58 



BULLETIN 320, U. S. DEPAETME1STT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



the land. Especially is this true when corn follows corn or cotton. 

 For such work a 3-horse or -i-horse team is used and the plow em- 

 ployed has a broad shovel which breaks practically all the row. No 

 difference in the yield is noted from the different methods of prepar- 

 ing the land. About 90 per cent of the corn is listed and planted in 

 drills 3 to 3^ feet apart with one stalk every 18 inches in the drill. 

 After planting, a spike- tooth harrow is frequently used just as 

 the corn comes up. A disk cultivator especially designed for culti- 

 vating listed corn is extensively used for the first cultivation. The 

 1-row cultivator of this type (fig. 36) is constructed on a sled which 

 straddles the corn row and protects the corn plants from being cov- 

 ered with dirt from the disk cul- 

 tivators which run on either side 

 of the row. The 2-horse 4 and 

 6 shovel cultivators and disk cul- 

 tivators are used for the later 

 cultivations. A few farms use 

 a 1-horse 5-shovel cultivator. 

 Usually three or four cultiva- 

 tions are given. After the corn 

 gets too high to cultivate, some 

 farmers will, with one horse, 

 drag a mowing-machine wheel 

 between the rows, which destroys 

 nearly all the small weeds and 

 forms a shallow dust mulch. 



Practically no cover crops are 

 grown and no commercial fer- 

 tilizer is used. 



The yellow dent varieties of 

 corn are principally grown. 

 The most prevalent weeds are 

 smartweed, crab-grass, ragweed, bull nettle, artichoke, and Johnson 

 grass. 



SURVEYS IN PIKE COUNTY, ALA. 



The tillage records for Alabama (Table XXVIII) were taken in 

 Pike County near Troy. The soil in this region is of a sandy or 

 sandy-loam type, usually dark red in color, and underlain with a red- 

 dish sand-clay subsoil. The land is very irregular and in some 

 places extremely rolling. Drainage is principally obtained by means 

 of numerous terraces, which divide the fields into small, irregular- 

 shaped areas. These terraces are usually about 25 yards apart and 

 are so constructed that they can not be worked over. On most of 

 them Bermuda grass is grown to prevent erosion. 



Fig. 36. — A type of 2-horse disk cultivator 

 used in Oklahoma and western Kansas 

 for cultivating listed corn. 



