Joseph Sanderson's Record Corn Yield, 1939

From the editorial page of the March, 1939, Carolina Co-operator, Roy H. Park, editor

Somebody once said that the world will beat a path to the door of the man who perfects a superior mouse trap. A really foolproof mouse trap would be no small contribution to human progress, but a formula for raising 137.5 bushels of corn to the acre would, perhaps, get us along much faster. Last fall a 4-H Club member, Joseph Sanderson of Four Oaks, harvested his corn crop, counted out his yield, and found to his satisfaction it measured 137.5 bushels from one acre of his Wayne County loam. Others were interested in Joseph’s record yield, wanted to know how he had done it. Among them was L.R. Modlin of Kelford, who asked us to find out for him. We called on R.B. Harper, Wayne County’s assistant county agent, who contributes this information:

“The soil on which this corn was planted in Portsmouth sandy loam and was limed to bring the pH reading suitable for growing corn. Joseph cut the stalks, disked thoroughly, broke the ground with a two-horse plow, and smoothed it off with a second harrow. He ran his rows with a small middle-buster and applied 400 pounds of fertilizer before he planted.

“Because of the rainy weather it was impossible for him to run the section harrow across the corn when it came up, therefore, he gave his crop its first work-out with walking cultivation, similar to that used in growing cotton. Before his first cultivation, he applied 150 pounds of soda and before the last cultivation he applied 150 pounds more.

“The variety planted was Latham’s Double, which we find is giving a very outstanding yield in this county. The rows were four feet apart and approximately 10 inches in the drill. He broke the land about six inches deep and did not use barnlot manure before breaking.”