The Rural Voice, 1988-12, Page 37way in the corn business. Over the
past 35 years, the average yield of
grain corn across the province has
doubled. This represents a growth
rate of about two per cent a year,
compounded. We definitely have
more stress -tolerant hybrids than we
had 20 years ago, and 1968 doesn't
seem that long ago.
Just how far have we come? Farm-
ers have been shooting for maximum
yields ever since corn was first grown,
but never with the success that Z. J.
Drake of South Carolina had.
Drake's crop beat all entrants in
the yield contest sponsored by the
American Agriculturist magazine. His
corn yield rivals that of Ken Steven-
son, the Ridgetown College researcher
in charge of maximum yield plots.
Drake planted his South Carolina
field on March 2 after preparing the
soil by plowing, deep plowing to 12
inches, and cultivating and working in
1,000 pounds of stable manure and
500 pounds each of guano (the manure
of sea birds), cottonseed meal, and
kainit (a mined potash product high in
magnesium).
Since Drake didn't have hybrid
corn, he planted an improved strain of
the common Gourd variety, a South-
ern white dent corn. He laid his field
out in alternating three-foot and six-
foot row spacings. He buried seed
one -inch deep in a trench five inches
wide, at a rate to yield one plant every
five to six inches.
On April 20, he spread and hoed
into the six-foot rows 200 pounds each
of guano, kainit, cottonseed, acid
phosphate, and bone. On May 15 he
attacked the three-foot rows with 300
pounds of nitrate of soda.
But that's not all. He was back in
the field on May 25 with another 200
pounds of guano. Then came another
500 pounds of guano, kainit, and
cottonseed on June 8 and a final 100
pounds of nitrate of soda on June 11.
Then he rested until harvesting
started on November 2.
His yield staggered the country:
255 bushels per acre, translating into
239 bushels when dried to 10 per cent
moisture.
Considering that the U.S. crop
averaged roughly 25 bushels per acre,
his achievement was phenomenal —
in 1889!0
Has
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DECEMBER 1988 35