PREPARING THE SEED BED 27 



On most soils, with a normal amount of rainfall in the 

 spring, the roller is not needed to prepare the seed bed for 

 corn. Two harrowings with a double discing between, just 

 before planting, will put the seed bed in ideal shape three 

 years out of four. 



We seldom roll directly ahead of the planter and never 

 behind. Our experience has been that rolling causes the 

 weeds to start quickly, which is not desirable after the corn 

 is planted. Some implement should precede directly ahead 

 of the planter in order to get a last whack at sprouted weed 

 seeds before planting. If disc markers are used, the driver 

 of the planter will have a plain mark in the freshly worked 

 dirt. The use of the disc marker does away with the necessity 

 of rolling in order to see the mark. 



HAVE SUFFICIENT EQUIPMENT 



We know by experience that sufficient time is not often 

 given to the preparation of the seed bed before planting. This 

 is due mostly to having more ground in corn than can properly 

 be prepared and tended. In the corn belt, where corn is king, 

 it takes nearly twice as many horses and men to handle eighty 

 acres of corn as it does to handle forty acres. Very often 

 it is. better to cut down the corn acreage rather than go to 

 the expense of buying more equipment. 



The farmer should be prepared to handle his field work on 

 unusual seasons when additional work is required to make 

 a proper seed bed. No one can say beforehand how much 

 work will be required to get a field in shape for planting. 

 A field of clover sod that is plowed in the fall can sometimes 

 be put in good shape with a single discing and one or two 

 harrowings. It is usually better, however, to double disc if 

 for no other reason than that the ground is left level. 



