, 10,667. In figuring the per cent stand 

 in drilled corn, step off a distance equal to 100 hills 10 or 14 inches 

 apart, or any other number of inches, depending upon thickness of 

 drilling. If the kernels were drilled 10 inches apart, the 100 hills 

 would be 1,000 inches, or 83 1-3 feet. Count the stalks in this meas 

 ured length. If there prove to be but 80 stalks, then the percentage of 

 stand is 80. 



LISTING CORN. The lister is not a familiar implement to the 

 farmer of central Iowa and Illinois. The western corn states, Kansas 

 and Nebraska, and parts of Iowa and Missouri, use the lister almost to 

 the exclusion of the planter. The lister was introduced into Kansa.s 

 in 1882. In 1902 it was estimated that three-fifths of the area in corn 

 in Kansas was listed. In these sections the soil is so loose as to allow 

 the water level to settle very low. The winds of summer carry off 

 much of the moisture and the storms of August and September blow 

 down the checked or surface planted corn. Because of washing, the 

 lister is not adapted to hilly land. On the low, tiled fields of the 

 central states listing has proved a failure. Tests at the Illinois Sta- 

 tion indicate lower yields and later maturity in listed than in checked 

 corn. 



After many trials on plots at the Experiment Station of Kansas, 

 it was found that listing gave an average increase of 3.57 bushels, cr 

 4.16 per cent per acre over surface planted corn. In 1888, during a 

 dry season, an increase of 15 per cent was noted. 



The following tables* are taken from the records of J. W. Robin- 

 son, of Towanda, Kansas. They cover a period of 22 years and take 

 into account a crop of from 1,000 to 2,000 acres annually. In com- 

 paring the cost of handling an acre of clean ground by the two meth- 



•Address by Theo. W. Morse, before the Thirty-first Annual Meeting of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture of Kansas. 



