Corn Rows Research Articles

Book Review: Duncan Crary, The Kunstler Cast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler

Book Review: Duncan Crary, The Kunstler Cast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler...the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl. New Society Publishers, 2011, ISBN: 978-0865716963 (Paperback). 285 Pages. $16.95[Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www. transformativestudies.ors ©2013 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]When we were teenagers, one of the routes that my friends and I used to travel between our houses took us on a long, straight road with nothing but rows of corn on either side. I remember considering it creepy and cool at the same time. In an ironic twist, my house now sits along that road. In fact, it's not just my house. A huge housing development reaches far into what used to be the cool, creepy corn fields on both sides of the road. I can't help but think at times that the endless rows of corn and, possibly, the prosperity of the farmer who tended to them were sacrificed for my domestic comfort.Duncan Crary and James Howard Kunstler, however, have helped me to assuage my guilt. In Crary's book, The Kunstler Cast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler ...the Tragic Comedy of Suburban Sprawl, he presents a dialogue between Kunstler and himself. Kunstler has authored many novels but is likely most well-known for the tongue-incheek political commentary that he provides on his weekly podcast. He has also released three books in this vein. This time, however he has turned the writing duties over to his colleague, Crary, who appears to know exactly what to ask Kunstler and how to ask it to get the most engaging responses.The overall tone of Crary's book borders on ridicule, but it has an enlightening element as well. For one thing, I was enlightened to the fact that, as stated on page 9, Anyplace you allow the car to dominate, the buildings will invariably end up turning their backs to that corridor. So, I've rationalized that I can ultimately blame those who built the road through the cornfield, not me, for destroying that rural landscape. But the book offers much less self-centered insights than this example though. It takes the form of a dialogue between Crary and Kunstler, touching upon many of the themes that Kunstler raises in his weekly podcasts. Topics range from urban flight to Americans' seeming collective sense of entitlement to diagonal parking. Somewhere within Crary's challenging questions to Kunstler and Kunstler's rants, the book manages to have a humorous element. not the type of humor that causes the reader to laugh out loud but, rather, a sardonic type of humor that makes the reader chortle at the absurdities of the American people to which Kunstler calls attention.Of course, that means that readers (including me) end up chortling at themselves. But, it seems that this was Crary's intention when writing the book...to invite self-realization and, perhaps, action through embarrassment. In Chapter 1, entitled 'The Geography of Nowhere, for instance, he instigates a conversation with Kunstler about vinyl siding on homes. Kunstler explains,You start to see this gray soot accumulating under the eaves and at the edges and on the porch roof. The house gets dingier and dingier. But, the guys who own it won't clean it, because they were told as part of the contract for sale that, It's no maintenance - You never have to do anything to it. So, even though they see that it's starting to look crappy and grubby, By golly, I'm not going to maintain it! (p. 45)He continues this discourse, eventually, voicing his frustration with the lack of authenticity in our modern environment.Kunstler clearly supports the preservation of nature. He denounces the amount of land devoted to the use and storage of cars, (p. 61) and goes so far as to criticize government spending on repairs to highway systems while neglecting improvements to public transportation. …

Automatic corn plant location and spacing measurement using laser line-scan technique

Identifying corn plant location and/or spacing is important for predicting yield potential and making decisions for in-season nitrogen application rate. In this study, an automatic corn stalk identification system based on a laser line-scan technique was developed to measure stalk locations during corn mid-growth stages. A laser line-scan technique is advantageous in this application because the line-scan data sets taken from various points of view of a plant stalk results in less interference and higher probability of plant recognition. Data were collected for two 10-meter-long corn rows at the growth stages of V8 and V10 using a mobile test platform in 2011. Each potential stalk cluster was identified in a scan and registered with the same stalks in previous scans. The final location of a stalk was the average of the measured locations in all scans. The current system setup with data processing algorithms achieved 24.0 and 10.0 % of mean total errors in plant counting at the V8 and V10 growth stages, respectively. The root-mean-squared error (RMSE) between system measured plant locations and manually measured ones were 2.3 and 2.6 cm at the V8 and V10 growth stages, respectively. The interplant spacing measured by the developed system had a good correlation with the manual measurement with an R 2 of 0.962 and 0.951 for the V8 and V10 growth stages, respectively. This system can be ultimately integrated in a variable-rate-spraying system to improve real-time, high spatial resolution variable-rate nitrogen applications.

