108 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE SIMPLEST METHOD OF HANDLING THE CORN CROP. 



HON. L. W. AVATKINS. 



Professor Smith certainly paid me a very i>rent coinpliinent. wlien he 

 assigned nie this subject, in assuming my knowledge of the simplest 

 method of handling the corn crop. A knowledge however to which I 

 lay no claim. ]My friend Welch, Avhose hobby is also corn, handles the 

 crop in an entirely different way upon his farm than do we upon ours, and 

 his enthusiasm, his business economy and his grand results accomplished 

 as a feeder and dairyman have served as an insi)iration not only to 

 you and to me but to the agriculture of our northern states. It is very 

 likely indeed that to him and to scores of others here today, could have 

 been assigned with far greater propriety the discussion of this subject 

 than to me. 



And yet in our humble, simple way, in a section of the State where 

 there is no certainty of obtaining extra hel]» on the farm when needed 

 to handle this heaviest and most valuable of all farm cro])s, which must be 

 secured from the ]iossible ravages of frost all within a few days when 

 cutting time comes, we may perhaps claim some of the originality in 

 what we consider a well-systematized and effective though possibly a 

 somewhat crude method of handling our corn. 



Our plan is to use just as little high-priced labor to accomplish the 

 profitable result as is possible under existing conditions which we have 

 endeavored to make most simple and effective. Make every separate,^ 

 individual move count two if you can. 



According to the maxim that the living need charity more than the 

 dead, apply all the force of your oavu energy to the growing crop and 

 make it as a living thing most comfortable and luxuriant unto its' death. 

 Then insist that all your live stock, in due respect,, attend and take part 

 in the obsequies to follow after the grim corn rea])er has done his ruthless 

 work, and make of each animal' the most elaborate, the highest-priced 

 encasing casket, as you store away therein the remains of your honored 

 dead — the grain and fodder and tasselled green — Kin(j Corn. These last 

 sad rites should be simple and every move toward interment effective, 

 the handling final. But the good of the dead shall remain after them. 



For corn we plow sod ground with just as much manure on it as we 

 can well plow under. We plow just as shallow as possible and still 

 have a dirt mulch above the up-turned grass roots. We roll down the 

 furrows and harrow and harrow and drag and drag not just until this 

 seed bed suits us but as long as we dare before planting, usually nearly 

 till the first of June. We prefer to cultivate our corn as much as possible 

 before it is planted and if this is done it will grow and mature just 

 about as early as the first planted fields in poorer state of cultivation. 

 I make this point because among the general or mixed farmers, who put 

 in other spring croi)s than corn, the seed bed for the latter crop is usually 

 fitted very ]»oorly, dependence being placed largely upon the future 

 cultivation of the ])lanted crop to get air into the soil, to make available 

 the inert plant food of the soil, and to conserve its capillary moisture. 



