CHEAP CORN. 251 



the direction each time. This process should be continued until the 

 corn shades the ground or the haying season occupies the time. 

 Under this system there will be no weeds, as none will get a chance 

 to start, and there will be no demand for hand hoeing. 



The field need be visited now only to be admired until stooking 

 time. This will come in those balmy days of our Indian summer, 

 when the kernels on the ear shall have become glazed hard enough 

 to resist the firm pressure of the thumb-nail. This is truly a labo- 

 rious and expensive part of the work, and it must be well and prop- 

 erly done in order to secure hard and sound ears and bright and 

 sweet stover. We would remark that here, as in many other farm 

 operations, the expense is no greater when the work is well and 

 properly done, than when done in a slovenly and slip-shod manner. 

 Two can work at better advantage than one alone. Five rows should 

 be cut at a time, and when the yield is about fifty bushels per acre, 

 fifteen hills will make a proper sized stook to handle. In cutting, 

 the men will need no ''jack" or ''horse," or machine of any kind 

 excepting corn cutters. Tlie centre hill should be left and the others 

 cut and placed around it. Before cutting a hill the left hand and 

 arm should be passed around it, gathering all the loose leaves, then 

 cut with the other hand closely to the ground that the stublile may 

 not be in the way. The hill should then be carried to the stook and 

 placed so that each individual stalk will point directly to the top and 

 centre of the stook, thus becoming an element of strength ; whereas, 

 if thrown carelessly and allowed to lie crosswise, it becomes an ele- 

 ment of weakness, tending to make the stook fall down or ''courtesy." 

 In the process of tying two men are also required ; one wants a 

 three-quarter inch rope about eight feet long, the other a ball of string. 

 This string is common tarred rope, cut and untwisted, the pieces 

 tied together and wound in a ball of convenient size. The rope is 

 passed around the stook about midway, the ends crossed, each man 

 taking an end and pulling against each other with their might. When 

 compressed as much as possible, the two ends of the rope are passed 

 around to the side of the stook opposite the cross and held by one 

 of the men, while the other passes the string around the stook below 

 the ropes and ties. The same operation is repeated near the top of 

 the stook, and the work is done. And that stook will stand. Rains 

 or snows will neither hurt the grain or the stover. The farmer need 

 be in no undue haste about the harvest, for if properly stooked the 



17 



