170 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



cultivations. In some regions, as many as five may be 

 needed. The ideal way is to stir the soil after each rain 

 as soon as it is fit to work, and to maintain a loose, mel- 

 low surface. In the middle West, the cultivation is most 

 commonly done with a two-horse cultivator that finishes 

 one row at a time. Wherever possible, two-horse cultivators 

 should be used. One-horse cultivators were all right when 

 men worked for 50 cents a day, but they should not now 

 be used except for small areas on small farms, or where 

 labor is still cheap and inefficient, as in the South. 



Perhaps there is no single point in the raising of corn 

 that has been the source of greater loss than too deep 

 cultivation. A large part of the roots of corn extend 

 nearly horizontally for some distance within four inches 

 of the surface of the soil. Deep cultivation cuts these 

 roots so much as to injure the crop. The substitution of 

 smaller shovels in recent years has done much to encour- 

 age shallow culture. The first cultivation may be deeper 

 than the later ones. The common practice of cultivating 

 deep and throwing the dirt to the rows when the corn is 

 "laid by" is very undesirable. The old shovel-plow that 

 digs off the surface soil, exposes the roots and leaves a 

 hard surface exposed is much worse. The only excuse 

 for these methods is to bury weeds in the row. These 

 weeds should have been killed at previous cultivations 

 or by the harrowing before or after planting. 



Sixty-one tests of deep cultivation at thirteen experi- 

 ment stations gave an average yield of 9.8 bushels per 

 acre less corn than shallow culture. In most cases, one to 

 two inches has been called shallow, and four or more 

 inches deep. 



