 I am Gordon Bemis. I run Hutchins Farm in Conqueror Mass with my brother John and farm manager Bruce Bickford. We grow approximately 50 acres of crops, mixed vegetables, berries and apples. The vegetables and berries are certified organic. Our primary market is our retail farm stand. For that market we grow approximately 5 to 8 acres of sweet corn. We rotate corn with our regular vegetables, never growing it more than once in three years in any given piece of land. In preparation for planting corn, some of our land will have been in vetch cover crop. We tend to use a mowboard plow and plow. At that point we add our compost, which is composed of horse manure, mostly wood shavings, and chicken manure, which we bring in. We do not side dress. Cultivation starts when the corn is in spike with a lately tined weeder. We usually make two to three applications of that until the corn is into maybe the third leaf stage. We follow that with a farm all H, which has a little stint type rolling cultivators in the front and shovels in the rear. That cultivator can either push soil in around the plant or pull it away depending on the weed situation and the corn's growth. We will use that cultivator maybe three times, pushing quite a bit of soil into the row to cover the weeds. If we still have some weed problems when the corn is a foot to a foot and a half high, we will come in with a farm all C that has discs mounted on the front and we will push a lot of soil into the row, hailing it to cover the weeds. We do on occasion hand weed, maybe each year we will hand weed as much as an acre. We have found that hand weeding is the most economical way to handle the large weeds rather than hoeing. So it seems to be easier to pull the big weeds and one go through later when the corn is taller. In cultivating a given acre of corn, we tend to average five to seven trips across the field. For costs, we are running between $100 and $150 an acre. If we add hand weeding to that, we are probably adding close to $100 in addition, which is okay considering that our corn is sold retail and we are able to maximize the dollars there. For insect control in the corn, we work hard to control first generation European corn borer with BTs. We use a boom sprayer with just a nozzle that directs the spray down. That application is made by scouting the field when we first get tassel emerging to see what the stage of the European corn borer is. We will make usually one or two applications to get control. We do get adequate control, especially at first generation. We are very happy with the BT. When we apply it, we always use a spreader sticker. You really want to get the BT to be there so that the developing worm can consume it. We often try to apply it later in the day when there is less sunlight and wind, so that you will gain an extra 12 hours before it starts to degrade in the sunlight. It is not always possible, but we do think that makes a difference.