PLANTING. 95 



menced until planting time, when the lister is used in the 

 hollows or middles between the old corn rows, or else on fall- 

 plowed land, where the lister is run through the field from 

 three to four feet apart, according to the soil, kind of corn 

 planted, and judgment of, the operator. The single method 

 seems better adapted to sections of uncertain rainfall, being 

 only one-half the labor of the double plow, which is as fol- 

 lows: As soon as the stalks are cleared from the field in the 

 spring, the listing plow, with drill removed, is put at Work 

 splitting the old corn i-ows, thus filling the middles and form- 

 ing a new ridge therein. This preparation gives drainage 

 and opens the soil to the warming influence of the sun. Then 

 when planting time comes the drill is attached and the new 

 ridge is divided, and the corn planted in the furrow thus 

 made, the drill dropping the corn, one kernel in a place, from 

 8 to 20 inches apart, as the operator may choose. By this 

 plan more thorough tillage is secured. * * * 



"In cultivating after the corn is up the field is gone over 

 with a planker, or what is far better, a smoothing harrow, 

 which smoothes the ridge and prepares the ground for the 

 cultivator, which is used with but one shovel on each side of 

 the row the first time and both shovels afterwards." 



Concerning the merits of listing there -is 

 much diversity of opinion. At the Kansas ex- 

 periment station this practice has been com- 

 mended on the basis of experimental returns.* 

 Four plats listed, compared with four given 

 surface planting, showed a small gain for the 

 former — about four per cent. At the Minne- 

 sota station results somewhat unfavorable to 

 listing were secured in ISSS.f Francis Mc- 



* Kansas agricultural experiment station. Report for 



1889, p. 19. 



t Minnesota agricultural experiment station. Bulletin 

 No. 5, 1888. 



