Geting the soil ready for the gardens this year?

[M.T. Pockets]

GoodOlBoy, $12 a pound for regular field corn is robbery.

Check with a seed dealer (maybe a local feed store or Farmer's Co-op) and buy a bag like the farmers plant. A standard bag has 80,000 kernels and weighs about 50 lb. (it's the number of kernels that count).

You should be able to find a bag of good hybrid corn for about $100 which comes to $2 a pound. You can pay up to $200 a bag for the hybrids with all the genetic traits, but you probably don't need all that. Here in the cornbelt you could find 50 lb. bags for under $100 that grow pretty good corn.

Depending on what you're planting you can maybe get a good buy from a dealer on a leftover or broken bag, or holdover bag from last year. Unless you plan on making a living off the corn you plant the difference in yield would be minor from the top end stuff.