Assessment of yield and yield components of corn (Zea mays L.) under two and three strip intercropping systems

Intercropping can be described as the growing of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field. In order to investigate the effects of three spices (corn, soybean and sunflower) strip intercropping on yield and yield components of corn (Zea mays L.) a field experiment was carried out as randomized complete block design (RCB) with three replications in 2011. Results showed that the chlorophyll content of corn significantly affected by neighboring of soybean and sunflower. The maximum chlorophyll content of corn leaves was obtained at intercropping of corn-soybean, additive corn-soybean, corn-soybean-sunflower and corn-soybean-sunflowersoybean while, minimum chlorophyll content of this cultivar was showed at pure culture of corn. The effect of different intercropping on number of leaves, height of plant and diagonal of ear and biological yield of corn was not significant. The most ear length, number of rows in ear, number of grain in row, grain weight, grain yield and harvest index of corn were showed at intercropping of corn-soybean and corn-soybean-sunflower-soybean. The neighboring of sunflower by beside of corn significantly inhibited yield and yield component of this cultivar as the lowest yield of corn was obtained at intercropping of corn-sunflower.

Nitrogen Placement and Source Effects on Nitrous Oxide Emissions and Yields of Irrigated Corn

Limited information is available on how N fertilizer placement affects soil nitrous oxide (NO) emissions under irrigated conditions in the semiarid western United States. Our objective was to compare surface banding near corn row and broadcasting of three N sources (urea, polymer-coated urea [PCU], and stabilized urea [SU] containing urease and nitrification inhibitors) on NO emissions from a clay loam soil under sprinkler-irrigated continuous corn production. The N fertilizers were applied at a rate of 202 kg N ha to strip-till (2010 and 2011) and no-till (2011) corn at crop emergence, with ∼19 mm irrigation water applied the next day. Band-applied N had a 1.46-fold greater NO emission than broadcast N averaged over N sources and three studies. Soil NO-N emissions from urea were 1.48- and 1.74-fold greater than from PCU and SU, respectively, when averaged over N placement and studies. The N placement × source interaction was not significant. Averaged across studies, grain yield and N uptake did not vary with N placement, whereas grain yields were greater for SU than PCU but were not different from urea. Nitrous oxide emissions per unit of N applied, per unit of grain yield, and per unit N uptake were 59, 49, and 47% greater, respectively, with banded than with broadcast N fertilizer. These studies show that N placement and N source selection are important manageable factors that can affect NO emissions and need to be considered when developing NO mitigation practices in irrigated cropping systems in the semiarid western United States.

Could Weed Sensing in Corn Interrows Result in Efficient Weed Control?

At the field scale, weeds generally appear aggregated rather than randomly distributed, and this aggregation is linked to the spatial heterogeneity of biotic and abiotic factors. Crop management practices shape the spatial pattern of weed infestations by modifying certain factors having an impact on weed emergence and growth. Although crop seeding is often the last in-field disturbance before crop and weed emergence, its effect on the distribution of weeds has received little attention in the literature. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of the planting operation on weed cover and presence in corn fields using digital images to investigate the possibility of sensing the interrow to infer the presence or absence of weeds on the corn row. A total of 18 site-years under conventional tillage treated with a single POST application of herbicide were selected across seven locations. Image analysis, at the V2 to V4 growth stage of corn, was used to compare the weed cover in three zones: the undisturbed interrows, the corn rows, and the interrows compacted by tractor wheel traffic. For 61% of site-years, there was no significant difference among the zones. When there was a significant difference compared with the other two zones, the undisturbed interrow was usually less infested. Point-to-point comparisons of weed presence or absence (based on a threshold of five pixels) between the interrow and the corn row revealed 70 or 73% correspondence, depending on the type of interrow (undisturbed or tracked). However the error of inference of the corn row weed cover generated by sensing only adjacent interrows may be too high for efficient commercial weed control.

