Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-05-13
PLANTING CORN.

PLANTING CORN.
! The corn planters will be busy this
week. Those who drive on the high
ways will pass fields striped with the
| parallel rows left by the planter
I wheels and hear the fusillade Of check
rowers. And some Of these will recall
! earlier days ere the eheckrower had
mad its appearance For be it known
/ both corn planter and checkrower are
modern inventions.
| Some of these will bark back to the
youth Of forty years ago. who dropped
! corn when they preferred fishing for
orable days the field marker" an ex-
aggerated stone boat with two or four
runners followed the drag as the next
step in the someHha complicated pro-
! cess of corn planting. II was drawn
by a team and skillfuf driving between
line Of flags set one at each end
and one in the middle OF the field kept
the furrowed rows made by the marker
runners straight from end to end To
drive straight was an accom- lishment.
When the field had been marked one
way it was Checked" by crossing it
with the marker and was then ready
for the droppers. Boys usually dropped
the corn from pals and baskets. put
ting mot more than five and not less
than three" kernels in a check One
man with a hoe could usually cover for
two boys, the shining hoe flashing close
to bare heels having a decidedly stimu
Iating effect on the activity of the
choppers.
That is the way grandfather planted
his corn He plowed it with double
shovel" pillow and one horse making
round" TO each row. He husked it FIVE
men to a wagon, or two men and
boy. who husked the down row and
he Insisted on removal of each ribbon"
and all the silk.
Then came genius who invented
single hand planters. These were con-
traptions with an iron point which
from which the seed was discharged by
means Of grip lever. This eliminated
the coverer and made planting mans
| work. Then some observing or lazy
person conceived the idea Of a double
planter. which consisted of two single
! planters set row apart. From this
the evolution to the horse planter was
! easy The first horse planter had
wooden wheels and carried a driver
and dropper. The wooden wheels on
a moist day uncovered about as much
corn as they covered. They We're soon
succeeded by metal wheels. 1t was
rather a neat job to estimate speed
and time the discharge of the seed
TO coordinate precisely with the check
mark and good troopers were in de-
mand at corn planting time. There
were those who attained such dexterity
| that after the corn vas Up i, would
have been found almost impossible to
say which way the rows we're driven
/ or dropped a good corn dropper took
as much pride in his mplishm ent
! as a champion wing shot and was Of
great deal more use and benefit He
commanded fabulous wages often at
tanning $3.50 for a sixteen hour day.
Somebody, nobody now remembers
| who, invented a checkrower. 1t was
of cord with buttons at regular inter-
walls. 1t stretched and wore out quick
/ ". but it furnished the beginning and
all that American invention asks is an
| idea. The wire checlrowsrs followed 1t
almost imnlediat ely. Dropping became
| a lost art.
! There is a whole history Of western
I farming which goes along with that Of
corn planting. There is the advent Of
the corn cultivator and the sideboards
| on the corn wagon and the born binder
and all that has gone to make present
dav corn fields three times as wide and
long as those Of grandfather's. And
the farmer has changed with tools and
methods. Get granddad to tell you
about farming and prices and processes
when ne began working for himself"