26 



BULLETIN 320, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



After planting, the cultivation methods are very uniform. When 

 the corn is up, the field is usually gone over with the spike-tooth 

 harrow or roller and then cultivated three times with a 2-horse 6 or 

 8 shovel cultivator (fig. 23). The cultivating is generally level. 



The yellow dent varieties of corn are usually grown. 



Some commercial fertilizer is used and considerable stable manure 

 is produced and applied broadcast. Cover crops are seldom grown. 



The most prevalent weeds found in this region are foxtail, rag- 

 weed, pigweed, wild carrot, whitetop, and buttonweed. 



SURVEYS IN MERCER COUNTY, N. J. 



The records for Mercer County, N". J., were taken mostly in the 

 potato-growing sections south of Trenton. (Table XII.) The soil 

 here is principally of a sandy-loam nature, with a clay subsoil. Occa- 

 sionally this clay is underlain with gravel. The land is rolling 



enough to afford good natural 

 drainage, except in the bottoms, 

 where it is necessary to use tile. 

 These bottom lands are practi- 

 cally all tiled. The country is 

 level enough to enable the farm- 

 ers to have fields of uniform size 

 and shape and to use improved 

 machinery to good advantage. 



The county is generally pros- 

 perous. Most farmers have good 

 houses, good rural schools are 

 maintained, and the principal 

 roads have been macadamized. 



The soil, being of a porous 

 character, is rather low in humus 

 content, and responds readily to 

 a humus supply of any kind. Large quantities of commercial fer- 

 tilizer are used on potatoes and corn and mostly applied in the drill 

 before planting. 



The tillage practices and rotations are of a rather definite type in 

 this region. Nearly all the farms maintain a rotation of corn one 

 year, potatoes one year, rye or wheat one year, and hay one or two 

 years. Considerable truck and fruit is grown near Trenton and on 

 some farms this furnishes the principal income, but the source of in- 

 come on most farms is from potatoes and rye. 



Corn is usually grown on sod land, and about 75 per cent of the 

 breaking is done in the spring. Most of the land is then harrowed 



Fig. 23. — A 2-horse, 8-shovel cultivator. 



