No. 4. J CATTLE FOODS. 49 



Mr. Stoddard. I alluded to the amount of manure put 

 on the land. I felt that he was going over a great deal of 

 land for the amount of manure. You must feed your soil if 

 you want a good crop, just as you must feed your cow if you 

 want her to produce milk. 



It seems to me that in growing corn we should plough our 

 ground to a pretty good depth, so that the heat of the sun 

 will go down deep, and .if there should be a dry spell when 

 the soil has been stirred only some four or five inches down, 

 the roots of the plant do not get down deep. Plough your 

 ground twice and harrow it four or five times before plant- 

 ing. A crop well cultivated is half grown. Manure the 

 ground when it is planted and harrow it with a wheel harrow 

 or any other, but do it thoroughly. Do not be in too much 

 of a hurry to plant the seed, but when the land is ready 

 then harrow it and immediately plant it. Do not plant your 

 ground before a rain, but harrow it after a rain and plant it 

 after that, so that the seed will have a good chance to start, 

 and the seed will usually come up quickly when planted in 

 that way. 



I am now speaking of raising corn without hoeing, which 

 has been my custom. You know out West it is the rule that 

 one man can take care of forty acres of corn. A boy sixteen 

 years old can do it, and so can a man, and he cannot do any 

 more. It is the custom in the West, in raising corn, as 

 perhaps most of you know, to plant the corn, as Professor 

 Eoberts has stated, with a two-horse planter, planting two 

 rows at a time, and many have got into the practice of har- 

 rowing that corn ; but at the time I lived there, some fifteen 

 years ago, it was the practice to let the field remain until the 

 oorn got up some four inches, which is very soon, for corn 

 grows much faster there than it does here. The next time 

 they will go through the field with the harrow the other 

 way. It is the rule at the West to go over a corn field once 

 a week, and to stop cultivating it about the first of July, so 

 that the man who has taken care of his forty acres of corn 

 and has other work on hand can go al)out that. But I feel 

 that here in New England we can compete with the West 

 and South in raising corn. 



In regard to corn fodder, which has been so ably spoken 



