Hiram in the Middle West

by Burbank L. Todd

These neighbors planted their corn in rows rather than checking it. The stalks stood twelve to fifteen inches apart in the row, making more than twice the number of hills to the acre than Hiram had planted.

He was satisfied that he had planted and left to grow all the corn his land would develop properly. Two stalks to a hill and two good ears to a stalk was better to his mind than more fodder and less corn.

The cultivating method followed by the neighboring farmers was not all it might be. The two- and three-horse cultivators left much to be desired. There were more weeds left in the row than Hiram cared to see. When he and Orrin got through cultivating a piece of corn they could safely have offered a prize for any weed in the field that had not been covered.

In this connection, however, Hiram had something to learn, too. This land was not so cursed with weeds as that he had been used to cultivating farther East. There was no twitch-grass, wild mustard, or purslane. After many years of deep plowing and crop rotation, the fields of this part of the corn-belt were comparatively free of weeds. Only on land that had been allowed to lie fallow were the weeds a pest.

The fields of Sunnyside Farm must be greatly improved before Hiram could, however, take up the local methods of corn growing in every particular.

He knew of no improving crop better suited to his needs than crimson clover. It is rich in nitrogen, makes a heavy crop of hay before corn-planting time, and it could be sowed at the last cultivation of the present corn crop.

The drawback was that it necessitated the cutting of the corn to the ground and the removal of the shocks from the field. On the better farms near by the corn was allowed to cure on the standing stalk and then the cattle and hogs were turned in to graze on the fodder, the stalks being knocked down and cut up by the disc harrow before plowing in the spring.

That was another method Hiram could not adopt. If his clover catch was worth anything at all he did not want the corn stalks mixed with it at hay-making time. He talked the matter over with Mr. Bronson, and a machine was secured at harvesting time that, drawn by one of the Percherons, went through the field cutting two rows of corn at a time and giving the two men working with it all they could do shocking the corn at proper intervals.

This corn finished curing in the shock and the husking was done at the barn where the fodder was stacked against the increasing need of the herd of young stock that Mr. Bronson was continually adding to.

This method of harvesting cost more in time and labor than Hiram could have desired; but it left his fields clean and gave the young clover a better chance.