farmers' institutes. 645 



CORN STOVER. 



AN INTERESTING AND VALUABLE EXPERIENCE TOLD IN DETAIL. 



[Clay B. Carver, of Rockville, at the Farmers' Institute, Pike County.] 



When I was a veiy small boy I began taking some part in the cultiva- 

 tion of corn. My first work was to drop the corn in the very imperfect 

 cross made by a three-runner sled and a single shovel plow. As every 

 hill must have not less than three or more than four grains, and the man 

 with the hoe covering was at my heels from morning until night, I 

 became very tired during the long summer days. 



Then, when I was a little older, I took a very heavy hoe with a 

 crooked, rough handle and pulled the soil over the corn. This soil was 

 prepared with an "A" harrow with teeth one inch square at the top, 

 tapering to an indefinite point and an indefinite length. We usually had a 

 sod field for corn, so you may imagine how tired a small boy got covering 

 corn all day. Then came the "jumping-.iack," as we called it. A square 

 bottomed shovel plow which we dragged along in the bottom of each 

 furrow and jumped each hill as we came to it. We usually had a large 

 crop for those days and every boy on the place labored from early morning 

 until late at night. The corn planted and up, we took the same "A" 

 harrow with two front teeth out and went over the corn to pulverize the 

 clods and kill an occasional weed. An awkward team and a heavy harrow 

 made this a very disagreeable task. Then came "thinning"— that abomin- 

 able work to the small boy. Imagine, if you will, three small boys starting 

 in to thin 40 acres of corn— every hill to three stalks and pulling all the 

 suckers. To show the awfulness of our task I might state that we thinned 

 some fields three times the same year! 



Later came the double shovel. My first experience with that tool was 

 in following a knock-kneed mule, which would persist in turning around 

 in the middle of the field whenever the dinner bell rang. The older boys 

 would laugh at me and I sometimes became very angry. We talk a great 

 deal about how to keep the boys on the farm. Such experiences as these 

 are enough to disgust a boy, but such experiences many boys have had. 



My father was very ready to adopt the more modern methods and our 

 planter was the first in the neighborhood for a long time. It was a great 

 delight to me to jerk the lever over every mark while my older brother 

 drove the team. Then came the spring-tooth harrow, smoothing harrow 

 and cultivator whereby all this work was made easier and more agreeable. 



During these early experiences my father fed cattle. He persisted in 

 putting as near all of this corn in shock as possible with available help. 



