FARM PRJ JTICE IN THE CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



65 



cane are grown only on the bottom lands. In collecting the data 

 shown in Table XXX only those farms which grow corn were 

 visited. Some alfalfa is grown on the bottom lands and in favor- 

 able seasons does well. 



Most of the land is farmed by the owners, or the farmer may own a 

 farm and rent other land in addition. The average size of the farms 

 visited in this county is 655 acres, with 331 acres under cultivation. 

 These farms are somewhat larger than the average for this region. 

 The land in this section is very fertile and productive, and the limit- 

 ing factor in crop yields is the amount of rainfall. 



The bottom-land farmers, because they can grow forage crops, 

 keep more cattle and swine than the upland farmers, and their 

 sources of farm income are cattle, hogs, and wheat. For the upland 

 farms the income is principally from wheat. Xot enough fruit or 

 truck is grown to supply home demands. 



The tillage methods with corn here are exceptionally uniform 

 and represent the methods employed throughout the semiarid region 

 of western Kansas and western 

 Nebraska. Corn usually follows 

 corn or kafir. The land is gen- 

 erally harrowed in the spring 

 with a disk harrow, and without 

 plowing or further preparation 

 corn is planted with a 4-horse 

 combination lister and planter. 

 This planter has a double mold- 

 board and usually runs about 5 

 inches deep, throwing the dirt 

 in both directions, and the corn 

 is planted in the bottom of this 

 furrow. The rows are usually 

 '■'>\ feet apart, with one stalk 

 every 18 or 20 inches in the 

 drill. In opening up this furrow most of the land is broken, but there 

 is a strip directly between the rows which is not plowed. This strip 

 is broken up during the cultivation. 



Alter the roin is up, the first cultivation is most often given with 

 a i-horse 2-row disk cultivator designed for cultivating listed corn. 

 At this cultivation the dirt is thrown away from the corn and the 

 ridges made higher. These ridges are next harrowed with a spike- 

 toot li harrow or plank drag and partly torn down. The next culti- 

 vation i- given with the same -1 -horse 2-row cultivator, with the disks 

 adjusted 30 as to throw dirt to t\\f Corn, tearing down the ridges 

 between the rows. The next and last cultivation is usually given 



Fig. 40. — A 2-horse 4-shovel cultivator with 

 sweeps attached instead of shovels. This 

 implement is extensively used in cultivat- 

 ing corn in Texas and Oklahoma. 



