![Who Remembers The Phrase “Knee High By The 4th”?](http://townsquare.media/site/481/files/2021/07/attachment-RS16921_20180726_092305-scr.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Who Remembers The Phrase “Knee High By The 4th”?
Decades ago, say, five or six decades ago, "Knee high by the 4th" was a good thing. A very good thing.
These days "Knee high by the 4th" would be a bad thing. A very bad thing.
Things have changed down on the farm.
![KYBB-FM / B102.7 logo](https://townsquare.media/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/KYBBFM.png?w=100)
For those of us who grew up on the farm back there in what the young whipper-snappers call the old days, if that cornfield was knee high by the 4th of July, that meant the corn crop was in good shape. Fine shape as a matter of fact. If the farmers could get that just right amount of rain, and keep the hail off, this was gong to be a good year and maybe a bumper crop year. Heck, it could mean a hundred bushels an acre, and that would be dandy!
Well, things have changed.
Thanks in part to things like improved seed genetics and a lot more, hopefully corn is waist high, shoulder high or even above head high by the 4th. One of my favorite websites, thisisfarming.org, gives a lot more details on it.
But one thing's for sure: Knee high by the 4th is a long-ago phrase that's in the dust bin of history along with the village smithy and the B Farmall pulling a scoop shovel around in the snow with a little kid on it. And that's OK. That's progress.
More From KYBB-FM / B102.7
![Why Glow-in-the-Dark Crops Are Coming to One Iowa Farm](http://townsquare.media/site/486/files/2023/11/attachment-jesse-gardner-JYU14tnbfOA-unsplash.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Not That Different: Planting Time On The Farm And In Town in South Dakota](http://townsquare.media/site/481/files/2020/03/attachment-Copy-of-Copy-of-Copy-of-copy-9.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![The A’s, B’s, H’s And M’s Of Farming](http://townsquare.media/site/481/files/2022/09/attachment-RS11891_177938912-scr.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Iowa Hawkeyes Favored in Latest Odds vs. ISU Cyclones Sat.](http://townsquare.media/site/535/files/2022/09/attachment-Untitled-design-101.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![What’s The Top Crop in South Dakota vs Minnesota, Iowa?](http://townsquare.media/site/535/files/2022/09/attachment-potatoes-fries-UnsplashCanva.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Are There More Cows Than People In South Dakota?](http://townsquare.media/site/481/files/2022/08/attachment-Untitled-design1.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Helicopter Crashes into Powerlines in Minnesota](http://townsquare.media/site/669/files/2014/05/crop-dusting-helicopter.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![South Dakota Is Full Of Cows & That’s No Bull](http://townsquare.media/site/481/files/2017/06/dairycow1.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![What is South Dakota’s Favorite Vegetable?](http://townsquare.media/site/486/files/2020/06/RS1376_86529708.jpg?w=980&q=75)