138 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ond and using again the cultivator for the third, and, if possi- 
sible, for a fourth working. The hoe should cut every weed 
which the cultivator and the plow have not reached. This is a 
light and rapid operation when the cultivation has been 
thorough. If our farmers would always do full justice to this 
crop, it would grow into still greater favor, for the more is 
done for it, the better it pays. 
As soon as the ears are fairly glazed the corn should be cut 
and put up in solid, upright, compact shocks, and well bound. 
Corn stalks, when properly cured, make very valuable fodder, 
but if frozen before fully matured, both they and the grain are 
of very slight value. Early planting and maturing allov^ to 
the farmer longer time and much more favorable weather to 
secure both in first-rate condition. As the stalks afford about 
as much fodder as the hay of an equal area, full of saccharine 
matter and highly relished by cattle, they should be secured 
in stacks from time to time as the hushing progresses, avoiding 
all unnecessary exposure to the weather. 
We look upon the corn crop as the most profitable, and when 
properly cultivated, perhaps, the surest, excepting oats, of any 
that is raised in our state. We believe that facts warrant the 
assertion that corn oftener fails in northern and central Illinois 
than it does in Wisconsin. It has more than once been killed 
in Illinois, by frosts, late in August or early in September, 
that have hardly touched or injured it in our State. Wiscon¬ 
sin is also less subject than Illinois to heavy protracted rains 
at the time of planting. These statements may appear start¬ 
ling, but they are proved by facts. Spring wheat also has been 
known to ripen in Manitoba in 75 to 80 days. Indian corn 
frequently ripens on the Saskatchewan in latitudes 51 ° to 
53 ° ! In 1848 we knew corn planted on the 20th of June 
to be fit to cut on the 25th of August. Failures with us near¬ 
ly always arise from late planting or from neglect. 
No farmer who has tended a crop of corn or other hoed 
crop well and thoroughly has failed to observe the great ben¬ 
efits accruing to subsequent crops from that cultivation. By 
comparison of results with lands that have been treated differ- 
