POINTS FOR MAIZE GROWERS.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 59, 7 November 1911, Page 4

POINTS FOR MAIZE GROWERS.

A very considerable saving can be effected in the after-cultivation of maize";- and the crop greatly benefits in its early stages, if full use is made of the tine harrows. As soon as the seed has been drilled, the ground should be harrowed, and again just before the young plants come through the ground. A third harrowing should be given when the maize is from three to five inches high, but, as one large maize g'-ower in the Bay of Plenty remarked, "Don't do it yourself; put on someone else to drive the team." This adxice is thoroughly sound, although at first sight it may appear somewhat nonsensical. We might also further advise.- the owner of the crop not to gov near' the paddock while the work is proceeding, nor for four or five days afterwards, for his peace of. mind will be sadly disturbed at".' seeing what looks lik</ wilful .destruction of a promising crop. He need have no fear, however, for a short time only will elapse before die crop picks up again and jumps ahead; in fact, only those who have seen the operation carried out can believe the good — one might almost say immediate —-results which follow this harshiooking treatment. If the ground :ias been worked fine, and there have been a few showers, which there often are at this time of /ear, the surface of the land is inclined to cake. The cultivation j'iven by the harrows breaks this up and provides just the conditions which the young maize plants require to make rapid growth. A light, rather than a aeavy set of harrows should preferably be used. Many farmers are possessed of the idea that the suckers, or earless stalks, which grow from a cob-bearing stalk of maize, are a hindrance to the best growth of die latter, and valuable hours are iometimes spent in removing them. But actual experiments during two successive years on Nebraska farms demonstrated that maize with the suckers left undisturbed out-yielded that from vhich the suckers had been removed. Their leaves, like the others, would seem to perform a aseful office in absorbing nutritive elements from the atmosphere for the benefit of the cob m the main stalk.