28 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
An example of a field that required a great deal of work 
was a blue-grass sod that we plowed shallow in the fall. This 
field was double pulverized twice, harrowed three times and 
rolled once—and then was not in good shape for planting 
the corn. The winter was dry and the sod did not rot as 
it usually does. If this field could have been plowed about 
five or six inches deep it would not have required so much 
work in the spring. We know of a stalk field where the stock 
were allowed to run late, that broke up so cloddy that it re- 
quired six alternate rollings and harrowings to make a seed 
bed. Although there were some clods left, the field produced 
eighty-five bushels to the acre and the farmer was well paid 
for his thorough work. 
Frank Mann sums up this situation when he says: ‘‘There 
is no way to get ground in good condition except to work it, 
and the worse condition it is in the more work is needed.”’ 
Some soils require more work than others. Additional 
implements can be purchased on short notice, but men and 
horses have to be arranged for in advance. One can never 
tell how much time one will have in which to prepare ground 
in the spring for corn. In this latitude we do well to get 
our oats in by the fifth of April. If the weather is favorable 
and the ground warm, we start planting corn by the fifth 
of May. If wet weather kept us out of the field a week or 
ten days in April, we have only three weeks in which to 
prepare the corn ground. In our own practice we average 
using one horse for every eight acres that we intend to put 
in corn. Some of these are brood mares and are used only 
during the preparation of the seed bed, when every imple- 
ment requires four horses. We consider this ratio about 
right for the average season. Sometimes we could get along 
with fewer horses, but more often it would pay us to have 
more. 
