PLANTING 39 



good results at this first cultivating with common fenders, better re- 

 sults will be realized if a box about three feet long is allowed to drag 

 between the cultivator shovels for keeping the clods off the corn plants. 

 We use a V-shaped box, which allows the fine, moist dirt to roll in 

 behind it and down against the corn, covering the weeds and nourish- 

 ing the plant as only such mellow soil can. 



' ' One more cultivation ought to level the furrows and rid the 

 rows of all weeds, leaving the third plowing to hill the corn up slightly. 

 Avoid cultivating too close to the stalks, rather allowing the shovels to 

 run a short distance away and throw the soil against the corn. Where 

 one leaves the ridges too sharp at laying-by, it promotes root growth 

 too far up on the stalks; this ridge washes away a little later, and 

 the tender lower portions of the stalk thus exposed to the heat of the 

 sun, usually so extreme at this season, are literally scorched. This is 

 sure to cut down the yield of the corn. We give the corn a gently 

 sloping hilling-up at laying by, and continue to promote the dust mulch 

 by working between the rows with the five-shovel cultivator, sometimes 

 practicing this even after the corn is in tassel. 



' ' As here shown, it requires considerably less labor to produce corn 

 where the land is listed than if planted by the corn planter, since it 

 can be put in the ground quicker and easier, cultivated with less work 

 and greater ease, and will actually yield more, one year with another. 

 Other advantages that add materially to the excellence of listing are: 

 The roots of the corn are so deeply set in the soil that they brace 

 and hold the stalks in an upright position, thus avoiding the damage 

 often resulting from planted corn being blown down by the wind;, 

 also making a field of listed corn more agreeable to husk in. Then, 

 this same deep-root system leaves less of the stalk above the soil, and 

 so lowers the relative height of the ear from the ground, thus leaving 

 it where it can' be easily and quickly reached at husking time. This 

 advantage can be appreciated only after husking the high, unhandy 

 ears in a field that was planted by planter. 



"M. A. COVERDELL." 



DISTANCE APART OF PLANTING 



The distance between the rows of corn varies from as 

 close as three feet, in the North, to as far apart as six feet 

 in the South. The closeness of the rows in the North is due : 

 first, to the fact that the earlier varieties planted do not grow 

 more than half as tall as do the later maturing varieties grown 

 in the South; secondly, to the fact that it is more difficult 

 to obtain a stand in the extreme northern edge of the Corn 

 Belt, which makes it necessary to plant closer in order to 



