410 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



is the amount of unsuited or unimproved areas frequently embraced 

 within the boundaries of fields planted to corn. In many cornfields 

 throughout the country may be seen portions or spots on which it is 

 impossible for corn to thrive. These may be clayey spots, or swampy 

 or undrained areas, or ground adjacent to timber. It is too great a 

 waste of labor to plow, harrow, and cultivate such unproductive spots. 

 They should be improved so that they will yield a profit, or they 

 should not be planted at all. The poor clay spots should be enriched, 

 the swampy places drained or filled, and the corn should be planted 

 farther from the timber, with a strip of timber grass next to the trees. 

 Many farms could be made more profitable by rearranging the fields 

 in order to make them more uniform as regards moisture and soil 

 fertility, so that the entire field may be treated as the character of 

 the soil may demand. No field can be well tended if the corn rows 

 extend through a portion top wet for cultivation when another portion 

 is in best condition for cultivation. 



Soil Washing and Its Prevention. More land has been rendered 

 unfit for corn growing by the washing away of the surface soil than 

 by constant cropping. Soil washing must be guarded against if prof- 

 itable crops are to be harvested from the same field for a number of 

 years, and with proper attention in this respect the farm may be made 

 tetter year by year. The effect of heavy rains is to wash out gullies 

 and ditches and to carry away the soil and plant food as muddy water. 

 If this is allowed to continue unchecked the lightest and most fertile 

 portion of the soil is carried away and the land becomes less produc- 

 tive from year to year. One heavy rain will sometimes carry away 

 from a field more soil than a man with a team and wagon could re- 

 store in a week. 



It should not be supposed that because land is rolling or hilly, 

 washing must take place. Some very hilly sections which have deep 

 porous soils, full of humus, wash but little, and that only when the 

 ground is frozen to a considerable depth and thaws on the surface. 

 Hard soils that do not readily take up the water that falls upon them 

 wash much more than loose porous soils. The most effective means 

 of preventing washing is to cover the soil with vegetation and loosen 

 the subsoil so that the rainfall can penetrate and be absorbed instead 

 of running off. The rows of corn, moreover, should run at right 

 angles to the direction of the slope. Terraces, when properly placed 

 and well constructed, are effective barriers to soil washing, and their 

 use is to be encouraged. These methods could be profitably employed 

 on the sloping lands near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It is the 

 desire of most farmers to have straight corn rows, and on level lands 

 this is preferable, but on hills better success will be obtained by run- 

 ning the rows at the same level around the hills. This will neces- 

 sitate curved rows, but the curves will usually not be abrupt enough 

 to make cultivation difficult; in fact, cultivation is thus rendered 

 much easier, since it is not necessary to plow up and down the hill, 

 which, to prevent soil washing, should always be avoided. 



Absorption of Rainfall. The carrying away of soluble plant 

 food and lighter portions of soil is not the only objectionable feature 



