Corn book for young folk

Preface

If a young farmer can be led to acquire skill in growing one crop, he will unquestionably apply the principles that brought success in the one crop to all his other crops. The authors of this book, therefore, think it best not to confuse the mind of a beginner by a discussion of all the standard crops, but rather to teach the general principles of crop growing through their application to a specific crop. The fundamental principles, like seed selection, the preparation of a seed bed, tillage, rotation of crops, and control of moisture, are practically the same for all crops. The unessential differences, like methods of planting or harvesting, are easily acquired. Corn was selected because it is almost universally grown in our country.

One of the serious obstacles to the classroom study of a standard crop is that timely illustrative material cannot usually be secured. The teaching of the lesson cannot be made to correspond to the seeding, cultivation, or growth of the crop. The necessities of the school often require the class to be studying the root system of a plant when the snow is on the ground or its flowers when the plant itself is being harvested. To obviate this difficulty iv CORN BOOK FOR YOUNG FOLK

the authors have centered much of the teaching around carefully selected photographs which with absolute timeliness illustrate almost as clearly as natural objects do.

Hearty thanks for illustrations are accorded to the following: Bureau of Crop Estimates, Office of Corn Investigations, Office of Farm Management, and Office of Acclimatization and Adaptation of Crop Plants of the United States Department of Agriculture ; to the Kansas and North Carolina State Departments of Agriculture; to the North Carolina Hall of History; to the Experiment Stations of Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia; to the Agricultural Gazelle of New Soulh Wales, Farm Business, and Ohio Farmer) to the American Seeding Machine Company, S. L. Allen and Company, Deere and Company, Dunham Company, Eureka Mower Company, Ginn and Company, International Harvester Company, Rock Island Railway, Roderick Lean Company, and S. W. Wilkinson and Brother.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Importance of Corn Crop . i

II. The Beginning of the Corn Crop .... 9

Chapter I Importance Of Corn Crop

Just as the Rocky Mountains tower over our other ranges, so corn towers in value over our American crops. No other crop occupies so many acres; no other sells for so large a sum. This hardy plant ripens its grains in many climates and makes itself at home in many soils. Few^ crops are treated in such widely different ways. On the best American farms corn is usually given a rich, mellow seed bed. It is cultivated by excellent machines, gathered by a costly harvester, and ground by a well-equipped mill. In parts of Africa the seeds are still dropped into holes made by a sharpened stick. The plant is still cultivated by wooden plows, the ears carried to the storehouse in baskets, and the grain beaten into food with a stone.

The amount of corn grown in the United States is enormous. To state that our country grows yearly over 3,000,000,000 bushels of corn gives no clear idea of the greatness of the amount. Our minds cannot without aid form a picture of so many

bushels. But suppose our nation should undertake to haul these bushels in two-horse wagons. If the drivers put 40 bushels in each wagon, the train of wagons would stretch out in an unbroken line for 426,000 miles. One hundred and fifty million horses w^ould be needed to draw^ the wagons. This is about seven and a half times as many horses and mules as we have in the United States. Suppose that each team could be given wings and could fly through the 240,000 miles between the earth and the moon. When the last wagon of the long train left the earth, the first wagon would be three fourths of the way back to the starting point. If these wagons were piled one on the other, the}^ would make a tower over 71,000 miles in height.

Fig. I. Our Greatest Cereal

IMPORTANCE OF CORN CROP 3

Big as this crop is, however, modern thrift provides ways to use not only these milHons of bushels of grain, but also every part of the stalk which bears the grain. Of course the greatest use of corn is to feed man and his domestic animals. Everyone is familiar with the many forms in which ground corn is served on our tables. Nearly everyone has occasion to see how greedily animals eat both grain and stalk. Many do not know, however, that corn is widely used in the arts. At present 50,000,000 bushels of corn are manufactured into starch, sirups, and sugar every year. The United States sends annually to foreign countries 83,000,000 bushels of corn. With the rapid growth in the use of starch and of corn sirups and sugars our country will probably soon consume as much corn in making these products as it sells to outside countries.

A study of Fig. 20 will help us to remember some of the more recent uses of the corn kernel. The germ is found at the bottom of the kernel. The central portion of the kernel is called by the long name "endosperm." The outside of the kernel is, as you all know, called the hull. Corn oil and oil cake are made from the germ. Corn oil is used in making soap, soap powders, oilcloth, paints, varnishes, and a kind of rubber for overshoes, automobile tires, and other kindred products. When the oil is purified it is used in place of lard in bread, cakes, salads, and liniments. The oil cake is a stock food.