Quantity Detection of Kernels in an Ear Corn Based on Machine Vision

A high efficient method is provided to count the number of kernels in an ear corn. PC camera captured a sequence of images around an ear corn using a simple device. The Otsu's algorithm was applied for background segmentation. An object processing area was obtained after contour extraction. The x-direction cumulative histogram was used to extract every row of the ear corn. The y-direction cumulative histogram was used to detect the number of corn kernels in a row. The number of rows was got by matching the edge of the current ear row with the first one. The time of detecting kernels for an ear corn was below 2 minutes and the average accuracy was about 95% in experiment. It shows that this method can detect the quantity of kernels directly in an ear corn quickly and effectively using a low-cost device.

Nitrogen Source and Placement Effects on Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions from No‐Till Corn

A nitrogen (N) source comparison study was conducted to further evaluate the effects of inorganic N source and placement on growing-season and non-crop period soil nitrous oxide (NO). Commercially available controlled-release N fertilizers were evaluated for their potential to reduce NO emissions from a clay loam soil compared with conventionally used granular urea and urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) fertilizers in an irrigated no-till (NT) corn ( L.) production system. Controlled-release N fertilizers evaluated were: a polymer-coated urea (ESN), stabilized urea (SuperU), and UAN+AgrotainPlus (SuperU and AgrotainPlus contain nitrification and urease inhibitors). Each N source was surface band applied (202 kg N ha) near the corn row at emergence and watered into the soil the next day. Subsurface banded ESN (ESNssb) and check (no N applied) treatments were included. Nitrous oxide fluxes were measured during two growing seasons and after harvest using static, vented chambers. All N sources had significantly lower growing-season NO emissions than granular urea (0.7% of applied N), with UAN+AgrotainPlus (0.2% of applied N) and ESN (0.3% of applied N) having lower emissions than UAN (0.4% of applied N). Similar trends were observed when expressing NO emissions on a grain yield and N uptake basis. Corn grain yields were not different among N sources but were greater than the check. Selection of N fertilizer source can be a mitigation practice for reducing NO emissions in NT, irrigated corn in semiarid areas. In our study, UAN+AgrotainPlus consistently had the lowest level of NO emissions with no yield loss.

