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Show TO RETAIN MOISTURE Necessary to Conserve Sufficient Water Supply. Deficiency of Rainfall During Past Season Sea-son Should Teach Farmers Great Value of Disk Harrow for Pre- paring Soil for Dry Year. i I As the active operation of another 1 season end on the farm, the former I should not con.-ldrr till bis duties done f until he has reviewed In his mind or from his notes, the les nns he had j i placed before him th" past year. The indifferent and careless fanner may I think the prub'ems pre-i iited hip the ! sami' every year and that be learned ' them :i!l years aj-'o, writes K. H. Kent-j Kent-j lor of Ohio In the OraiiKo .1 ml J ; Farmer. This farmi r never makes any money, and Is always telling bis family and in lchbors that "there's flothln' doin' In faruiln'. anyhow." The schoolteacher observes that j the pupils who most readily grasp and U arn the underlying principles are the ones who can most fully master mas-ter the subject and solve the different problems when presented In different form. Hut the ones who neglect to master those few underlying principles princi-ples find In each new problem the enmo discouraging difficulty. So It Is Ith the farmer. Yet nature la always al-ways presenting to the studious farmer, farm-er, plain, practical lessons with the answers at the end of tho seitson. like an arithmetic with the answers In the back of the book. Hut ao often the farmer forgets both the lesson and the answer, and, like the dullard schoolboy again, begins the same place In the book this year that he began be-gan laat year. One lesson nature presents every year and Insists upon I La being learned Is that since moisture Is necessary nec-essary for the growth of plants, it la possible for the farmer, by right cultural cul-tural methods, to conserve a sufficient moisture supply for the ordinary summer sum-mer crop even without the auinmer tliower. In many parta of the country the past season, like the two preceding years, there was a deficiency In rainfall rain-fall and many farmers place the responsibility re-sponsibility for poor crops upon Providence, Provi-dence, not noticing that the same Providence dealt lavishly with the neighbor across the way. The observing ob-serving neighbor had learned years ago that a soil filled with humus, plowed deep, thoroughly and continuously contin-uously cultivated would retain moisture mois-ture through a long, dry season and iroduce- a crop. The wheat crop Is made or marred before snow falls the autumn It la fown. If the ground Is plowed when--too dry, the wheat sown In the dust and a deficiency of moisture follows, the crop w ill In all probability be light. I saw a 12-acre wheat field th'nt had been prepared In three different ways. One-third was plowed early In the Slimmer and harrowed frequently. One-third was plowed at the same time, was not harrowed, ' hut was plowed again Just before seeding. The remaining third was not plowed until seeding time, September 10. The weather had been very dry, yet on ' October the first part was green and 1 thick on the ground. The second, or i fallow-plowed part, was about one half I as good In appearance, while the third part showed scarcely a tinge of groin, yet the Held was all plowed at one time. i Many farmers have not yet learned I Ihe great value of the disk harrow In preparing ground for plowing In a dry I season. One of the many striking ! nbjeet lessons in this line was seen In the drought district of southern Pennsylvania this fall. Many farm frs did not pl.iw, and those who did, too often turned the ground over In I hard clods. One feeing and reasoning I man disked his thoroughly dry oat . t stubble well both ways. Me th' n h it j 1 t two weeks, when although tin rain j 'ell, he could plow It with ease and 'r prepare a nice, moist seed bed. The llsklng put a dust mulch on top and irevented the further evaporation of f he moisture that continues to rise to t he surface, even In a dry time, though nore slowly, until the ground was t noist and mellow. v One of the strongest reasons In fa-'Or fa-'Or of fall plowing Is that It gives Ii rreater control over the winter sup- o dy of water. The farmer would bet er spend the time, In spring. In bar ft owing than plowing. Whether It be f' , wet or dry a'ajinn. he has the ad r. antage over the man who leaves his lowing un,tf spring. p a |