GROWING CULTIVATED CROPS IN DRY AREAS 271 



after such grain to grow a crop of corn, but this will 

 seldom occur. Such a result need not be feared with 

 a rainfall of 12 to 15 inches on land properly prepared, 

 providing the larger proportion of the rainfall is in the 

 growing season. The place more commonly assigned to 

 corn will doubtless be after small grain. 



Corn should almost invariably be followed by small 

 grain or by alfalfa. The moisture conserved by the culti- 

 vation given to the corn insures the success of the grain 

 crop when it is properly grown. It would be safe to 

 say that where the rainfall is from 12 to 15 inches, as 

 good crops of small grains may be obtained after corn 

 as after the bare-fallow. Where the rainfall is between 

 15 and 20 inches, as in some parts of the Dakotas and 

 western Canada, the grain crops that follow corn are 

 frequently better than those grown on fallow land, be- 

 cause of the tendency to lodging in grain grown on the 

 latter. 



Preparing the soil. The preparation that puts the 

 land in the best condition for growing a crop of corn 

 will depend on the place given to this crop in the rotation. 

 When corn is planted on new breaking or on any kind oi 

 sod land, the best crops will be obtained from land that 

 has been broken the previous year and handled on the 

 summer-fallowed plan (see p. 168). But good crops of 

 corn may be usually grown on such land when spring- 

 plowed, providing the plowing is done at a depth that 

 will admit of making a fine and good seed bed, and that 

 it is done sufficiently early to give ample time for making- 

 such a seed bed. The land should be plowed deeply, not 

 less than 6 inches, and as early in the season as the work 

 can be profitably done. It should be at once compressed, 

 disced and harrowed, so as to make about 3 inches of 

 fine soil on the surface. When the land is plowed thus 

 deeply, the sods will be buried so far as not to interfere 

 seriously with the after processes of cultivation. If 



