Show HOLDING MOISTURE IN SOIL I Rainfall Should Ec Coaxed Down Into Subsoil Where Roots Will I Go After It Of late years much has been written writ-ten about the conservation of moisture moist-ure which Is a very old story with anew 1 a-new name For thousands of years crops have been raised by hand hoping and cultivation cul-tivation with very little precipitation but In n country like ours where we have considerable rainfall and It often comes In chunks when It does come a farmer must catch It first and conserve con-serve It afterwards I Some of our agricultural writers I have curious Ideas on this point which It Is well to explode at tho start writes Prof F Knorr In Ranch and Farm One for Instance states that It Is a good Idea to pack your gtound so as to hold the water near the surface sur-face This Is very bad advice for If It stays near the surface It dries out quickly but If we can coax It down i Into tho subsoil the roots of almost any crop will go down three feet or I more after It and then we get a harvest har-vest worth talking about A man may plow six or seven Inched and If tho subsoil Is dry the roots will go down only that six or seven inches I and no more but after a very wet year when the subsoil is wet and the roots go into It a shallow plotter may raise almost as fine a crop as the man that plows ten or twelve Inches and this often leads to tho belief that shallow 1 shal-low plowing Is tho thing but where ho gets only one good crop once In awhile the man who plows deep makes his crops every year wet or dry Packed land Is very much like a haystack that is well settled tho rain does not go Into It much but when the hay is loose the rain may go almost through It the same with tho land |