Another very important factor in securing the proper stand of stalks is the grading of the seed ears. They should be selected or graded to a uniform size of kernel, and this is readily done before the ears are shelled. No corn-planter can drop the proper number of kernels in each hill unless the kernels are uniform. The ears should always be nubbed, that is, the very small kernels at the tip and the large, thick kernels at the butt should be discarded. It is advisable, even when large quan tities of seed are needed, to shell the seed by hand and in a small receptacle where the kernels from each ear can be examined before they are placed with the general supply. If the corn is variable as to width of kernel, it is best to divide the seed into two or more lots and change the adjustment of the planter in changing from one lot of seed to the other. No careful corn-planter will begin planting his crop until he has ascertained that his planter works satisfactorily on the grade of seed that he expects it to plant.
Culture.
Choice of land.—A very large part of the land at present planted to corn in the United States is too poor for profitable corn-growing, and should not be planted to corn until improved. The plant ing of such land to corn keeps both the land and its owner in an impoverished condition. If corn growing must be practiced in a section having such a poor soil, it is better to withhold the planting of corn until the land can be improved by the appli cation of humus and the growing and plowing under of green crops, preferably legumes. The planting of corn year after year on the same land is a bad practice in any section, even though the ground be very fertile. River bottom that over flows occasionally, and on which sediment is de posited, is the only kind of land that will stand continuous cropping with corn, and even here it may sometimes be inadvisable.
Maintaining soil fertility.—For good results, the corn plant requires a fertile soil, a soil of greater fertility than that required by many other farm crops. Good seed, good land and good culture are the essentials of a good corn crop. Unless nature has supplied the farmer with a fertile farm, the easiest of these three essentials to obtain i.; good seed, and unfortunately it is the essential in which most growers make the greatest mistake.
New lands are usually good corn soils, and they are generally well supplied with humus or vege table matter. Lands that have been cropped con tinuously for years, most of the humus having been destroyed, become hard and the soil particles pack together closely. Such a condition indicates
that the soil requires humus or vegetable matter, and the conditions of such a soil can be very greatly improved by the application of coarse manures and the plowing under of large quantities of vegetable matter in the form of corn stalks, grain stubble, clover, and the like. The addition of such material to soil almost invariably increases the yield of corn. Ten to twenty tons of farm ma nure per acre each year or two will retain most soils in a condition that will make possible the growing of good corn crops. Excessive applications of farm manure may result in decreased yields the first year after the application, especially if the season is dry.
Most impoverished soils respond to a greater or less extent to the application of commercial fertil izers composed of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash. The proportion of these elements must be varied to suit the requirements of the particular soil to which they are applied, and the most satis factory way of determining the requirements of the soil is by actual field tests. Much of the im poverished soil of the eastern part of the United States responds readily to applications of phosphoric acid. There are peaty swamp soils which, though apparently very fertile, produce two or three times as much corn per acre by the application of potas sium chlorid. With the exception, however, of par titular cases in which the application of a few elements to the soil in rather moderate quantities greatly increases the corn crop, the production of corn on impoverished soils by means of commercial fertilizers is not profitable.
It is usually advisable to apply the commercial fertilizers to a small grain crop grown in rotation with corn. Such an application of fertilizers will usually assist in obtaining a good stand of clover or grass which is to follow the small grain crop. Whenever possible, the land should be kept busy growing legumes or grasses that can be plowed under, and, briefly speaking, this is the best fertil izer for corn crops. When corn is to follow wheat, it is usually advisable to sow with the wheat or in early spring clover or some similar crop that can occupy the land from the time the wheat is removed until it is ready for corn. Some of the most successful farmers always sow clover with their winter wheat, when the land is to be planted in corn the next spring.