The early Dutch settlers in Michigan liked the idea of everything being straight and square. They built their buildings parallel with the road. They plowed the fields with as straight a furrow as possible. The corn rows had to be planted the “Reformed Way,” straight and checked so the corn rows could be cultivated in both directions,
When my maternal grandfather, Martin Elzinga, purchased his farm on Tyler Street, he soon found out that pine stumps interfered with straight row farming. Some of his neighbors planted corn rows around the stumps. For him, this would never do. The solution to the stump problem was a stump puller. This A-frame machine would twiust a stump out of the ground with assistance of a horse.
Grandfather planted his corn with a hand planter. First he would mark his field with a homemade marker. He had a light 22 foot pole to which he attached heavy pieces of chain which would leave a mark in the sandy Blendon soil. He could mark 6 rows at a time spaced 42 inches apart. After marking the field in one direction, he would then go across the field crossways leaving the field marked in 42 inch squares. He would then plant his corn two rows at a time.
Bob Essenburg