The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-01-08
~ ISAAC L. TOTEM.

~ ISAAC l.. TOTEM.
Did you ever stop to think of the
amount of work required to produce
a crop of corn? Did you ever take the
time to figure out the number of miles
that the farmer must travel to raise
this crop.
1t may not seem like much to write
about, but let us see If we cannot find
something in this subject that will be
of interest.
All farmers do not raise the same
number of ares of orn each year, and
same way; therefore, in order to get
at the work required and the dis
lance travelled by the corn grower We
will have to take a certain number OF
aires as a basis, and the way the
average farmer handles the crop then
estimate the others accordingly. Sup
pose. for instance We watch the farm
er as he goes about his corn growing
work
This corn grower which we are 60
ing to observe, runs small farm and
does all of the work himself. conse-
Quently we will have him put about
twenty-five acres of corn. He is come
what progressive, not entirely so.
enough So however, to follow the pro-
per crop rotation. This field in which
he is going to plant the corn, and into
which he has now come with his three
horses and pillow to start the blowing.
produced good crop of clover hay
last summer, and while the clover
leaves and blossoms were growing to
produce nutritious roughage for the
farm animals, the roots of the clover
plants were taking nitrogen from the
air and retaining it in the soil to be
used in helping to feed the next crop,
which is to be corn.
The clover stubble and the small
clover plants that have begun to stick
their heads out to smile and nj at
the spring sunshine, are going - be
plowed under, that is, this entire field
of clover sod is to be turned upside
down so that the corn crop will have
a suitable home in which to put forth
it's roots to gather the plant food ne
cessary to produce the crop.
To the man who has never plowed.
it would. no doubt, look like big job
to turn this twenty-five acre field up
side down, and have only walking
pillow with which to do it. If it were
possible to do so, this farmer would
about five or six inches deep, and flop
MI
cake; but he is going to turn over on
ly one narrow strip at time, and that
strip will be somewhere near sixteen
inches wide.
This farmer is now ready to start
his pillow at one corner of the field,
and he intends to pillow around the en-
tire field turning over the one narrow
strip as he goes. 1t looks as though
he would have an endless job, doesn't
it? One strip, sixteen inches wide at
a time; down one side of the field,
across the lower end, up the other
side of the field, and then across the
other end to where he started. 1t did
not take long to tell that, but let us
see about how far he has travelled in
turning over just that one narrow fur
row which is only one of many more
that are to be turned. The field is
one hundred rods long and forty rods
wide: therefore, in making the round
he travelled two hundred and eighty
rods, lacking only forty rods of being
a mile.
Before the entire field is plowed, he
will have travelled somewhere near
! one hundred and fifty-five miles. Did
you get that? One hundred and fifty
five miles--just think of some place
| that distance from the city; then i'm
agine a man following along behind a
slop moving team. holding to the hand
les of a pillow, and turning over mar
row strip of soil from the city to that
other place one hundred and fifty miles
! away. We wonder how many steps
he will take in that narrow trench in
which he must follow behind the pillow
where it is impossible for him to walk
naturally Can you guess? Well, it
will be somewhere around 4OS,375, and
maybe more.
| 1t will probably take him about two
| weeks to pillow that one hundred and
! fifty-five mile furrow. 1t isn't going
to take as long as it seemed, is it?
There will undoubtedly be some bad
days before he gets the job done. and,
of course, that will delay the work !;
but, if he does not have too much
bad luck. he will get the entire sur
| face of the field Topped over by putt
ing in about twelve days Of blowing.
Time flies rapidly: the blowing is
done, and the time has come to pre-
| pare the seed bed. The disk and the
smoothing harrow now come into use !;
and while preparing the seed bed on
| this twenty-five acre field, with these
implements. our corn grower will
travel about eighty-five miles and per-
haps more. depending on the number
of times it is necessary to go over the