256 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



after planting. After the corn is up it should not be harrowed until it is two- 

 inches high, as the young plants are exceedingly tender and brittle. After it 

 has attained a height of two or three inches the liarrow may be used until it 

 is five or six inches high, unless the ground has been packed by rains, in which 

 case a cultivator should be substituted. A harrow should never be used on 

 corn when the teeth will not scour. The Thomas harrow Avill extirpate small 

 weeds, but it is worthless to kill June grass or large weeds, and the same may 

 be said of the spring tooth cultivator. After the corn is six inches high a cul- 

 tivator or double shovel will keep it in good condition the remainder of the 

 season if used often enough. Do not be afraid of injuring your corn by culti- 

 vating it after the ears have set. 



I am aware that my views on this point will not meet the approval of all, 

 but I am well satisfied that a cultivator or double shovel, used with care, may 

 be run through the corn with benefit once a week until the ears are past the- 

 roasting stage. It should at least be cultivated as often as a crust is formed 

 on the surface by rain. I have known many a field of corn well tilled untii 

 the commencement of the haying season, and then, owing to the press of work, 

 utterly neglected, because after harvest the owner was afraid to cultivate from 

 fear of injuring it by tilling it after the ears had set, the weeds meantime 

 growing rapidly, and in the fall had attained a height equal to that of the 

 corn, which only yielded half a crop, when a few days' labor at the right time 

 would have paid the owner ten times its cost. After the corn is large, care 

 should be taken not to run the double shovel too near the hill, nor deep 

 enough to break the roots. A single shovel plow should never be allowed in a 

 cornfield. 



ENEMIES. 



The most formidable enemy of corn in this region is the cut-worm. Fall 

 plowing may be favorable for their destruction, but is not a certain remedy.. 

 One old farmer, and a successful one too, once assured me that the worst 

 experience he ever had with the cut-worm was on a piece of ground plowed in 

 the fall. Do not let your sod get too old. A good clover sod is seldom very 

 badly infested with the cut-worm. If the worms are very plentiful delay your 

 planting a few days, and the worms will be passing the larva state. The best 

 way to stop their working is to keep the soil loose by tilling. They go from 

 hill to hill on the surface of the ground, and if it is kept loose and mellow 

 they cannot travel so easily as on a hard crust. 



Here let me say a word in favor of that despised and maligned animal, the 

 skunk. He is our best friend, and a great destroyer of worms, bugs, etc. 

 He works for us while we sleep, and will destroy hundreds of cut-worms in a- 

 single night. He is worthy of our friendship, and should receive our protec- 

 tion. Our Legislature should pass a law to prevent their wholesale destruction^ 



I find, by the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, that the average 

 yield of the corn crop of the United States for 1880, was 27.6 bushels per 

 acre. The average yield in Michigan for the same year, was 40.7 bushels per 

 acre, which yield was equaled by but one other State in the Union. The 

 average yield per acre in Kalamazoo county for 1880 was 39.55 bushels. 



This yield can be largely increased by the exercise of judgment in the 

 choice of varieties, and care in the selection of seed, and by the timely use of 

 good tools. An increase of only five bushels per acre on the 37,123 acres 

 raised in Kalamazoo county, would amount, at present prices, to the snug 

 little sum of $111,369. This increase can easily be attained. Now, brother 



