146 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



are now in use that open the furrow and plant the 

 seed at one operation. Special narrow cultivators 

 have also been devised that work in the sides of these 

 deep lister furrows, gradually filling them as the 

 plant grows, so that when laid by, the land is left 

 nearly level. This system is excellent for the special 

 conditions where it has been developed and it might 

 be profitably used n^uch more widely, especially in 

 tropical countries during the dry season. It would 

 be admirably adapted to such soils as the Cuban red 

 lands that have such remarkable natural drainage. 



Not so many years ago corn was all planted by 

 hand. The farmer opened a shallow furrow with 

 the plow, girls and small boys dropjDcd the seed, 

 and it was covered with hoes. When the grass and 

 weeds got high enough to be in danger of hiding the 

 row, it was " barred off " by running a one-horse 

 turning plow with the bar to the row, thus piling up 

 the dirt in the middles. The row was next cleared 

 with the hoe, and two or three weeks later it was " laid 

 by " by plowing the dirt back to the row and ridging 

 it up as much as possible. This w^ould now be consid- 

 ered barbarous treatment, and it is no longer seen 

 except in some modified form on rough new stump 

 lands where no other method is possible, and yet such 

 is the natural vigor and bounty of the corn plant that 

 our fathers and grandfathers usually contrived to 

 keep full corn cribs before check-row planters and 

 two-horse cultivators were even dreamed of. The once 

 almost universal custom of '' barring off " the young 

 corn is now considered under ordinary circumstances 

 to be quite harmful, since it unduly exposes the soil 



