CORN LETTERS FROM THIRTY FARMERS 161 



getting a bad stand. I think the majority of us, in southeast Missouri, 

 get in too big a rush and don't get the land in proper shape for 

 planting and plant before the ground gets warm. I think, as a rule, 

 the last of April and first of May is early enough to plant corn. 

 If I can possibly get the time I run the harrow over the land before 

 the corn comes up, and as soon as it gets high enough so that I can 

 plow with the cultivator and fenders on, I begin plowing the first time. 

 The first time over I plow about five inches deep and try to get 

 shallower every time till I lay it by. The last cultivation is with a 

 disc run very shallow. I do most of my cultivating with small shovels 

 and I really think they are best. I begin, as I said before, as soon 

 as the corn will permit and cultivate every week until it is too tall 

 to plow. I average plowing from six to eight times with the cultivator 

 and generally lay by when the corn is four to five feet high. I don't 

 use any special implement, since I don't go over the corn after laying 

 it by, because I sow peas and soy beans in the cornfield. These 

 nitrogen crops pay in more ways than one. First, the land gets the 

 benefit of the roots, and second, it helps to keep up moisture. It 

 also keeps the weeds down and the pasture is worth just about as 

 much as the corn crop. 



Now some would think that we ought to sow more of our land 

 down, but the most of this land is too sandy to grow clover or similar 

 legumes. For this reason we cannot practice a rotation of crops like 

 is done further north. I remain 



Yours truly, E. B. WALLACE. 



Mr. Wallace makes a specialty of the growing of pure bred O. I. C. 

 swine. 



Hartville, Missouri, May 2nd, 1913. 

 W. T. Ainsworth & Sons, Mason City, Illinois. 



Dear Sirs: In regard to corn growing I will write you to the 

 best of my knowledge. 



In preparing my seed bed for corn I turn with a breaking plow, then 

 drag and follow with a disc harrow, then drag again. Before starting 

 to plant I plow out furrows, three feet eight inches apart, with a cul- 



NOTE: The writers of this book have three hundred and sixty acres 

 of land in northeast Arkansas. Our farms are about fifteen miles from Mr. 

 Wallace's and the soil is very similar to his. Mr. Wallace tells a big truth 

 when he states that cowpeas or soy beans should be planted between the rows 

 of corn. We furnish soy bean seed to our tenants on these farms to encourage 

 them in the growing of this legume. 