Lest We Remember: Civil War Memory and Commemoration among the Five Tribes

Lest We RememberCivil War Memory and Commemoration among the Five Tribes Jeff Fortney (bio) On Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma, nestled between a Bank of America and a Hobby Lobby, stands an unmistakable yet unanticipated object: a statue of a Civil War soldier. Most Americans remember the Civil War as a conflict that was fought between Northern and Southern states predominantly in the eastern theater over issues of slavery and to some limited extent states’ rights. Therefore, the question emerges: Who and what does this statue commemorate in what was formerly Indian Territory?1 As with other parts of the western theater, the Civil War in Indian Territory is frequently overlooked. Although this venue of the war is often forgotten, the Civil War enveloped Indian Territory, disrupted lives, and broke apart families just as it did in Georgia, Virginia, and other battleground states. Conservative estimates suggest that over 3,530 Native Americans fought in the Federal Indians’ Brigade, including 1,019 who were killed. Over 7,000 Indians joined the service of the Union army in an official capacity. This figure excludes a significant number of Natives who donned the rebel gray and fought for the Confederacy. Brutal home-front conditions of poverty, street fighting, and total war cut the Cherokee population in half, while diseases in refugee camps spread rapidly, decimating the Creek population. The war made more than one-third of the Cherokee women into widows and turned over 25 percent of children into orphans. The vast majority of noncombatant Natives were displaced from their homes. Some were forced to march across the Oklahoma plains in winter to seek refuge in Kansas. Native property was destroyed, while human property fled to Northern territories for freedom.2 [End Page 525] In keeping with the overall theme of this issue, this study addresses the ways in which Natives practiced self-silence in regard to public Civil War commemoration. Notwithstanding the incredible impact on Indian Territory and Indian lives, Oklahoma Indians themselves did not typically commemorate the Civil War. Therefore, Native American contribution to the Civil War was largely skewed in the American historical narrative as well as in public memorialization. A large concentration of statues, monuments, and other commemorative signifiers in the North and South excludes not only white and black soldiers who fought in the West but also the significant number of Indians who fought, resisted, and supported their own unique causes during the Civil War. For example, the aforementioned soldier’s statue in Norman, Oklahoma, is intended to commemorate a white soldier, an ancestor of those who erected it, rather than a Native American who actually fought in the area. This monument is not atypical. This seems peculiar, considering that one must traverse “World War I Memorial Highway” and pass tributes to twentieth-century Chickasaw and Choctaw war accomplishments in order to arrive at a pantribal powwow celebrating war veterans. In light of this peculiarity, this study examines why Natives who made critical sacrifices during the war sought to bury the past. It asserts that while the North won the military conflict, the South came out the victor during the subsequent Reconstruction era. As the two sides reconciled, they made concessions that allowed the South to venerate its past heritage and transplant it onto Oklahoma Natives. Native peoples, on the other hand, lost during both the war and the Reconstruction periods, regardless of which side they supported. Thus, the only true monuments in Indian Territory during Reconstruction became the scorched grounds in place of homes, weeds and sprouts instead of corn rows, and memories of federal abandonment and betrayal instead of fulfilled promises. As Indian Territory became allotted and the white population overtook the Native population, Northern and Southern Americans’ visions of the war supplanted Native Civil War and Reconstruction recollections. In actuality this meant that white settlers attempted to assimilate the Native story into their own narratives via public commemorative endeavors. Even today, as monuments of white Union soldiers and plaques from United Daughters of the Confederacy (udc) chapters dot the Oklahoma landscape, Native people generally choose not to include Civil War loyalty or Southern “lost cause” mythology as part of their collective memory. [End Page...

Precision Placement of Separated Dairy Sludge Improves Early Phosphorus Nutrition and Growth in Corn (Zea mays L.)

Efficient use of manure nutrients by crops is necessary to minimize losses to the environment. This field study examined the possibility of replacing side-banded mineral P with precision-placed high-P sludge (6.2-11.0% dry matter) obtained after settling dairy manure slurry. The sludge was injected at about 30 kg P ha (36.0-51.2 m ha) into the soil at corn row spacing, and the corn was planted 5, 10, and 15 cm beside the injection furrow. Controls included no added P and side-banded commercial P fertilizer. The treatments were tested on corn with low and high root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM). The study showed that sludge did not impede AM root colonization, corn germination, or seedling growth. Corn plants with both high and low levels of AM colonization responded to the sludge from the three-leaf stage and showed the greatest benefit at the six-leaf stage. Corn responded more to sludge placed at 5 than at 15 cm from the corn rows, whereas the response at the 10-cm spacing was intermediate. There was little difference in seedling growth or final harvest parameters between the side-banded fertilizer P and the 5-cm sludge treatment. The results show a new way to use manure nutrients, namely precision-placement sludge for corn. This may obviate the need for chemical fertilizers for improving farm nutrient balances. Other anticipated benefits are less energy use for hauling and injection of the sludge fraction and reduced risk of nutrient loss by runoff and volatilization (ammonia) and nuisance odors due to injection.

