26 PRACTICAL CORN CULTURE 
As we have stated, each day’s plowing is harrowed the 
next morning. If a hard rain comes, all the ground pre- 
viously plowed is again harrowed before proceeding with the 
plowing. If the rainfall is very heavy and many weeds have 
started, the ground is single pulverized in place of being 
harrowed. 
This year we had no rain on over two hundred acres 
from the time the ground was plowed until after the corn 
was planted. This was a period of four weeks without even 
a shower. No amount of work could make an ideal seed 
bed under such conditions. We did what we could to 
pulverize the soil and conserve what moisture we had. After 
the ground had been plowed and harrowed twice, it was rolled 
with a corrugated roller. This was followed immediately with 
the dise harrows lapping half. 
When the discing was finished, the ground was harrowed 
cross-wise of the discing. This harrowing pulled most of 
the clods to the top. For this reason we followed the harrow 
with a second rolling. The fields were then harrowed twice 
by lapping half and followed immediately by the planter 
equipped with furrow openers. 
Double discing is a slow operation. At the same time, it 
is the best implement we know with which to preserve mois- 
ture, facilitate seed bed preparation, and hasten decay of 
organic matter. A sharp, bright dise with the levers set well 
forward will work in and through the furrow slice; while 
smoothing harrows and corrugated rollers work only the sur- 
face. Four good horses and an eight-foot dise harrow will 
double disc (lapping half each time and leaving the ground 
level) forty acres in five days. Repeated discings, by keep- 
ing down all vegetable growth, will destroy, by starvation and 
exposure, all such insects as the corn-root louse, cutworms 
and grubworms. 
