GRAIN CttOPS. 75 



harrow, six acres per day, in TOWS from 4 to 5J feet apart 

 can be put in by a man with a one-horse machine, without 

 exposing the soil to a dry atmosphere. In other cases drills 

 are marked and opened with plough or hoe, seed scattered 

 in by hand, and covered with the harrow or hoe, and the 

 crop worked to maturity as in he preceding plan. 



Cultivation. To allow the crop a fair start, it is 

 customary in good farming to harrow just before sowing, 

 " that corn and weeds may have an equal chance," as the 

 saying is." Some farmers go a step further than this, and 

 harrow again after the corn is up above grqund. It seems 

 to be rough practice with the ordinary vertical-toothed 

 harrow, as a glance at the form of the teeth will explain; 

 the crop is torn of necessity before the weeds could be 

 got out ; but still it is considered better practice than 

 allowing the two to struggle for mastery, and hand-hoeing 

 for corn is out of the question the crop would not stand 

 the expense. In America the same difficulty was 

 experienced, and to overcome it the smoothing or weeding 

 harrow, with teeth sloping backwards, came into use. As 

 the crop advances the plants are thinned or pulled until they 

 stand 6 to 12 inches apart, according to the strength of the 

 soil, and the cultivation is then carried on to maturity with 

 the harrow, single-horse ploughs, cultivators, or hoes. 



Harvesting. Farmers in the damp, tropical sections 

 where heavy crops are grown, know that it is more difficult 

 to preserve than to grow the grain during the summer 

 season. Whether one, two, or three crops are gathered it 

 the course of the year, the main yield is ripe during the hot 

 months, in January or February, when the weevil, the pest 

 of pests to the grain farmer in warm countries, is very 

 active. But before investigating the proclivities of the 

 weevil, it will be well to follow the cobs from the pulling in 

 the field to the barn. They are shot upon the floor, the 

 grain being thoroughly protected by the wrappers around 

 the cobs. These wrappers are stripped or husked by hand. 

 Any one who has the use of both hands can husk corn, 

 which is merely tearing the wrappers from the cobs ; but 

 some operators get wonderfully expert at it. An average 

 day's work of a good hand (and amongst the best hands are 