Spatial variation of carbon dioxide fluxes in corn and soybean fields

Spatial variation of soil carbon dioxide (CO2) flux during a growing season within corn and soybean canopies has not been quantified. These cropping systems are the most intense in the United States and the potential for carbon (C) sequestration in these systems through changes in soil management practices create an opportunity for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; however, the need to understand the variation in fields is critical to evaluating changes in management systems. A study was designed to evaluate the spatial variation in soil CO2 fluxes along two transects in corn and soybean fields. Samples were collected every 5 m along a 100 m transect between the rows of the crop and also along a transect in which the plants had been removed to reduce the potential of root respiration. Soil CO2 fluxes were collected at each position with air temperature, soil temperature at 0.05 m, and soil water content (0 - 0.06 m). At the end of the season, soil samples for the upper 0.1 m were collected for soil organic C content, pH, sand, silt, and clay contents. On each day measurements were made, the observed CO2 emissions were scaled by dividing the CO2 flux at each position by the mean CO2 flux of the entire transect. Observed CO2 fluxes were signifycantly larger in the row than in the fallow position for both crops. There were no differences between the corn and soybean fallow transects; however, the corn row samples were larger than the soybean row samples. No consistent spatial patterns were observed in the CO2 fluxes or any of the soil properties over the course of the study. When the CO2 flux data were combined over the season, there was a significant spatial pattern in the fallow transects for both crops but not for the row transects. Sampling for CO2 flux values in cropping systems has to consider the presence of a crop canopy and the amount of root respiration.

Agroforestry

Abstract 375Blowing and drifting snow on Minnesota's roadways is a transportation efficiency and safety concern. Living snow fence is an agroforestry system involving planting of woody/tree species such as hybrid poplars, willow, other shrubs and pine trees along drifting snow areas. Establishing living snow fences improves driver visibility and road surface conditions and has the potential to lower costs of road maintenance, reduce accidents attributed to blowing and drifting snow, sequester carbon, and avoid the carbon emissions of snow removal operations. In recent years the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) has paid farmers to leave standing corn rows to protect identified snow problem roadways. It also encourages farmers to plant living snow fences for such purpose but the adoption is too low. With increasing demand for corn to fuel the ethanol industry, paying $1.50 per bushel above market rate may not be sufficient incentive for leaving standing corn rows or to take land of production. With MNDOT's Memorandum of Understanding with USDA to plan living snow fences through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), now is an opportune time to review MNDOT's annual payment structure to farmers and prepare a new one. This project aims to 1) develop a calculator to estimate payments for farmers that will include considerations of safety and snow removal cost savings using living snow fence agroforestry systems; 2) work closely with MNDOT's engineers and plow operators to estimate the safety and snow removal costs and carbon emissions avoided through establishing living snow fences; and 3) evaluate farmers' willingness to establish snow fence and identify farmers/landowners constraints to adoption. This data will be provided to MNDOT to assist them in their decision making related to their living snow fence program, and data will be useful for other states wishing to address drifting snow problem areas using agroforestry systems.

Naomi: (from the short film, “Naomi in the okra!”)

Naomi(from the short film, “Naomi in the okra!”) Frank X Walker (bio) my eyes smile first but my first thought is not black-eyed susans or peas but sun flower sweet and brown with rows and rows of corn in her hair a flowering sweet brown sun captured on film planting herself in soil as black as we not black-eyed susans or peas or anything short and praying on the ground but a sweet brown sunflower as long as her daddy’s smile and taller still ah, this is how they grow mermaids in Mississippi, in the middle of a field surrounded by okra [End Page 17] Frank X Walker Frank X Walker coined the term, “Affrilachian” to refer to Appalachian African-Americans and founded Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture. He is the author of five poetry collections and serves the University of Kentucky as an Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Director of the African American and African Studies Program. Copyright © 2011 Berea College

Corn Cob Residue Carbon and Nutrient Dynamics during Decomposition

The cob fraction of corn (Zea mays L.) residue has characteristics that reduce concerns associated with residue removal making it a potential biofuel feedstock. The contribution the cob makes to soil C and nutrient dynamics is unknown. A litterbag study was conducted in no‐tillage plots under irrigated and rainfed conditions in eastern Nebraska. Litterbags containing cobs were placed in corn rows on the soil surface or vertically in the 0‐ to 10‐cm soil depth following grain harvest and collected after 63, 122, 183, 246, 304, and 370 d. Samples were analyzed for dry matter, C, N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn. Dry matter loss was greater for buried (59% loss rainfed site vs. 64% irrigated site) than surface cobs (49% loss rainfed site vs. 42% irrigated site). Cob N, P, S, content did not change over the duration of the study and these nutrients would play a limited role in nutrition for the subsequent crop. Cob K content declined exponentially over the study suggesting that cob K would be available to the subsequent crop. Cob Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu content increased during the study representing immobilization. With the exception of K, nutrients contained in the cob are immobilized the year following harvest and play a minor role in mineral nutrition of the subsequent crop. As cellulosic conversion technology becomes available cobs represent a feedstock that can be harvested with minor effect on crop nutrient availability.

