EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 707 



A GOOD SEED BED FOR CORN AND HOW OBTAINED. 

 By A. Member, Before Linn County Farmers' Institute. 



It has been said, "The first reform needed in American Agriculture is 

 to feed the soil better, and the next reform is to till it better," and in 

 these days of high-priced land it is surely the better plan to try to produce 

 morn corn per acre than to produce more acres of corn. 



Agricultural writers are trying to impress upon our minds the im- 

 portance of good seed corn. Our institute speakers are also trying to force 

 the same fact home to us, but no matter how good the seed it must be 

 planted in a good sed bed to bring proper results. The ground must be 

 well prepared or it will be impossible to get an even stand, and young 

 corn plants will not thrive among clods or where the soil is not in 

 good tilth. 



An ideal seed bed for corn is one where there is an abundance of plant 

 food and where the soil is in good physical condition (mellow, free from 

 lumps, porous and warm). To get this ideal seed bed we must practice 

 a rotation of crops with clover in the rotation. The clover plant is a 

 great soil restorer and renovater. It takes nitrogen from the air and 

 stores it in the soil for the use of the future corn plant. Its roots delve 

 deep into the earth and bring up plant food from below, and when the 

 roots decay places are left for water and air to enter the ground and 

 get the soil in the best of physical condition. 



In plowing a piece of land for corn it is not as important to plow at 

 some particular depth as it is to do a good job of plowing. The man who 

 "cuts and covers" when plowing will not have an ideal seed bed. Fall 

 plowing is preferable to spring plowing, except in certain circumstances. 

 Rolling land, if plowed in the fall, washes badly with the spring rains, 

 and some stiff clay soils when fall plowed "run together." Under those 

 circumstances it is better to plow in the spring. 



One of the best means of getting a good seed bed is to harrow down 

 the newly plowed ground each day after the plow. Harrowing after the 

 plow fines the soil and conserves moisture and does much to keep the 

 ground from being cloddy. Many farmers nowadays have a light section 

 of a harrow attached to their plows and harrow as they plow, and that 

 certainly is a method that is worthy of imitation. 



In preparing a field for corn which was in corn the year previous it 

 is important that the field be thoroughly disced before the plow. The 

 stalks should be cut up by the disc and plowed under instead of being 

 burned, as there is need of humus or decayed vegetable matter in the 

 soil. Discing breaks the surface crust so that when turned by the plow 

 a better connection is made with the lower soil, allowing the moisture 

 from below to work up freely to the young corn roots. 



