[AT] Check planting (was) Homemade tractors.

[Francis Robinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry D Goss" <rlgoss at evansville.net>

 I do remember "checking" corn while planting so
> it could be cultivated in both directions with a horse.  Oscar Fahlsing
> owned the farm to our east and he always checked his corn.  He would still
> be cultivating it when it was over his head.  I don't know why Dad had 
> ours
> checked.  We didn't own horses!  I guess he just liked the way the field
> looked when the corn started growing.  There's a famous American artist 
> who
> memorialized checked corn in one of his paintings.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


    We never "check planted" but when we had to hand replant a row or spot 
my father always instructed me to plant 4 seeds to the hill. Of course all 
of the check planted corn I ever saw was "hill drop" controlled by little 
mechanical gates down in the boot of the planter. My father always said "One 
for the blackbird, one for the crow, one to die and one to grow". He always 
attributed that to the Indians but I'm not sure of its origins. I did Google 
it and found dozens of slight variations of it but they all seemed to start 
with the same "one for the blackbird" line. Some called for 3 seeds, some 
called for 5 seeds. Some mentioned cutworms, some mentioned moles.
    BTW, I once read where some, know it all "expert", stated point blank 
that moles never ate roots, just grubs. Not much of an expert nor 
observer... Every farm boy has seen a mole go down a row eating every root 
sprout when it was about an inch long. Moles tend to choose where they live 
and feed based upon the grub population but I have long observed them to 
have a varied diet often based on what was available. You can "drive" them 
away from a choice area over time by spraying it with  grub killing 
pesticides but they are too smart to starve down there just because some 
supposed expert says that they never eat roots...   :-)


--
"farmer"

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the
well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are
showing a new road.  ~Voltaire

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net