state convention— Conn raising. 
21 r 
CORN RAISING. 
BY N. E. ALLEN, FOX LAKE. 
In the agricultural economy of our state, corn should occupy a 
prominent place. Not only because it is a profitable crop to raise, 
but if properly cultivated it will clean the land of weeds, fitting it 
well for crops of grain that may follow. 
The first requisites for a good crop of corn are, good land and 
good seed. 
Here let me say, the best possible condition of land for corn is 
a clover sod turned in the fall or late summer, upon which plaster 
has been sown previous to breaking, and if the spring before, all" 
the better. Why? The clover makes the land loose and friable 
and gives to it that peculiar fertilizing quality that will make ears 
of corn as well as stalks. 
The importance of sowing plaster in the spring is, to make a 
vigorous growth of clover during the summer, not only, because 
it may be cut for hay the first crop, but that the land may be 
thoroughly shaded or mulched. Another very important fact,, 
for I believe it to be a fact, which I think observation will dem¬ 
onstrate ; the cut worm will not injure the corn if thus treated 
the year previous to planting. Why? Because the plaster 
keeps the land moist, making a strong growth of clover, leav¬ 
ing none of the land exposed to be dried up, so as to furnish a 
place for the insect to deposit its larvae or seed from which the 
worm can grow. Whereas, if the land was an old pasture, or a 
meadow thinly seeded and a light growth, there would be abund¬ 
ant opportunity for this purpose. So thoroughly am I convinced 
of this, I will say if the above course was pursued, not one-twen¬ 
tieth as much corn would be destroyed by the worm, as is usu¬ 
ally upon sod ground as at present practiced. 
A single instance may be well to relate in this connection. 
Two of my neighbors each plowed a sod that had been seeded to 
clover in the fall. Each piece had been mowed in the early part 
of the summer, and after that pastured until it was plowed. One 
