SHALLOW CULTURE FOR INDIAN CORN.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 334, 29 June 1878, Page 4

SHALLOW CULTURE FOR INDIAN CORN.

It is better to plough shallow for corn as a warm soil is best, and the surface is always the warmist. Five or five and a half inches are generally deep enough. It cold subsoil is turned up the plant wilkbe stun ted. Shallow ploughing retains the surface heat. Deep tillage can be more profitably applied after the crop is planted. Where old soil lias been turned under deep cultivation cannot be commenced until the grasses have partially decayed. Begin to cultivate shallow', taking care not to .turn up any sods. Where the soil is mostly clover it decays almost as soon as turned under, and furnishes beat and food for the growing crops. Farmers object that deep culture cuts off the roots of the corn, but in rich, warm soils the young plant forms roots very rapidly. Wherever a root is severed bj" cultivation a cloven rootlets start from the cut, thereby increasing the number of feeding mouths. By ploughing shallow and. cultivating as deeply, as possible afterwards the crop gets the benefit of extra warmth 'early in the season, and in July and August ail the advantages of deep tillage. After the corn is caring take care each lime to draw in the cultivator teeth, so as to sever only the outer row of roots. After the coni'is eared it is unsafe to cultivate much. A single long narrow tooth run deeply in the centre of the vow will benefit the crop even at this time. — Caimans’ Rural World.