24 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 



or as deep as the team can pull the plow. When we are 

 turning under soy beans, however, the plowing is shallow 

 in order to allow the plants to rot more quickly. This ground 

 is plowed deep in the spring when the beans are put in. 



In plowing stalks under we try to plow six inches deep, 

 if the ground is dry, since the stalks are covered better than 

 in plowing four or five inches deep. Never try to cover stalks 

 with only four inches of soil when the field is to go in 

 corn. Subsequent cultivations will drag them out and they 

 will be a continual source of annoyance throughout the crop 

 tending season. 



PLOWING SOD 



Blue-grass sod, or ground that has been in pasture for a 

 number of years, should be plowed in the fall. In plowing 

 blue-grass it is a good plan to plow very shallow in the fall 

 and follow with a plowing at least two inches deeper in the 

 spring. This is more work than is necessary to break any 

 other sod with which we are familiar. If the sod is very 

 tough, a wide angle moldboard should be used. This will 

 pull more easily and will turn the sod under much better 

 than the general purpose plows found on most farms. Clover 

 and timothy meadows that constitute a part of the short crop 

 rotations of the corn belt seldom become sodded enough to 

 necessitate the use of the sod plow. 



If sod is plowed in the spring it should be done early. 

 Wet sod, although it turns up slick on the bottom of the 

 furrow slice, will not bake and become cloddy because of the 

 presence of such an abundance of humus. Owing to the rush 

 of farm work in the spring every effort should be made to get 

 the sod plowed by the time the corn stalk land is in condition 

 to work. 



In some cases it might be well to break clover sod late in 

 order to enrich the land with the greater amount of nitrogen 



