316 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
creatures, in their own proper spheres of life, but in a cornfield 
they are robbers, and should be treated accordingly; therefore, 
let no false humanity stop the farmer’s gun. “His right is 
paramount, and must extinguish theirs.” When tall enough 
let the cultivator and the hoe be in active requisition. Corn 
should be thoroughly hoed two or three times; in fact the hoe 
must be kept bright all summer. In the management of corn 
much depends upon carrying on, in the order of time, the sev¬ 
eral operations attending it. The planting should be done 
about the middle of May, covering slightly, to give it a quick 
start; then the hoeing must begin as soon as possible, and only 
be discontinued when its further progress would hurt the plant. 
Harvesting Corn and Corn Fodder. —Farmers ought 
to be careful to have their corn well cribbed, and their stalks 
well harvested. When the corn has become generally glazed, 
it should be immediately cut up and neatly shocked, for the 
stalks make excellent fodder, being vastly superior to marsh 
hay, and not much inferior to timothy for that purpose. The 
husking should be done in October, and as it progresses the 
stalks must be tied into convenient bundles— shocked together 
—and when the husking is over, drawn into the barn, or 
stacked, or what is better, formed into large conical shocks, 
taking care to bind their tops, that they may not be injured by 
rain, or scattered by the wind. Some farmers leave their 
stalks in the field till winter, and draw them in to the cattle, 
or let the cattle come in to them/but this is a most wasteful and 
cruel practice, and totally unworthy of a considerate husband¬ 
man. 
Oats and Barley.— In point of importance, these crops 
are altogether secondary, particularly the last, used but little 
except in the manufacture of lager-beer. The fattening quali¬ 
ties of barley are small, and when compared with that of corn, 
nothing at all. Barley likes a light gravelly soil, and oats that 
which is heavier. As they should never be manured, except 
through the medium of preceding crops, the land requires no 
