PLANTING AND CULTIVATING THE CORN CROP 247 



droughts are common or in regions of scanty rainfall a 

 depth of 3 or 4 inches may be necessary. Whatever the 

 conditions, the desired depth of mulch should be estab- 

 lished while the corn is young and no attempt should be 

 made to deepen it later in the season; such a practice is 

 siu-e to check the growth of the crop by mutilating its 

 root-system. 



Corn should be cultivated often enough to keep down 

 weeds, and maintain constantly a loose mulch on the soil. 

 In humid regions this usually necessitates cultivating the 

 crop every ten to twelve days. As a rule the cultivations 

 are given less frequently than is desirable. 



301. Value of late cultivation. — Most farmers "lay 

 by" corn too soon. Conditions often demand that the 

 crop be cultivated after the plants are tasseling. These 

 late cultivations should be exceptionally shallow. The 

 prejudice that has sprung up against cultivating corn 

 late is due largely to a disregard for proper precautions, 

 especially as regards depth of cultivating. At this season 

 the roots are very near the surface. This is especially 

 true if the later part of the growing season has been ex- 

 cessively rainy. 



302. Kinds of ctxltivators. — Cultivators are of two 

 general types: shovel cultivators and disk cultivators. 

 The evolution of the shovel cultivator is briefly siun- 

 marized in the following statement by Montgomery: ^ 



"The first horse cultivators were single shovel plows 

 consisting of a very broad mold-board shovel mounted on a 

 beam, with handles to guide. Later two narrower shovels 

 were substituted for the single broad shovel. Though this 

 was an improvement, it was still necessary to go twice 

 in each row for thorough cultivation. Later two of these 

 1 Montgomery, E. G., " Corn Crops,' p. 199. 



