164 THE BOOK OF CORN 



fixed for the hills, though this, too, sometimes varies. 

 The range covered will be found about as follows : Six 

 by three, maximum ; five by three to four and one-half 

 by three, average ; four by four, occasionally ; four by 

 three (extending in rare instances to four by two and 

 one-half), minimum. Without the precaution of care- 

 fully gauging the capacity of each separate land area 

 and fixing his distances for planting to correspond, the 

 southern corn grower is liable to invite serious disaster. 



There must be noted, in explanation of the orig- 

 inal cause for this deviation from accepted method, two 

 things: First, that the cornstalk at the south (by rea- 

 son of the difference in selected varieties and also from 

 climatic and morphological causes) is much larger and 

 more robust than that at the north on the same grade of 

 soil or in proportion to yield of grain ; and second, that 

 at the critical period of pollination there is always a 

 want of soil moisture to be feared, since the rainfall at 

 the south is more variable. Consequently, land that at 

 the north would sustain and profitably fruit say seven 

 thousand two hundred and eighty stalks to the acre, 

 would at the south be -taxed to the utmost to success- 

 fully develop half that number. Yet the gross weight 

 of the stover from both acres would be, perhaps, prac- 

 tically the same, although the southern plat, fertility 

 being equal, would yield a lower return in grain, an 

 unavoidable^ inequality which nature has somehow seen 

 fit to impose. 



For bottom land of course much greater crowd- 

 ing than that scheduled for upland is permissible, and 

 invariably utilized — soil conditions more nearly paral- 

 leling those of the great corn areas of the west. The 

 rows are seldom or never contracted to less than four 

 feet, but the hills vary from one and one-half to two 

 feet, and will sometimes, at the latter distance, contain 



