PREPARING THE SEED BED 27 
On most soils, with a normal amount of rainfall in the 
spring, the roller is not needed to prepare the seed bed for 
corn. Two harrowings with a double discing between, just 
before planting, will put the seed bed in ideal shape three 
years out of four. 
We seldom roll directly ahead of the planter and never 
behind. Our experience has been that rolling causes the 
weeds to start quickly, which is not desirable after the corn 
is planted. Some implement should precede directly ahead 
of the planter in order to get a last whack at sprouted weed 
seeds before planting. If disc markers are used, the driver 
of the planter will have a plain mark in the freshly worked 
dirt. The use of the disc marker does away with the necessity 
of rolling in order to see the mark. 
Have SUFFICIENT EQUIPMENT 
* 
We know by experience that sufficient time is not often 
given to the preparation of the seed bed before planting. This 
is due mostly to having more ground in corn than ean properly 
be prepared and tended. In the corn belt, where corn is king, 
it takes nearly twice as many horses and men to handle eighty 
acres of corn as it does to handle forty acres. Very often 
it is better to cut down the corn acreage rather than go to 
the expense of buying more equipment. 
The farmer should be prepared to handle his field work on 
unusual seasons when additional work is required to make 
a proper seed bed. No one can say beforehand how much 
work will be required to get a field in shape for planting. 
A field of clover sod that is plowed in the fall can sometimes 
be put in good shape with a single discing and one or two 
harrowings. It is usually better, however, to double disc if 
for no other reason than that the ground is left level. 
