Planting
In the spring, farmers planted corn in rows about 40 inches
apart, wide enough for a horse to walk between rows and far
enough apart so the corn could be easily picked by hand. But
how did the farmer put the corn seeds in the ground?
"Years
ago I remember my father, when he planted corn…he would string wires
from one end of the field to the other, and then they had
little knobs on that wire. Every time it hit a knob it
would trip the mechanism and it would drop either two or three
kernels of corn. You had to make the rows 40 inches wide
because you had to have that for a horse to walk in."
-- Harvey
Pickrel (Quicktime required)
Written by Claudia Reinhardt.
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