Rural School Leaflet. 1059 



About a week after the com shoots can be plainly seen in the rows it is 

 time to begin using the cultivator. A quiet, steady horse hitched to a 

 single cultivator, or a team and a wheel cultivator with small blades 

 should be used to stir the soil between the rows of corn. Cultivation 

 kills the weeds, airs the soil, and prevents the evaporation of moisture 

 from the deeper soil. Com is benefited by frequent cultivation, at first 

 moderately deep, then more lightly as the roots spread out through the 

 soil. When the hot dry days of summer come, and the com is tasseling, 

 a small-toothed cultivator which leaves the surface soil fine and nearly 

 level will be most useful. Unless weather conditions interfere, the 

 corn field should be cultivated four times or more. The soil between 

 the hills in the row needs to be hoed as often as weeds appear. Never 

 hoe or cultivate the com field when the soil is so moist that it feels 

 sticky if squeezed in the hands. 



Enemies. — While the corn plant is young one must watch for its 

 enemies. The crows and large blackbirds must be frightened away 

 from the field until the corn is too large for them to pull it up. Some- 

 times a cutworm can be found lurking near a corn hill and killed before 

 it has cut off all of the stalks. Coating the kernels of seed com with 

 coal tar before planting repels some of its enemies after it has been 

 placed in the ground. 



Thinning. — When the com plants are about six inches high and 

 danger from birds and insects seems to be past, every hill which has 

 more than three stalks should have the extra ones removed by pulling 

 them out, leaving the three most vigorous ones to develop their best 

 growth. 



Harvesting. — In September when the lower leaves on the cornstalks 

 begin to die and many of the husks are turning dry, it is time to cut 

 and shock the com crop if one wishes to save the fodder for feed. About 

 sixty hills of com may be gathered into a shock and the tops bound 

 together to make the shock stand up. Too large a shock will not cure 

 properly, and some of the ears may thus be spoiled. Six weeks of good 

 autumn weather will cure the com shocks sufficiently for husking. 

 After husking out the ears the fodder should be tied in bundles to make 

 handling easier, and stored under cover for winter feeding. If one does 

 not care . for the fodder, the ears will be better if left on the standing 

 stalks until the latter are dead and dry and the ears are thoroughly 

 ripened. After husking, corn ears should be stored where air can 

 circulate between them, and where rats and mice can not get in to de- 

 stroy them. 



