PLANTING. 95 
menced until planting time, when the lister is used in the 
hollows or middles between the old corn rows, or else on fall- 
plowed land, where the lister is run through the field from 
three to four feet apart, according to the soil, kind of corn 
planted, and judgment of the operator, The single method 
seems better adapted to sections of uncertain rainfall, being 
only one-half the labor of the double plow, which is as fol- 
lows: As soon as the stalks are cleared from the field in the 
spring, the listing plow, with drill removed, is put at work 
splitting the old corn rows, thus filling the middles and form- 
ing anewridge therein. This preparation gives drainage 
and opens the soil to the warming influence of thesun. Then 
when planting time comes the drill is attached and the new 
vidge is divided, and the corn planted in the furrow thus 
made, the drill dropping the corn, one kernel ina place, from 
8 to 20 inches apart, as the operator may choose. By this 
plan more thorough tillage is secured. * * ἃ 
“1 cultivating after the corn is up the field is gone over 
with a planker, or what is far better, a smoothing harrow, 
which smoothes the ridge and prepares the ground for the 
cultivator, which is used with but one shovel on each side of 
the row the first time and both shovels afterwards.” 
Concerning the merits of listing there is 
much diversity of opinion. At the Kangas ex- 
periment station this practice has been com- 
mended on the basis of experimental returns.* 
Four plats listed, compared with four given 
surface planting, showed a small gain for the 
former—about four per cent. At the Minne- 
sota station results somewhat unfavorable to 
listing were secured in 1888.; Francis Me- 
* Kansas agricultural experiment station. Report for 
#559, p. 19. 
7 Minnesota agricultural experiment station. Bulletin 
No. 5, 1888. 
