The rate of planting field corn varies from six quarts to one bushel. For silage, nine to eleven quarts are planted.
Cultivation.—Two principal results to be at tained in giving corn good cultivation are, first, the prevention of the growth of weeds, and, second, the retention of soil moisture.
It is always much easier and more satisfactory to prevent the growth of weeds or destroy them soon after the seeds germinate than it is to attempt their destruction after they have attained a firm foothold. Wide weeders and harrows with slant back teeth are very good implements for prevent ing weeds getting a start ahead of the corn. As they are rather light, and it is not desirable that the teeth penetrate the ground more than an inch, very wide ones can be used and a good deal of land passed over in a day.
Weeders are most advantageous on light lands between the planting and the time the corn comes up. When the corn reaches a height that will not permit of the use of weeders or harrows and it be comes necessary to use cultivators, fenders should be attached to the cultivators so that the young plants will not be cov ered by clods or in jured. In many sec tions, surface cultiva tors are used very successfully. These cultivators have hori zontal knives that scrape only about an inch under the surface of the ground and cut off any weeds that have started. In some in stances, when the corn is young and the ground bas become water -soaked by ex cessive rains, it is ad visable to give deep cultivation to facili tate the aeration of the soil. As nearly as pos sible a thorough shallow cultivation should fol low every heavy rain. If the ground is left in a crusted condition the moisture passes rapidly into the air, while the formation of a dust-blanket will retain the moisture for the use of the plants. The mistake is often made of delaying the cultivation until a large part of the moisture has escaped. If the ground has become hard, and crusted and dry, it is usually better to defer cultivation until a rain occurs, as a cultivation when the ground is dry and hard will cause it to break up in large hard clods and will hasten evaporation rather than prevent it. The writer has seen many fields of corn ruined by being cultivated at the wrong time that would have produced good crops if the cultiva tion had been given at the proper moment. Even after the corn has become too large for the use of the double cultivator, it is often advisable to restore the dust mulch by means of one-horse cultivators.
Harresting.—In the northern and north-central parts of the United States, where corn is grown extensively, a large part of it is harvested by means of corn-binders or corn-shockers. In the extreme northern part, where the stalks make but a very short growth, wheat-harvesters are some times used for harvesting the corn, but such a practice is not to be advised, because the binder is not made for such heavy work. On very rich soil in the southern states the stalks grow too tall to admit of a satisfactory use of corn-binders, and such corn is usually cut by hand or the ears jerked from the stalks. For many years it has been the custom in the southern United States to obtain forage by stripping the blades by hand from the standing stalks (Fig. 629), but the scarcity of manual labor makes this practice unprofitable.
In the leading corn-growing states, the great bulk of the corn is husked by hand in November and December. Large quantities are husked from the shocks in the field, while a greater quantity is husked from the standing stalks and thrown into wagons that precede the huskers in the field. A high sideboard or throw-board is placed on one side of the wagon-bed to catch the ears and cause them to fall into the wagon.
Implements.
There has been a gradual evolution in regard to the machin ery used, both in cul tivating and in har vesting corn, and the tendency is to advance to larger and more effective machinery that takes the place of manual labor. From one - horse cultivators that require that the field be crossed at least twice for the cultivation of a single row (Fig. 619), an advance was made to the double cul tivator or two-horse cultivator, which completes a row each time the field is crossed (Fig. 622). At the present time two-row cultivators are used very satisfactorily in connection with corn planted by two-row corn-planters. When so planted, each pair of rows is at every point the same distance apart, so that a man can cultivate two rows as easily as one. For cultivating listed corn, three-row disk cultivators are sometimes used, which completely cultivate three rows each time the field is crossed, four horses being used. These cultivators are pro vided with sufficient play so that the disks of the cultivator are guided by the ridges made at the time the corn was planted.