Interspecific competitiveness affects the total biomass yield in an alfalfa and corn intercropping system

Little is known about the intercropping of perennial legumes with annual cereals although intercropping system is widely applied and studied. The main objective of this study was to determine the aboveground biomass yield and interspecific competitiveness in an intercropping system of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) with corn ( Zea mays L.). A 3-year (2007–2009) field experiment was conducted, including four intercropping patterns by alternating alfalfa and corn row ratios of 2:2, 3:2, 4:2 and 5:2. Mono-cultured corn and alfalfa were used as the control. The biomass yield of alfalfa was measured at early blooming, whereas that of corn was at physiological maturity. Competitiveness indices examined were land equivalent ratio (LER), aggressivity ( A), relative crowding coefficient ( K values) and competitive ratio ( CR). The biomass yields of mono-cultured alfalfa and all intercropping patterns increased each year. In all years, the 5:2 intercropping pattern always displayed a biomass yield advantage based on greater LER values. Alfalfa had higher relative crowding coefficients ( K values), CR, and A values than corn. The intercropping of alfalfa with corn had yield advantages compared to alfalfa or corn monoculture. The intercropping pattern of 5:2 (alfalfa:corn row ratio) was an optimal pattern in our study. Alfalfa was the superior competitor when grown with corn, and its productivity dominated the total biomass yields. Thus, intercropping of alfalfa with corn has the potential to improve performance with high land-use efficiency.

Bull of the Woods

Bull of the Woods Ashlee Adams (bio) Buck and Cheryl hadn't been married long when they stumbled across an overgrown pasture back off the highway. A Mr. Jones owned the pasture; it had no cows. This was back in the summer of '75. This Mr. Jones said, "I'm going to tell you, young ones. There's perks to living in the country. You can wear your underwear in the yard. Hell, nobody will mess with you." He said, "They won't even know you're here." Cheryl asked him, "Where are your cows?" "You can go for days," he said, "and not encounter a soul." It was noon, summertime, and standing on his porch, Mr. Jones appeared to have been shocked by natural light. "I've been cooped up," he said, apologetic, his eyes nearly squint shut. Behind him, the door to his house swung wide, the inside all dark. He said, "You take this mess off my hands, and I guess I'm about ready to get on down the road." No one would have known the pasture was there, not except that Mr. Jones had nailed a wooden land-for-sale sign into some weeds down by 15, and then, and only then, had Cheryl and Buck noticed the narrow dirt drive that weaved around a bend and disappeared into the pines. The pines opened up to a clearing with a house that had a bad slope. In the pasture was a cow trough with a few inches of dirty rain water, enough to fatten mosquitoes. Mr. Jones didn't think to advertise the house; he thought anybody with a lick of sense would have known to tear it down and start over. After the old man got on down the road with Buck and Cheryl's savings, Buck opened the windows in the farmhouse, all the windows upstairs and down, and the windows had no curtains, and [End Page 61] some windows had no panes, so there was nothing to block the cool breeze that moved around their home, not even furniture. Buck stepped out on the porch. He said, "I can't hear a thing." And Cheryl tilted her head. She was listening for human commotion, cars and trucks flying down 15. But like Buck, she couldn't hear a thing. They were in love, and that night, he and Cheryl stripped down and ran naked around the yard, and Cheryl said, laughing, "I'll never need to live close to the road again." She said, not covering her breasts, "Nobody will run up on us out here." But, just last weekend, on the Saturday morning of the day Buck died, a warm summer day in '05, Buck sipped a cup of coffee at the kitchen table and marveled at a crow, tiptoeing, quietly, in the dew, out near their garden. It'd been a long time since he'd heard his wife laugh. The crow that morning, unlike Cheryl, seemed perfectly content to stay on the ground. "Fly," she'd said. "He flies." "He" was a man named George Godfrey, and though Cheryl was still in bed that morning, upstairs in bed alone, Buck felt George up there too. He imagined her in their bedroom, lying on her side, wide awake and stewing. They'd had an argument, a bad one, and he knew she expected an apology. In a little while, if he didn't come offering one, she'd fling the covers off and march down the stairs, straight to him. She'd squeeze out a way to include George in a sentence. "George likes …" "George thinks …" "George can …" Buck never found out where that Mr. Jones went, but sometimes he imagined him pulling up in the yard, getting out of his truck, and standing in awe. Buck would have said to him, "You didn't have enough imagination, now did you?" Because it's true: the tomatoes in their garden had turned out, big, red, juicy tomatoes, a long row of corn, and if Mr. Jones had stood in this garden, he could have turned to see the house, a fresh coat of white paint, big hanging baskets overflowing. On...

