30 
BULLETIN 320, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
for the city trade. These mares average about 1,400 pounds in 
weight, which permits the use of large implements and requires little 
man labor. 
After the land is broken the seed bed is usually prepared with a 
4-horse disk harrow, followed by a corrugated roller (fig. 26), and 
Fig. 26. — A corrugated roller or pulverizer, an im- 
plement used in Moultrie County, 111., and other 
sections of the Middle West. 
Fig. 27. — A 2-horse disk cul- 
tivator used in cultivating 
corn in Moultrie County. 111. 
this is followed by a spike-tooth harrow. This leaves the land prac- 
tically level and in very fine conditino. Planting is done in most 
cases with a 2-row edge drop planter in checks 3J feet apart each 
way, alternating the hills with two and three grains. 
"While the corn is coming up, or right after it gets up, the field is 
harrowed once or twice with a spike- tooth smoothing harrow. If 
the field is cloddy, a corrugated 
roller is used before the harrow. 
After this harrowing most of the 
cultivating is done with a 2-horse 
6-shovel cultivator or a 2-horse 
disk cultivator (fig. 27) . Usually 
three or four cultivations are 
given in alternate directions. A 
type of implement known as the 
surface cultivator (fig. 28) is fre- 
quently used, especially for the 
last cultivation. This implement, 
instead of having shovels, is 
equipped with four long sweeps, 
which are very similar to the 
knives of a stalk cutter. These 
sweeps run two on either side of the row and about 1 inch deep. 
They are set at an angle to the soil of about 45°. The sweeps cut 
off and destroy the weed growth much more effectively than do the 
shovels. 
Fig. 28. — A type of surface cultivator 
equipped with four long sweeps for stir- 
ring th<> soil, used for corn tillage in 
Moultrie County. 111., and other sections 
of the Middle West. 
