HARVESTING CORN 



77 



were two principal reasons for this belief : First, sulky culti- 

 vators cannot well be used at that time; second, corn growers, 

 not realizing the loss that might come from cutting off corn 

 roots, found that cultivating the corn after it had reached 

 that state usually resulted in injury rather than benefit to 

 the crop. It has now been quite definitely shown that this 



Figure 28. 



Hnsikinp oorn from the standing stalks, the usual method of 

 harvesting. 



injury was due to the cutting off of roots and to no other 

 reason. Many good corn growers now find it very profit- 

 able to go through their corn fields quite late in the season 

 with a one-horse, fi.ne-tooth cultivator and stir the surface 

 soil quite thorough^, thus retarding evaporation and giv- 

 ing the corn a larger supply of moisture at the time it is 

 most needed; that is, when it is forming ears. If care is 

 exercised not to cut off the roots, it is perfectly safe to cul- 

 tivate corn at any time during the growing season. 



HARVESTING CORN 



94. Picking. A large percentage of the corn grown in the 

 corn belt is harvested by picking the ears from the standing 



