. The book of corn; a complete treatise upon the culture, marketing and uses of maize in America and elsewhere, for farmers, dealers, manufacturers and others--a comprehensive manual upon the production, sale, use and commerce of the world's greatest crop . one season it isplowed several inches deeper than ordinary, a layer ofcold soil will be turned up for the young plants to feedupon. If this is done in the fall the action of theweather in freezing and thawing corrects the mechani-cal condition and puts the plant food in usable formbefore a crop is grown. However, if this deep plowingis done
. The book of corn; a complete treatise upon the culture, marketing and uses of maize in America and elsewhere, for farmers, dealers, manufacturers and others--a comprehensive manual upon the production, sale, use and commerce of the world's greatest crop . one season it isplowed several inches deeper than ordinary, a layer ofcold soil will be turned up for the young plants to feedupon. If this is done in the fall the action of theweather in freezing and thawing corrects the mechani-cal condition and puts the plant food in usable formbefore a crop is grown. However, if this deep plowingis done in the spring, the young plants are unable touse the plant food in this layer of soil and are con-sequently checked in their growth. This frequentlyresults in an almost complete failure of the crop. This is illustrated in the history of the cultivationof the sugar beet in Illinois. Before the culture of thecrop was thoroughly understood, it was thought neces-sary to plow very deep in order to furnish a loose seed-bed. As a result, most of the fields were plowed severalinches deeper than ordinary. The seed was planted inthis layer of cold soil and the young plants attemptedto secure nourishment from this source. As this soil PREPARING THE SEEDBED 89. was not in condition to furnish the plant food, thebeets were stunted and the crops on rich fields were afailure and a loss to the farmers. The next year beetsplanted on these fields, plowed to the same depth as theprevious year, produced paying crops. As a rule, spring plowing should not be deeperthan previous plowings, or if so, the change in depth from year to yearshould be gradual,not more than aninch or so in anyone year. Ofcourse, this prac-tice will vary withthe texture of thesoil. A lighter soilmay be ploweddeeper or shallowerfrom year to yearthan a heavier time of plow-ing will determineto a considerableextent the plowing canbe deep withoutdanger of injuryto the crop. Thisis particularly truein the cold
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