4 CORN BOOK FOR YOUNG POLK

From the endosperm immense quantities of starch are made. Starch and two of its products — corn sirup and dextrin — are used in so many ways that even to name them would be tiresome. They enter into such foods as jelHes, sauces, puddings, pie filhngs, candies, mincemeats, preserves, and canned meats. They go into pastes, gums, mucilages, inks, blacking, shoe polish, and hair tonics. They are useful in tanning leather, thi'ckening colors for calico, filling cloth, and in paper manufacture. They find a place in the making of mirrors, tires, chewing-tobacco, face powders, laundry supplies, and vinegars. Corn husks are made into hats, doormats, and a fine quality of bank-note paper; they also furnish packing for horse collars, furniture, and coarse mattresses. Paper is made from the blades and stalks. The cobs go to market in the shape of corncob pipes. Even the pith is seized by careful fingers and made into box-board, guncotton, and a packing for armored ships that may be pierced by shells.

To aid in seeing how important this widely used plant is to the American farmer, let us study a map prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.

What do you find stated in the right corner of the map to be the total yield of corn in the United States? Taking the population of our country as one hundred and ten million people, how many bushels would come to each man, woman, and child if the entire crop were divicled among them ? The average price of corn in America for the year in which this map was made was about ^1.28 a bushel. Take the figures showing the total yield and see what was the money value of the crop for that year. If you should divide this crop among the

Fig. 3. Sherman Hall and his Yield of 107.33 Bushels twenty-five million school children in America, how much money would you receive ? What do you learn from the dark circles within the state bounds ? Which state has the largest circle ? How does this large state circle compare with the circle in your state? In 1915 the United States produced about three fourths of the world's supply of corn. Name from the map the ten states that grew most of this

IMPORTANCE OF CORN CROP 7

corn. Would anyone be right in calling these states the Corn Belt ? Can you find out whether some of these states are also in the Cotton Belt ?

As you perhaps know, corn grows best in sections that have comparatively warm, moist, fertile soils and that also have comparatively long growing-seasons. Will these facts or any one of them explain why there are no large circles in the New England States? Is it for the same reasons that the map shows no large circles in the states west of Kansas and Nebraska?

The average yield of corn in the United States is about twenty-six bushels to the acre. In many states the boys taught in the corn clubs have doubled this yield. Suppose we could by following the methods taught in this book double the total yield of the United States, how much would this add to the wealth of our country? How much would it add to the value of your corn crop? Would doubling the yield double the cost of growing the crop? In answering this question, think about these other questions: Would there be any added cost for rent? Would the labor cost any more? Would the fertilizer be more costly? Would it take more seed? Would more tools be needed? Would the crop be harder to harvest? Should you not, then, as a wise young grower be willing to study constantly and carefully these methods, and use them on your own farm?

1. Name some articles in your home in which corn products are used.

2. Remembering that the United States raises three fourths of all the corn grown in the world, draw a circle to show the size of the world crop.

3. Soak a grain of corn in water, then split it and see whether you can separate the germ, the endosperm, and the hull. Note the difference in color between the germ and the endosperm. Does the oil in the germ cause this difference in color ?

4. Allowing forty bushels to the wagon, how many wagons would it take to haul at one time the total crop of your state ? How many horses would be needed to draw these wagons ? H a horse is nine feet long, how long would the line of horses be ?

5. Measure your home crib or any other crib and, allowing two and one-half cubic feet of corn in the ear to one bushel of shelled corn, see how many bushels the crib will hold.

Chapter II The Beginning Of The Corn Crop

Most of our greatest crops were grown in the older countries centuries before America was discovered. Wheat and oats seem to have had their first homes in central Asia. Sugar cane was brought from India. Cotton, although it is now so largely an American crop, was, like sugar cane, perhaps first grown in India. As Americans, however, we are proud that corn, our greatest crop, is a native of our own country. It was unknown to the Old World before Columbus made his remarkable trip.

Perhaps some pupil is ready to ask: '' Is that not a mistake ? We read in the first book in the Bible, 'And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea,' and of course the Bible was written iong before the time of Columbus." In early writings, however, the name " corn" is usually given to the greatest grain crop. When this word, then, is used in the Bible, wheat, not Indian corn, is meant.

