PREPARING THE SEED-BED FOR CORN 231 



cutter. This is an implement with one or two heavy 

 revolving cylinders set with knives that cut the stalks in 

 short lengths. The stalk-cutter is sometimes followed with 

 a disk-harrow. (2) By breaking down the stalks with a 

 log or heavy iron rail, and following with a sharp disk to 

 cut them up. (3) Corn stalks may be cut into two or three 

 sections with a hoe and the cotton stalks broken by beat- 

 ing them with a heavy stick during the frosty mornings 

 of winter. 



280. Time of plowing. Soils may be divided into 

 two classes as regards the most desirable time of plowing 

 for corn. (1) Those soils that are best plowed in the fall 

 or early winter. (2) Soils that may be satisfactorily plowed 

 in late 'winter or early spring. . . 



Soils that are advantageously plowed in the fall or early 

 winter are (1) heavy clays; (2) soils covered with large 

 quantities of stubble or crop residue in any form, and (3) 

 land infested with the larvae of injurious insects. 



Fall plowing makes available the large stores of potential 

 fertility in clay soils. The free circulation of air through 

 these soils during the winter months permits important 

 chemical changes, such as oxidation, to take place whereby 

 those elements of plant-food that are tenaciously held in 

 combination with other matter are changed into new forms 

 easily absorbed by plants. By the same processes com- 

 pounds deleterious to plant growth are destroyed. The 

 soil is also permitted to absorb readily and store up for 

 future use the winter's heavy rainfall. 



Plowing under large quantities of organic matter in 

 the fall or early winter gives sufficient time for this sub- 

 stance to decompose before the growing season. Thus 

 the plant-food constituents contained in the organic 

 matter are available to the crop, and in addition the acid 



