PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 193 



There is no better implement for the first time between rows 

 than the subsoil plow, once, twice or three times, according to 

 circumstances. If the corn was planted by a subsoiler mark, 

 once between the rows will do. If it was planted upon a mere 

 surface mark, it will pay to run the subsoiler close to each side 

 of a row, once in the middle. After that, use Knox's horse hoe, 

 or some other scarifying implement, as often as you please, par- 

 ticularly in case of a drouth, until the corn is large enough to 

 overshadow weeds, and then let it rest. 



I never would hill corn, nor anything else. My motto is level 

 culture, and such preparation of corn ground as to fit it so as to 

 require but little after cultivation. 



"VVm. S. Carpenter. — The subsoil plow is one of the best of all 

 implements in the cornfield, as I have proved to my entire satis- 

 faction. I also advocate local culture. I harvest my corn by 

 cutting it up as soon as the kernels are glazed. It is set up in 

 shocks where it grows, and it never should be hauled off" and set 

 upon sod ground to cure, as I have known some crops spoiled by 

 thus transferring the shocks. 



The Chairman said that the butts of the stalks set on the soft 

 earth served to keep them green, and so perfect the grain. 



Mr. Fuller inquired if any one had sufi'ered from drouth this 

 year upon land that had been worked two feet deep. He stated 

 that he set cauliflowers upon land that was poor and gravelly, 

 which was dug two feet and they did very well. 



WHAT IS A GOOD CROP OF OATS? 



Solon Robinson. — I ask what is considered a good crop of oats, 

 partly for information and partly to impart some, about growing 

 oats. I have never, until this year, grown any in this part of the 

 M^orld, and perhaps I don't know how. When I was a boy in 

 Connecticut, I used to help split the corn hills in the spring, and 

 upon that three pecks of oats being sown, the ground was some- 

 times harrowed and sometimes very slightly plowed, and the oats 

 grew, but not very large, I think. But I don't remember what 

 was considered a good crop. I don't think that was a good way 

 to grow oats, though I have seen it practiced in later years. Now 

 I will tell how I practiced, and the result, and let others judge 

 which is best, their practice or mine. I thought this last spring 

 that I should want a little piece of oats for soiling, and directed 

 my English farmer where to put them in, partly upon a very hard 

 worked piece of gravelly land, where I tried to grow corn last 



[Am. Inst.J M 



