52 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
to make the dirt meet. The use of the furrow openers helps 
the corn to withstand a drouth since the root zone is devel- 
oped deeper in the soil. (See. frontispiece.) 
SECOND CULTIVATION 
The field is cross cultivated just as soon as we can get 
to it, and that is seldom soon enough. The cultivating is 
done with shovel plows, plowing from three to four inches 
deep if the corn is small and we are sure that we are not cut- 
ting any corn roots. If the corn is ten inches tall, we do 
not plow more than three inches deep unless the field is foul. 
It is not necessary to plow as close to the hill the second 
time over in order to make the dirt meet since the hill is 
on a level and not on a small ridge as would be the case 
had furrow openers not been used. 
THIRD CULTIVATION 
If rains have formed a crust on the ground, the third 
plowing is started just as soon as the last acre has been 
crossed. We do not like the corn to be more than eighteen 
inches high when it is plowed the third time. Unless we 
have a very wet season there are very few weeds to kill when 
we start on the third cultivation. Since the dirt should meet 
it is sometimes necessary to turn the shovels slightly inward 
but we try to throw up as small a ridge as possible. The 
shovels are run as shallow as is practicable. This plowing 
is easy and fast teams often average as much as nine acres 
in one day. 
For the third cultivation the corn is plowed the same 
way it is planted. Our method of plowing corn the first 
three times is perhaps the most common method used in the 
Corn Belt, excepting that we seldom stop between the second 
and third plowings. If the first crop of clover is ready to 
