Show deep C cultivation u ti 4 JL i harmful harmou I 1 to corn co rn top three inches of soil contain largest amount of plant food prepared toy by the he united un i ted states department of f 1 c alt u re the ka bick ka lick of the corn planter has ceased its musical tattoo for the season abid aad ha has g bem backed into the sued shed it there were no weed reeds just under the surface of the soil lying in wait for favorable germinating mina ting conditions th the e farmers fan ners work in tile the cornfield would be done for the summer bummer if there were no weeds there would be no need to tc tune up the old r or cut a forked stick abc crop boull not again need his attention until corn picking time dime in the fall ile he could turn his attention to other work about the farm or he could cut himself a pole and go bishin which ever was according to tits his individual bent and his cornfield corn Held would still yield as many bushels of corn its as it would have had he given it the traditional three times over with corn plow cultivation controls weeds at least some such conclusion might be arrived at from a study of the results of various tests by corn culter lets to determine tile the real reason for tiva ting corn cultivation they agree Is chiefly for the purpose of controlling the he weeds lit in tact fact weed eradication may le be the only benell beneficial cial result from cultivation after planting nevertheless there Is that big little word if to reckon with we do have hare weed seeds and we will have weeds soon the broud broad clean spaces between the rows of young corn will be covered with a mass of green weeds of every description the cultivators will be un limbered in feverish haste to aatu attu attack the weeds and hold thein in biech while king corn gets gels the lie jump on thern but thu thal Is where tile lie similarity of the I 1 e operation centes cent es one furmer fa riller will set ills his shovels to plow ns as deeply ns possible ile he will hurry flurry across tile lie field so that lie can start tits his plow on the cross ros rons the main euln idea kippar antly being simply to get over the he three times before tile the corn Is knee high and ready to lay by ile he i believes that the formation of a dust duat mulch to retain moisture Is also a thing to accomplish must beep weeds down ali As long as there are weeds sonae some sort of method elliod in will have to ile be used to lo keep them down rotating crops preventing weeds going to seed and sowing seed that Is free from weed seed are some of the th other principles that will help to keep down weeds an understanding of tile the fact that cultivation ti Is principally tor for the purpose of killing the weeds weeda and not to stir the soil or provide a dust mulch however will modify methods of cultivation thirty six years ago the illinois experiment peri ment station made some tests in which it wits was shown that if weeds wet were kept down by scraping with a hoe without any attempt at forming a dirt mulch the yield wits was tile the same us as with ordinary deep cultivation und and on only y slightly less than with ordinary shallow cultivation twenty years ago the united states department of agriculture made similar tests at a number of stations over the country and obtained similar results now the illinois station has secured 80 some me more figures which further substantiate stant late the former tests As on an average of 24 years of experiments at that station it was found that a field of corn in which the weeds were removed t by scraping them off with a hoo hoe gave a yield almost exactly tile the same as a field cultivated with a surface cultivator deep cultivation gave a yield of one to two bushels less on the average than either shallow cli allow cultivation or scraping with a ho hoe e many deep decreased the yield further deep cultivation harmful these experiments InCI indicate cate clearly that the deep cultivation to la harmful cultivation should be an aa shallow an u i Dol possible isible although deep SO stirring ing to Is less legs injurious at the first Culli cultivation than later the feeder roots of the corn plant leave the stalk about two inches below the surface of the soil no matter how deep the grain has been planted plowing close to the stalk and deeper than these roots injures many of these roots and results in decreased yields it appears says the united states state department of agriculture that tb the top three inches of soil contains more liv available callable plant food than that further down and that it Is of more i alue aide as a feeding ground for corn roots than as a mulch cultivation that mutilates this mass of roots in the top soil not only removes the connection of the corn plant with this rich source of plant food tut lut destroys its natural water gathering system from the great number of experimental studies that have been made it would seem that the cultivation problem in the corn belt Is to kill weeds ns as economically and as easily ns as pos sibin without plowing so deep as to do harm to the plant in any way arid and without making the surface soil unavailable to the roots for feeding purposes some of our present implements for cultivation tire ore designed primarily rIly to produce a mulch and stir the lie ground there are ninny many however aba have been designed with special reference to weed control such Is tile the weeder the lie spring tooth har row tind tile surface cultivator local conditions will determine which of these can be used to the best addan inge |