Zone Tillage Impacts on Organic Carbon of a Clay Loam in Southwestern Ontario

No-till (NT) management can reduce corn (Zea mays L.) yields relative to moldboard plow tillage (MP) on fine-textured soils in cool humid climates. Zone tillage (ZT) consists of tilling the corn row only (zone in, ZI) and leaving the interrows uncultivated (zone out, ZO) and has increased corn yields relative to NT. In this study, soil organic C (SOC) content, bulk density, and penetration resistance were compared among ZT, ZI, ZO, MP, and NT for a Brookston clay loam soil (Typic Argiaquoll) in southern Ontario, Canada. Relative to MP, NT produced SOC stratification, with significantly greater SOC in the surface soil (0-5 cm) but lower SOC in the subsurface soil (10-30 cm). Zone tillage produced SOC and total soil N levels that were similar to NT near the soil surface but similar to MP in the subsurface. On an equivalent soil mass basis (4570 Mg ha ―1 ), ZT increased SOC storage (80.6 Mg C ha ―1 ) by 11.2 and 12.5% compared with NT and MP, respectively. Penetration resistance and bulk density at the 0- to 20-cm depth were lower in ZI than the other tillage treatments. Soil moisture content at the 0- to 12-cm depth under ZO was similar to NT and both were greater than ZI and MP. Zone tillage did not reduce stratification of SOC or total soil N; however, ZI decreased bulk density stratification. We concluded that ZT has the potential to improve both SOC sequestration and selected soil properties relative to NT and MP on fine-textured soils in cool, humid climates.

Fertilizer Source Influenced Nitrous Oxide Emissions from a Clay Soil under Corn

Synthetic N fertilizers are a major source of N2O emissions from soil. A field experiment was conducted during three growing seasons (2004–2006) on a clay soil (fine, mixed, frigid Typic Humaquept) under corn (Zea mays L.) to evaluate the impact of N fertilizer source and application rate on N2O emissions. Treatments consisted of three sources of N fertilizer (urea–NH4NO3 32% [UAN], Ca–NH4NO3 [CAN], and aqua NH3 [AA]) at four different rates (0, 100, 150, and 200 kg N ha−1). Fertilizers were banded 5 cm below the soil surface between corn rows at the six‐leaf stage and N2O emissions were measured weekly. For all 3 yr of this study, cumulative N2O emission decreased in the order UAN ≥ CAN ≥ AA. Averaged across years, fertilizer‐induced post‐sidedress emissions were greater than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default factor (0.01 kg N2O‐N kg−1 N), with values of 0.038, 0.033, and 0.027 kg N2O‐N kg−1 N for UAN, CAN, and AA, respectively. The N2O emissions increased linearly with N rate, even at rates exceeding the optimum level for grain yield. Peaks of N2O flux occurred on the days following fertilizer application and in early fall when the soil was re‐wetted. Emissions of N2O were higher at water‐filled pore space >0.57 m3 m−3 and were also related to soil inorganic N and water‐extractable organic C contents. Our results confirm that N fertilizer source and application rate can impact N2O emissions but these effects are modulated by soil environmental conditions.

