52 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 



to make the dirt meet. The use of the furrow openers helps 

 the corn to withstand a drouth since the root zone is devel- 

 oped deeper in the soil. (See frontispiece.) 



SECOND CULTIVATION 



The field is cross cultivated just as soon as we can get 

 to it, and that is seldom soon enough. The cultivating is 

 done with shovel plows, plowing from three to four inches 

 deep if the corn is small and we are sure that we are not cut- 

 ting any corn roots. If the corn is ten inches tall, we do 

 not plow more than three inches deep unless the field is foul. 

 It is not necessary to plow as close to the hill the second 

 time over in order to make the dirt meet since the hill is 

 on a level and not on a small ridge as would be the case 

 had furrow openers not been used. 



THIED CULTIVATION' 



If rains have formed a crust on the ground, the third 

 plowing is started just as soon as the last acre has been 

 crossed. We do not like the corn to be more than eighteen 

 inches high when it is plowed the third time. Unless we 

 have a very wet season there are very few weeds to kill when 

 we start on the third cultivation. Since the dirt should meet 

 it is sometimes necessary to turn the shovels slightly inward 

 but we try to throw up as small a ridge as possible. The 

 shovels are run as shallow as is practicable. This plowing 

 is easy and fast teams often average as much as nine acres 

 in one day. 



For the third cultivation the corn is plowed the same 

 way it is planted. Our method of plowing corn the first 

 three times is perhaps the most common method used in the 

 Corn Belt, excepting that we seldom stop between the second 

 and third plowings. If the first crop of clover is ready to 



