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Show HOLD MOISTURE IN THE SOIL practice of Harrowing and Loosening Surface Can Be Employed to Advantage by Farmer. rty E. II. IIOt'tfK. Colorado Kxprlinent ritutlon.) It Is a well known fact that ground which Is kept loose on top will evap orate much less water than a soil w hlch Is packed on top. The moisture mois-ture which escaped Into the air Is ab colutcly loM, so far as the plants growing In that particular Held are concerned, and If anything can be done to bold this moisture In the ground so that it may rench the roots of the growing crop, it Is of course the thing to strive for, and j will prove a benefit to the plant grow-Ing grow-Ing In the field. Some years ago one of the repro-tentatlves repro-tentatlves from the Agricultural college col-lege was visiting an up-to-date farmer In the country, and the farmer showed him a field of wheat which Illustrated this harrowing lu a remarkable manner. man-ner. A storm had passed over that section sec-tion of the country and about one and a half inches of rain had fallen. It had been a dashing sllower and had packed the surface of tho ground considerably con-siderably The grain was from four to six Inches high, and the farmer had been advised to harrow the ground to prevent evaporation. Ho sent his hired man to do the work, who hitched hitch-ed on to the harrow and dragged it diagonally across the field of wheat, and then around the outsldo of the field some Ave or six times. He then became disgusted with the work because be-cause It appeared that he was dragging drag-ging out so much of the grain and reported re-ported the fact to the farmer, who ordered or-dered the work discontinued. I!y the time the grain had headed tho marks of the harrowed sections rould be plainly seen. The place where It had been dragged diagonally across the field produced grain at least eight or ten inches higher than that on either side which had not been harrowed, and along the edres of the field the grain was In a like condition. The grain of the field that bud not been tout lied by the harrow was not to be compared with the har rowed grain, either In appearpnee, size of plants or heads of grain. Tho yield frcm the harrowed portion was practically double that from the unborrowed un-borrowed portion. It simply shows that the harrowing and loosening of the surface soil, even though It did destroy some of the plants, conserved the moisture and benefited those plants Hint were left In such a marked degree that It materially mate-rially Increased the yield from that Held, and shows that this practice could lie employed to advantage by all farmers. How to Use the Field Roller. Never use a roller Immediately after a heavy rain. Hut It should be used as soon as the surface becomes dry enough to pulverize enslly without packing tightly. The roller should be used In dry seasons following tho harrow har-row to keep the moisture In the soil. Of course It U not possible to use tho roller to any extent after plants are well up, but It can always be used to great advantage In the preparation prep-aration of the seed bed. Very often one rolling will not mash all the clods, and If the ground Is particularly rough It should be harrowed and rolled and harrowed again until the soil Is thoroughly thor-oughly pulverized. The Yearling Colt. Look out for the yearling colts. Don't let them get back as spring approaches. ap-proaches. A stumbling haLIt may be caused by poor shoeing, or It may be caused by Ignorant or careless hitching. A colt appreciates tho companionship companion-ship of man, and should have It, especially es-pecially during the flrrt year of his life. Bests for Lste 8ummer, riant snap beans to produce table vegetables late In summer, llenns ehotild have a moltt, rich soil so that growth will be rapid. Tho pole varieties va-rieties are good, but as a rule the dwarf bush types are earlier. |