All the explorers of America were struck by the beautiful new grain plant found on our shores. Columbus writes King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, " On one of the islands I found fields eighteen miles long growing in maize (corn)." Cartier was one of lO the first to sail into the cold waters of Canada. He says that he found a great town (now known as Montreal) situated in a cornfield. John Smith, hero

of the colony of Jamestown, calls attention to the usefulness of Indian corn. The Puritans mention corn in New England and say that the Indians used fish as a fertilizer for corn.

Early visitors to America expected to find many wonders like fountains of youth and caves of jewels.

Although they did not find the expected wonders, they told some things almost as surprising. One of these writers says of corn:

Heer [here] of one graine of maize a reed doth spring. That thrice a year five hundred graines doth bring.

Fig. 4. First Picture of Indian Corn (After John White)

THE BEGINNING OF THE CORN CROP

II

In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh attempted the first English settlement in America. This colony started cabin homes on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Among the daring men who came with this colony were Thomas Hariot, a writer, and John White,

Fig. 5. Indian cooking Corn. (After John White)

an artist. Hariot wrote, in what now seems to us queer spelling, the first article ever written about Indian corn. He thus describes the new plant:

Pagatour, a kind of graine so called by the Indians; the same in the West Indies is called Mayse ; Englishmen called it Guinney Wheate or Turkey Wheate according to the names of the countreys from whence the like hath beene brought. The graine is about the size of an ordinary EngHsh peaze, not much different in forme and shape, but of divers colors : some white, some red, some yellow, and some blew. All of them yeelde a very white sweete flower ; being used according to his kinde it maketh a very goode bread. . . .

It is a grain of marvellous greate increase ; of a thousand, fifteene hundred and some two thousand fold. There are three sortes of which two are ripe in eleven or twelve weeks at the most ; sometimes in ten after they set, and are then in height of stalke about six or seven foote. The other sorte is ripe in fourteene, and is almost ten foote high ; of the stalks some beare four heads, some three, some one and two ; every head containeth five, sixe or seven hundred graines within a fewe more or less. Of these graines besides breade the Indians made victauU either by parching them or seetheing them whole until they be broken, or by boyling the floure with watter into a pappe.

Our corn-club boys will even now find it hard to equal the yield of corn as given by Hariot. He says, "An English Acre doth there yield in croppe of corn, beanes and peaze at the least two hundred London bushells."

Not only did this colony furnish the first historical account of our great crop but also the earliest drawings of the natives. John White, the artist, drew many striking pictures to show how the Indians looked and how they lived. Among these drawings were two showing the ways in which the Indians cooked their corn. One of these Is copied In this

THE BEGINNING OF THE CORN CROP book; these drawings were the first Indian-corn pictures ever looked on by Enghsh eyes.

If it had not been for corn, America could probably not have been settled when it was. You remember what a trying time the early settlers had. They were three thousand miles from supplies. Their ships took three months to cross the ocean. Sometimes ships trying to reach them with food and clothes were driven back by storms.

Often for weeks and months " they cast longing eyes to the east " to see whether help were coming. In this " starving time," as it was afterwards called, the poor sufferers lived largely on food made from corn. Their Indian neighbors taught the men how to grow the crop. The squaws showed the women how to crush the grain in wooden or stone mortars and how to make different palatable dishes from the grains. In the absence of grass crops the animals of the settlers were largely supported by the corn plant. Three years after Jamestown was founded the colonists were cultivating thirty acres in corn. One of the

Fig. 6. Indian Mortar for CRUSHING Corn

Pilgrim writers of New England tells how they fertilized their fields of corn with fish. He says:

According to the manner of the Indians we manured our ground with herring, or rather shad, which we have in great

Fig. 7. Indian Stone Mortar for crushing Corn abundance, and take with ease at our doors. You may see in one township a hundred acres together set with these fish, every acre taking a thousand of them, and an acre thus dressed will produce and yield as much corn as three acres without fish.

As the number of people in America grew larger the growing of corn increased rapidly. At an early

THE BEGINNING OF THE CORN CROP date barrels of corn began to go in large quantities to the Old World. The countries around the Mediterranean Sea were suited to the new grain crop, and it gradually spread over large sections of Europe,

Fig. 8. Indians clearing Land by Fire for Corn (After John White)

Asia, and Africa. The Portuguese were great seagoers in that day, and they took corn into their colonies.

1. Try to find from your histories what crops, besides corn, America gave to the world,

2. Our modern fertilizers are bought to supply three plant foods. Which of these does for our corn what the fish did for the Indian's corn ? Do we now use fish in any form as a fertilizer ?

