48 CORN CULTURE 



different methods of culture necessary. Our results of the 

 past season, which was a phenomenally dry one, are decidedly 

 in favor of shallow culture. In a table on a following page, 

 we have grouped the tests of the several stations and classified 

 them according to results favoring deep or shallow cultivation. 



PREPARATION OF SOIL 



One month after the corn was planted the experiments were 

 begun. All plots were plowed November 12 and 13, 1898. 

 The soil was a sandy loam, with good drainage, slightly sloping 

 to the south and west. Before plowing it had been manured 

 at the rate of 20 tons per acre. In the following spring it was 

 harrowed with disc and smoothing harrows several times and 

 rolled once. 



At planting time it was in as perfect form as possible to 

 make it. On May 12 it was planted to Leaming corn. All 

 the plots received identically the same treatment; in fact, the 

 area for the experiment was not divided into plots until one 

 month after planting time. Up to that time all plots were 

 cultivated alike. Five days after planting, a light smoothing 

 harrow was run over to destroy the weeds that were germinat- 

 ing at or near the surface of the ground. This same operation 

 was repeated at a later date, when the corn was all up and 

 some of it an inch or more in height. 



This culture gave the corn a good start over the weeds. Be- 

 tween May 24 and June 13 the weeder was used twice. The 

 experiment proper began at the latter date, when the area was 

 divided into plots of ten rows each, extending across the sec- 

 tion of the field. 



EXPLANATION OF PLOTS 



Plot I. This plot during the remainder of the growing 

 season received no culture at all. Weeds were permitted to 

 grow and as freely as they would. It was a surprising fact 

 to us, that even with the start the corn had, with all weeds 

 kept out for a month, the latter soon caught up with the 

 former in growth, and by the first of August there was a tan- 

 gled mass of corn and weeds which continued until harvest 

 time. 



