CORN LETTERS FROM THIRTY FARMERS 161 
getting a bad stand. I think the majority of us, in southeast Missouri, 
get in too big a rush and don’t get the land in proper shape for 
planting and plant before the ground gets warm. I think, as a rule, 
the last of April and first of May is early enough to plant corn. 
If I can possibly get the time I run the harrow over the land before 
the corn comes up, and as soon as it gets high enough so that I can 
plow with the cultivator and fenders on, I begin plowing the first time. 
The first time over I plow about five inches deep and try to get 
shallower every time till I lay it by. The last cultivation is with a 
dise run very shallow. I do most of my cultivating with small shovels 
and I really think they are best. I begin, as I said tefore, as soon 
as the corn will permit and cultivate every week until it is too tall 
to plow. I average plowing from six to eight times with the cultivator 
and generally lay by when the corn is four to five feet high. I don’t 
use any special implement, since I don’t go over the corn after laying 
it by, because I sow peas and soy beans in the cornfield. These 
nitrogen crops pay in more ways than one. First, the land gets the 
benefit of the roots, and second, it helps to keep up moisture. It 
also keeps the weeds down and the pasture is worth just about as 
much as the corn crop. 
Now some would think that we ought to sow more of our land 
down, but the most of this land is too sandy to grow clover or similar 
legumes. For this season we cannot practice a rotation of crops like 
is done further north. I remain 
Yours truly, E. B. WALLACE. 
Mr. Wallace makes a specialty of the growing of pure bred O. I. C. 
swine. 
Hartville, Missouri, May 2nd, 1913. 
W. T. Ainsworth & Sons, Mason City, Illinois. 
Dear Sirs:—In regard to corn growing I will write you to the 
best of my knowledge. 
In preparing my seed bed for corn I turn with a breaking plow, then 
drag and follow with a disc harrow, then drag again. Before starting 
to plant I plow out furrows, three feet eight inches apart, with a cul- 
NOTE: The writers of this book have three hundred and sixty acres 
of land in northeast Arkansas. Our farms are about fifteen miles from Mr. 
Wallace’s and the soil is very similar to his. Mr. Wallace tells a big truth 
when he states that cowpeas or soy beans should be planted between the rows 
of corn. We furnish soy bean seed to our tenants on these farms to encourage 
them in the growing of this legume. 
