98 How THE FARM PAYS. 



500 pounds per acre, sowed in the furrows. Two bushels of White 

 Southern Corn is sown per acre, or a good handful to every step. I 

 have found this variety to be the best for soiling. The work of 

 spreading the manure in the furrows, sowing the corn and covering, 

 should all follow each other in quick succession, so as to prevent the 

 land or manure from drying up before the crop is in. The brush 

 harrow with the brush taken out (shown on a previous page) is the 

 best implement to be used to cover the grain lightly. I formerly cov- 

 ered with the plow, throwing a furrow up to each side of the drill; 

 but I find that the lighter it is covered, the freer it is from 

 rot or injury. After covering, it is rolled in the usual manner. 

 In this section the first crop is sown about the last of May 

 and others every two weeks in succession until the middle 



FURROW MARKER FOR CORN. 



of June, when I put in a larger quantity for drying for winter 

 feed. It is cultivated once a week until it gets too large for a 

 horse to pass through it, which will be with that sown in May about 

 the first week in July, and for that sown in June, about the 1st of 

 August. No more work is required until the corn is ready to cut 

 and cure, which is from the 1st to the 15th of September, the corn 

 at this time being tasseled out, and in the best stage for curing. I 

 formerly cut with a mowing machine, taking two rows at a time ; 

 but of late years I have found that it is more expensive and entails 

 more labor to gather it and shock it, after the machine, than when cut 

 with corn hook and carried direct to the shock. Each man takes 

 two rows at a time, carries his armful to the shock, which should be 

 close by, plants it as straight on the end as possible, and so on until 

 there is about 500 pounds in the shock. We then take a strong 

 hemp rope, with an eye in one end, through which the other end is 

 passed, and draw it tightly around the middle of the shock, and then 



