FARM PRACTICE IN THE CULTIVATION OP CORN. 



13 



Fig. 3. — A stalk cutter. This implement is 

 used, before plowing, for chopping up 

 stalks and other vegetable matter on the 

 land. 



purpose as tile drains, but occup} 7 much land that might be culti- 

 vated if tiling were used. It is probable that this land will be tiled 

 when the relative value of the land occupied by the open 

 ditches is equal to the cost of the tiles. 



Tile drainage is practiced extensively only on the most 

 productive soils where land values are extremely high, as 

 in the corn belt of Indiana and 

 Illinois. 



Tillage before plowing is prac- 

 ticed most often to break up the 

 stalks left from the previous 

 crop. Where the stalks (mostly 

 cotton and corn) grow rank, 

 better plowing can be done and 

 this vegetable matter decays 

 more quickly if broken up be- 

 fore plowing. These stalks are 

 usually cut with a disk harrow 

 or stalk cutter (fig. 3). In a few 

 localities tillage before plowing 

 is practiced to conserve moisture 

 and to prevent the land from 

 breaking up cloddy, as in western Kansas, where the land is har- 

 rowed with a disk in the spring and the corn is planted with a lister 

 without further preparation. 



PLOWING. 



The choice of time for plowing, whether in the fall or spring, is 

 governed largely by the character of the crop which occupies the 

 land the previous year and by the type of soil. When corn follows sod, 



more land is generally plowed 

 in the fall than when corn fol- 

 lows some cultivated crop. When 

 land is plowed in the fall it is 

 usually broken deeper than when 

 plowed in the spring. 



In some sections corn land is 



Fir;. 4.— A lister, or middle Luster, an 1m- plowed in the fall and replowed 

 plemenl extensively used in the south- j u t ] ie spr i n g before planting. 

 western com states. . . . - , . 



I his practice is recorded m 



Table VI under "Fall and spring plowing." In a few sections 



the land is sometimes plowed in the I'all and then listed in the 



spring with either a middle buster (fig. 4) or a combined lister and 



planter (fig. b">), which is almost equivalent to rebreaking. This 



practice IS quite general in the Texas and Oklahoma areas and to 

 -.<»me extent in the Kansas area. 



