INTENSIFIED CORN GROWING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4336, 4 February 1893, Page 3

INTENSIFIED CORN GROWING.

An American farmer has made the experiment of cultivating a small field so thoroughly as to have a heavy crop on a small space, and he has given his experiences in the " American Agriculturist." He sowed four acres with com, and his reasoning was this:—Corn grows rapidly : it needs plenty of manure for a quick start, but it has criticul periods in its growth, when additional food is wanted, One of those periods is when the plants are nearly 3ft high; next, when the tassel is first appear-ing-this is .' i period of puberty; again, the plant wants moro food whon the fertilisation of flowers is at hand and the most exacting period of its life is coming, as may be Been by tho many grains which usually remain unfertilized; and, finally, there is a fourth period, whon the grain is filling, So he used SOOlbs, to GOOlbs of manure per acre at the start, and he added fiOlbs at each of the four periods just named. Besides, he sowed hisgrain in rows, wide apart and every week a V-shapcd harrow was drawn between the rows, not only in order to remove tho weeds but also to render thesoil moro permeable. The result was that his orop yielded 398 bushels on fouracres of land, and for the next five years it was never less than 80 bushels per acre, tho usual average orop of corn in his neighborhood being from 10 to 38 bushels. He spout moro labour on his field but he gathered on four acres what otherwise he would not have gathered on a dozen or eveu more,