No. 4.] CATTLE FOODS. 39 



raise quite as much corn as we can in the drill, if the hot 

 weather comes the grass catches me, and the weeds, and then 

 I have got to put in the hoe, and the most expensive kind of 

 farming is to farm witli human muscle. I want to avoid that, 

 and so I check-row my corn so that my workmen may go in 

 both ways. I begin with a two-horse cultivator, and weed 

 this fiekl before the corn comes up, four days after it is 

 planted, or six days, or ten days, according to the season, 

 whether it is cold weather, or whether it is warm. We 

 plant a Western corn, which comes up quicker than our na- 

 tive corn. I do not pack that ground down as I would if it 

 were a field of wheat, ])ecause winter wheat wants a good 

 hard foundation, with a little soil on it, but a hill of corn 

 wants heat ; so I leave my soil just as loose as I can at this 

 time, and then after it is planted I take a two-horse corn 

 cultivator, and I know exactly where the corn is, because 

 this little roll tells me where it is that the corn planter 

 left it through the field, and I cultivate it l)ack and leave 

 it corrugated and rough, because that lets the ground get 

 warm and dry out. That makes the weeds get out of the 

 way, and this one cultivating does more than any other 

 cultivating that I do. I harrow the s^round after a little, or 

 I may turn round immediately and harrow it, and as quick 

 as the corn is up to a satisfactory height I replough the 

 straight way, — the Avay I planted it. I cultivate it then, 

 using a one-horse cultivator Avith very small teeth, not much 

 larger than harrow teeth, because when the man drives 

 through the field I want him to cultivate the corn and 

 not the middle of the row. There is nothing there, and 

 I do not care anvthimr about it ; I can attend to that later. 

 I want him to go so close to the corn as to make every hill 

 treni1)le. That is the time when a day or an hour in the 

 field is worth a great deal. Then I cultivate it from time to 

 time, using sometimes one horse and sometimes two, accord- 

 ing to the lay of the land and the character of the soil. I go 

 through that corn field about five times, and if it is properly 

 done, with proper implements, it has good clean culture, and 

 if there is a weed here and there I am not very particular 

 about it, unless there are two weeds, and then I pull them 

 out. Sometimes I pull out Canada thistles. There are apt 

 to be a few Canada thistles in our field. 