What does the fact that the Indians had to use fish show about their lands ? Does your land suffer from the same lack ?

3. Study the picture (Fig. 8) to see how Indians cleared their lands of trees. Would this slow and troublesome way of getting rid of trees explain the need of fish ?

4. The Indians used one thousand herring to the acre. If each herring weighed half a pound and contained 8 per cent of nitrogen, how much nitrogen did the Indians use to the acre? How does this compare with what our farmers use ?

5. From a comparison of the pictures in this chapter write a paragraph on " The Indian Way of growing and cooking Corn."

6. What per cent of your own farm is planted in corn }

Chapter III

Each plant has, of course, a home where it first grew. If a plant is valuable for its body, its fruit, its flower, or any other part, man will sooner or later take it into every country in which it will grow. The more valuable the plant, the wider it will be scattered.

Students of the corn plant think that its first home was in warm table-lands high above the sea level, — perhaps as high as four or five thousand feet. There it proved so hardy and useful that men who are always hunting new foods learned its value and wanted to plant it wherever they settled. Hence, in the course of time, it became, as we have seen, one of the most widely grown of farm crops.

In spite of its wide growth corn is still very sensitive to climatic conditions and refuses to yield its highly prized grains except in climates like that from which it came or to which it has adapted itself.

Suppose you wanted to buy a farm on which to grow corn. Would it not be well to know in which climates to buy? First, is it necessary for corn to have the same height above the sea level as it had in its first home ? If corn will grow on lands lower or higher than 4000 feet, will this not prove that the same height is not needed? In India it fruits at a

height of 7000 feet above the sea, in Peru at 8000 feet, and in Mexico at 10,000 feet.

At the same time it makes a good crop in North Carolina at sea level. Would you, therefore, in choosing a farm have to think much about height ?

Could you safely buy anywhere in Ohio, in Tennessee, in Kansas, or in Vermont?

In selecting your

farm you will, so far

as height goes, have

to keep in mind one

other fact. In the

Middle States corn

that will ripen in one

hundred days at a

height of 1000 feet

will need one hundred and thirty or one hundred

and forty days at a height of 2000 feet. If you

want to grow early corn, would you buy at a height

Fig. 9. Corn grown in Highlands OF Montana above 1000 feet? Do not forget that great height means cool nights, and such nights require a longer growing-season. The different kinds of corn take from ninety to about one hundred and eighty days to ripen. If you bought a highland farm, would you have to plant slow or rapid ripening kinds?

Fig. 10. Iowa Field with Abundant Moisture

Corn, Hke all bulky crops, must have abundant moisture. It takes from eighteen to twenty tons of water to make one bushel of corn. Fig. 10 shows an Iowa cornfield, and Fig. 1 1 a Georgia cornfield. Let us see how much moisture is needed to make good crops such as are shown in these pictures. The average rainfall during May, June, July, and August, in Iowa, through a period of eighteen years, was four and one-half inches. In -Georgia it was four and seven-tenths inches. Both of these fields received, whether or not the average amount fell on them, enough water to meet their needs. Now glance at Fig. 1 2. This picture shows the size of corn grown in a section of Arizona. The average rainfall where this

Fig. II. Georgia Field where Moisture was Ample corn was grown was, for the same months, only about nine tenths of an inch. Do you wonder at its small size? In buying a corn farm would you not ask about the average rainfall during the growing-season ? Would you buy even a farm at a low price if the average monthly rain in summer was below four inches ? If you wanted to buy in Arizona, would you not buy close to an irrigation ditch ?

Even in the Corn Belt there is a close connection between the amount of rainfall and the yield of corn. In 1 89 1 the average rainfall in Iowa (one of the largest corn-growing states) for the four growingmonths was 4.3 inches. The state averaged for that year thirty-eight bushels of corn to the acre. In

Fig. 12. Corn in Dry Lands of Arizona

1894, a very dry year, the average rainfall in the same state for the same months was only 1.7 inches, and the average yield to the acre was only fourteen bushels. For lack of the usual rain the yield fell off nearly three fourths. If this happened in a good corn state like Iowa, could you risk buying a farm in any section where the annual rainfall was low?

Not only must corn have enough rain but it does best in climates where the rainfall during the period of its growth is fairly well distributed. An ideal season is one in which three or four inches of rain fall during both May and June, and a little more in July and August when the plants are tasseling and silking

and the grains are filling. Let us take another illustration from Iowa. In 1900 that state averaged forty-three bushels to an acre. This was the largest average yield in eighteen years. It will be interesting to note how the rain was distributed during the four growingmonths of that year.