Sparrows

| 129 Sparrows lisa fink Shaped like south and east, and smelling of lilacs, I am a soft voice. I am my father shooting sparrows off the roof of the Old Barn. I am feathered hop. I am bang and pop. I split open horse chestnuts in front of the house. I am hiding in the upstairs closet. I am no animals in the house. I’m an addition and a box of bunnies. I am rows and rows and rows of sweet corn, green beans, peas, I am a patch of pumpkin, a patch of cucumber. I am a patch on my father’s overalls. I love lying in the lumpy grass. I am cold cereal, but only on Monday mornings. I’m a field of alfalfa in bloom, a black dog with a slippery tongue. I am two goats eating my mother’s roses. Voices are raised in anger, and I’m afraid. I am twine strings tied around a calf’s leg. I’m a calf stuck in a birthing cow’s vagina. I am three o’clock in the morning. 130 | ecotone I am County Road 92, Highway 12. I am Pioneer Creek Road. I’m a pigeon, a barn spider. I am batteries in the refrigerator. There are dirt and early-evening thunderstorms under my fingernails. I live on rats hidden beneath planks of plywood in the farmyard, my brother with a shovel, a plank to be lifted. I am my mother eating raw hamburger out of the bowl. I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of the dark. ...

Effect of Corn or Soybean Row Position on Soil Water

Crop plants can funnel water to the soil and increase water content more in the row relative to the interrow. Because the row inter- cepts more soil water after rains and higher root density, the soil may also dry out more between rains than does soil in the interrow. The objectives of this study were to determine if there is a row position difference in soil wetting after rain and drying between rains, and to determine the sea- sonal nature of these differences. The first experiment examined soil water content 0 to 0.06 m in row, interrow, and quarter corn row positions for eight sites at specific times during a corn (Zea mays L.)-growing season. During the growing season, the second experiment examined automated soil water measurements at one site for two corn years and one soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) year at row and interrow positions to 0.15-m depth. Soil water content changes were significantly greater in the row than the interrow for some mid-season dates. Temporal soil water changes showed that row wetting and drying dominated over in- terrow soil water changes for mid season. The mean ratio of row/(row + interrow) soil water changes for wetting was 0.76 and 0.77 for corn and 0.64 for soybean and for drying was 0.58 and 0.84 for corn and 0.60 for soybean. Soybean showed the row effect for a shorter time of the season (up to 71 days) compared with corn (up to 159 days).

Forage yield and quality of intercropped corn and soybean in narrow strips

Maize-soybean intercropping can increase forage quality with no detrimental effect on dry matter (DM) yield. The objective of this study was to compare corn-soybean intercrop in narrow strips with corn as monocrop in terms of DM yield and forage quality. This study was conducted in Matamoros, Coahuila (Mexico) in 2006 and 2007. Intercrops were established in rows spaced 0.50 m apart, evaluating alternate corn-soybean strips with one, two, three, and four rows per crop, and a treatment using an alternate twin-row planting pattern per crop, with a 1.0-m row-spacing. As control treatments, monocrops of corn in rows 0.76 m apart and soybean in rows 0.50 m apart were evaluated. A randomized complete block design with four replications was employed. Corn-soybean intercrop produced DM yields similar to those of monocropped corn due to higher corn yields in border rows adjacent to soybean. Crude protein (CP) yields per hectare in intercrop treatments were higher (27.5 to 42.8%) than those of monocropped corn, due to greater CP concentrations in intercrops (16 to 21 g kg–1). When soybean was harvested at the beginning maturity stage (R7), neutral detergent fiber concentration was reduced by 60 to 63 g kg–1 in corn-soybean intercropping compared to corn monocrop. Acid detergent fiber was not altered by intercropping. Results indicate that maize-soybean intercrop in narrow strips can provide forage quality advantages without affecting yield.