CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 



59 



of cultivation before we plant the corn, and a whole lot afterwards. The 

 most important plowing is the first plowing, because if you leave a strip 

 there not plowed good the first time you will never get the weeds thor- 

 oughly cleaned out of that strip ; that's the reason I plant corn both 

 ways; I never leave that ridge there. If a man is going to hire any corn 

 plowed, he should hire it plowed the second time and plow it himself 

 the first time. The second time, of course, you generally plow cross- 

 ways from the first time. I use a steel harrow with slant teeth if the 

 ground is dry. After a hard rain I plow it first — the harrow doesn't do 

 any good. I use a walking cultivator for this reason : I hire a good 

 deal of my plowing done, and have never yet found the man who would 

 get down from the cultivator when riding and remove the clods ; some 

 of them will not even use a stick. Several years ago, before I was rais- 

 ing corn for myself, I was raising it for my father. One year I re- 

 member the corn was away up here, pretty high, and it got dry and be- 

 gan to burn. Father hired a man, and we had to hitch up the mules 

 to the garden cultivator and go over that corn in that hot weather. I 

 thought it was all foolishness. Thought I knew best. When we got 

 to the end of a row, it was so hot we could hardly get our breath ; but 

 the corn that we plowed that way grew right along during the dry 

 weather. But the corn that we did not plow that way all burned up. I be- 

 lieve that is a good idea. Don't stop — just keep right on cultivating. We 

 cannot do just what we always want to do. There is a whole lot in cul- 

 tivating corn ; one of the things is to keep the weeds down ; we cannot 

 kill them if they get started ; keep them down at the first. This matter 

 of covering up weeds is slow work ; they grow as fast as you can cover 

 them up. 



Mr. Laughlin : I would like to hear from some one about detassel- 

 ing corn. Mr. McFarland, do you consider it a success or a failure for 

 a practical farmer? 



Mr. McFarland : I find it a very particular thing to do. You have 

 got to go over it every day. If you neglect it a day or so some of it will 

 be in bloom. 



Mr. Laughlin: I tried a row this year and found it an absolute 

 failure. It killed the stalk, it seemed to me. I tried it for a couple of 

 weeks without success. 



What about storing seed corn? We often find men storing their 

 seed corn in barrels. Has anyone a good plan of storing seed corn? 



Mr. Plackmeyer : I have a way of putting it away where the rats 

 will not get to it. I put it in a dry cellar, and have never failed to have 

 a stand yet ; it always keeps good and dry and always germinates well. 



