CHAPTER XVII. 

 Fall Cultivation. 



Fail Cultivation Having given the cultivation, harvesting and 



Hoe r crops. storing of the hoe crops grown on No. 3 section in 

 the rotation for mixed farming, it will now be in 

 order to give the fall cultivation of the land after 

 corn and roots, which is to be followed by spring 

 grain. 



If the corn land is free from weeds, all that is 

 required is to rib the land with the drill plow or the 

 ribbing attachment on the frame of a cultivator, as 

 shown in previous illustrations, making the ribs 

 twenty or twenty-one inches wide, so that there will 

 be a row of corn roots in each alternate rib. 



If the land is not perfectly free from weeds, the 

 land may be cultivated across with a stiff-tooth 

 cultivator to turn out the corn roots, so that the 

 land may be harrowed and cultivated with the wide 

 points, then ribbed, so as to put all the corn roots 

 and surface soil in the centre of the narrow ribs. 



By so doing the soluble fertility is prevented 

 from leaching away during the winter, as the rains 

 and melting snows will run off in the furrows without 

 carrying away any of the humus. 



Another advantage is that this allows the frost 

 into the subsoil to loosen it. Land ribbed in the fall 

 will dry out much earlier in the spring, and will 

 make a much better seed-bed. 



Root land cannot always be cultivated in fall, 

 on account of the tops. Especially is this true of 

 turnip land. If there should be an occasional thistle 

 or any other weed, it may be cut off with a hoe or 

 spud; but, if at all possible, cultivate all root land 

 with the wide point before ribbing in the fall. 