In May, 3.3 inches fell;injune,4inches; in July, 6.2 inches; in August, 4.7 inches.

Now compare this with the very next year's yield. In 1 90 1 the average for the same state was only twenty-six bushels. How was the rainfall distributed in this year? In May the rainfall was 2.3 inches; in June, 3.7 inches; in July, 2.3 inches; in August, 1.3 inches. You will notice that in this year the rainfall

Navajo Corn in Dry Lands OF New Mexico for the two months most important in the growth of the crop was far smaller than in the other year.

On the other hand, during tasseling and silking time, heavy rains (especially heavy, blowing rains), are very harmful to the crop. Such rains at this time not only wash the pollen away, so that it does not fall on the silks, but they prevent a proper growth of the roots. Therefore, in buying a corn farm should you not take time to study not only the average rainfall during the growing-season but also how this rainfall is distributed ?

Perhaps some of you have read that corn is grown in South Africa and that the rainfall there in our summer months is comparatively small. You are, therefore, ready to ask how corn can be grown in that country. Turn to your geographies and you will find that the months for growing corn there are December, January, and February. In these months there is enough rain to grow the crop.

Now will you not turn to the graphic map on page 5 and let us think over another climatic effect. Notice on the map that beginning in the south and going north the circles grow larger until a line north of Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois is reached. Then the dark circles again grow smaller. These circles, of course, show that the corn crop is largely raised in seven states ; namely, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, and Ohio. The average summer temperature of these states is between seventy and eighty degrees ; they also have in summer comparatively few cloudy days. Would not these facts lead you to think that it would be well for you to buy your farm in a climate having about this same amount of heat and sunshine?

Fig. 14. Thriving Corn in the South

But suppose for family or other reasons you w^nt to buy a corn farm south or north of the Corn Belt. You will then wish an answer to these questions: Could the states lying south of the Corn Belt become great corn-growers ? Could the states lying north of this belt be made to yield heavy crops of corn ?

In the South there is 'no reason why the corn yield on any well-tilled farm should not be large. In fact, the largest number of bushels produced so far on a single acre of an American farm was produced in South Carolina. Many heavy yields have been made in all the Southern states. Why, then, if such yields can be made below the Corn Belt, is not more corn grown in that section?

There are two main reasons: First, in the Corn Belt few crops can be grown year in and year out that pay so handsomely as corn. This is not true in the South ; while corn grows admirably, other crops like cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, peanuts, soy beans, and sweet potatoes bring the farmer, as a rule, more money than corn does. Moreover, having a climate suited to so many crops, the Southern farmer naturally wishes to grow a variety of crops so that if one fails or is low in price another may supply his needs. Hence, instead of planting their lands mainly to corn as the farmers in the Corn Belt do, the planters in these Southern states grow many kinds of crops. The second reason is this : owing to long summers the humus in Southern soils is used up during the year more rapidly than is the humus in the soils of the Corn Belt. If a plentiful supply of humus is kept in Southern soils, you need not fear to buy a corn farm anywhere from Virginia to Texas.

Now to answer the second question, namely, Could the states north of the Corn Belt be made to yield heavy crops of corn regularly? In these states there is some of the richest land in the world. The rainfall is plenteous and the height above the sea level is not too great. But, for all these climatic blessings, these states can never become huge growers of corn. Why not?

The growing-season is too short.

You will understand this better if you compare the growing-season of a state in the Corn Belt with that of a state north of it. Let us count the growing-season as the time between the average date of planting and the average date of harvesting. In Illinois, the largest cornproducing state at present, there are one hundred and sixty-nine growing-days. In Texas, of the Southern Belt, there are two hundred and seven growing-days. Now selecting North Dakota or Maine, of the Northern Belt, we find that both of these states have only one hundred and seventeen

Fig. 16. This Montana Corn had ONLY One Hundred and Seventeen Growing-Days growing-days. In other words, the growing-seasons in North Dakota and in Maine are fifty-two days shorter than the growing-season of IlHnois and ninety days shorter than the ripening-time of Texas. Now the most productive kinds of field corn take

Fig. 17. Field where Conditions were Favorable about one hundred days to ripen. You see, then, that in IlHnois the crop has sixty-nine days in which to make itself safe from early frost or cold, while in North Dakota or Maine it has only seventeen days. Hence, in all these colder states the corn crop is necessarily a more or less uncertain one. In the Corn Belt there are almost no late spring frosts or early fall frosts.