Show To Get Bigger Finer Crops Farmers Should Toss Their Plows on Says Expert I I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Released bY Western Newspaper Union THOMAS GRAY the fa- fa faI famous I THOMAS EnglIsh poet has made Immortal the plowman who homeward plods hIS weary way and for two cen- cen centurIes centuries the plowman and hIS plow have been the theme of song and story building up the I Idea that they are the bene- bene benefactors benefactors factors of mankind In fact I f Venerate the plow was the motto engraved upon the med medals medals als offered by the Agricultural tural SocIety of Philadelphia early m in the Nineteenth cen century century tury to stImulate agrIcultural I experimentation e and more I than a dozen of our states have the plow as one of the I symbols m theIr great seals In In the face of thIS tradition It may come as a shock Lo fo most Americans to be told that instead of venerating the plow we should look upon It as an enemy of agriculture and the tool that IS response ble for all of the erosion the sour soils sOlIs the mounting floods the water table the vanishing wIld weld l life e the corn com compact pact and ImpervIOUS soil sOlI surface sur- sur surI surface I face whIch have bedevIlled the AmerIcan farmer In re reI recent recent cent years Yet that IS exact exactly exactly I ly what an agrIcultural ex expert expert pert tells us m In a new book He Is Edward IL H Faulkner and I his revolutIOnary Idea is developed in the book Plowman s Folly pub I fished recently by the University of Oklahoma Press And lest It be bethought thought that he is only a theorist a vIsionary and a book farmer let let it be added immediately that he heIs heis Is the son of a successful farmer that he was trained In agriculture at Williamsburg BaptIst institute now Cumberland college and at atthe atthe the ty of Kentucky that he has been a county agent m in Kentucky and OhIO a Smith Hughes teacher of agriculture and a soil soll and crop investigator m in private employment Moreover he has carried on hIS ex experiments in garden plot and on a farm scale on land which he owns m in Ohio and by his crop Yields has translated theory into sol d fact At the beginning of Plowman s Folly Mr Faulkner says that his book sets out to show that the mold moldboard moldboard board plow which IS m in use on farms throughout the cIvil zed world IS the least satisfactory implement for the preparation of land for the production tion of crops Th s sounds I ke a paradox perhaps m view of the fact that for nearly a century there has been a sCience of agriculture and that agricultural almost to toa toa a man have used and approved the use of the moldboard plow Never Nevertheless Nevertheless the statement made above is true and capable of proof Much of the proof as a matter of fact fact has bas come In left handed manner from sCientists themselves The truth IS that no one has ever advanced a scientific reason for J plowing He then proceeds to examine all the reasons that are given for plow plowIng big Ing and points out their sten dies cles and even absurd t es Assum AssumIng Assuming Ing plowed land to be better for plant growth we should find grass growing more freely on plo ved land than on similar unplowed land near nearby nearby by he points out Weeds too should show preference for plowed land Volunteer growth should take takeover takeover over and develop more rankly after land had been plowed than before Is th s so on IS that un until til plowed land has subs ded again agam to ItS former state of firmness plants develop m in It qUite tardily If at all When dry weather follows the plow plowing plowing ing It et may be weeks or even months before either natural vegetatIOn or a planted crop will make normal gro growth groth th The fact Is that bare land which notably erodes worse than so I 1 in any other cond t on consIsts al almost almost most wholly of land that has been disturbed recently by plow or cults vat ng implement The only other bare land Is that which has been denuded of top soil solI by erosIOn or other forces There IS significance In the fact that erosion and runoff ninon are worse on bare land and that ba bare re land IS defined above The effect which plowing has upon thiS top soil SOlI IS the principal reason why the author of Plo Pia s rol Iol rolly Iy ly considers thiS Instrument an en enemy enemy emy rather than a benefactor of agriculture In fact the principal I thesis of the book IS that It Is wrong to plow natural fert deep into the soil solI and that this natural fert liz crop er-crop res due and green manie should crops be Incorporated into i TIn This pretty girl seems m to be heeding the an ancient 1 I Ven crate the plow as she 1 examines what has r I been preserved of one of the first three plows y x 1 made by John Deere 1 the Yankee blacksmIth t who invented the first fast successful steel plow m 1837 w dv r w Y A 1 the top so I 1 which as everybody recognizes is the really good sOlD soil lust Just as Mother Nature does It In a forest or a meadow Disk Harrow Better We have developed some useless theories in that field declares Mr Faulkner Men have come to feel I for example that centuries are necessary necessary essary for the development of a pro productive sOil The sat saying truth Is that man WIth D a team or a tractor and a good disk harrow can mIX into the soil solI m in a matter of hours sufficient organic material to ac accomplish results equal to what IS shed by nature m in decades In fact It is the disk harrow rather than the plow which should be the farmer s principal instrument m in pro producing more and better crops Here I IS why The organic matter disked Into the top of the soil soli not only decomposes and adds to the fert I 1 ty of the soil soll but acts as a sponge to hold mOisture where It is needed Faulkner be believes believes there IS a capillary movement of water upward from the subsoil When the surface of the so I 1 contains organic matter this top layer not only holds water but is able to re receive receive It from below Conversely when the soil has been plowed the loose layer at the surface loses its capillarity while the layer of green manure plowed under actually Insulates insulates lates the upper surface of soil solI from the subsoil This blotter is often the reason why hy a crop shows lack of mo sture when there IS mo sture In the sub subsoil soil soli The crop has used aU all the mOisture In the loose layer of top topsOIl topsoil sOIl but can get no more from below tint I 1 the organ c matter plowed un under under der has become completely de decomposed com composed posed and packed Although the author of Plow Plowman Plowman man s Folly belIeves that the d sk harrow IS the farm tool which should more and more replace the plow he admits that It does have its I 1 meta It is difficult to handle on onside onside side hills and it v won on t work so well wellon wellon on stony so I 1 Nor is it the complete answer to the question of how to get rid nd of weeds He concedes that there IS no such th ng as completely weed less farm ng but he does believe that the system of farming which he ad advocates advocates tends to get rid of v Beds eeds while the plow tends to encourage them For every time land IS plowed seeds are buried for future sprouting Then when hen It IS plowed aga n some of the seeds are brought to the surface for gro while more seeds are turned under to await their turn to sprout and so on ad m in Under Faulkner s plan of using the disk harrow rather than the plow the weeds are mIXed up into the top soil and the r seeds are never very far below the surface When such seed grows into a plant and the plant IS cut cut then there is no reservoIr of seed far under the surface to take ItS place Gradually a field may get rid nd of weeds entirely If they are cut before they mature although of course there will al always ways be some weeds grown from seed that Is blown or carr Garr ed Into the fields not ot a few lew Idea But the problem of weed control IS after all of lesser importance than the problem of preparing the soil sOlI so that It will be more productive tive In advocating his hI plan Faulk Faulkner Faulkner ner does not ela cla m that It Is new No new technical discover es are areto areto to be aired d here he says m in his first chapter The discuss on is con concerned corned wholly with ng to practical terms employable in any bOdy s backyard or on any farm the sCIentific information possessed for decades but h not put to any extensive use Moreover he does not lust Just advocate Gate cate a theory but he cItes his o 0 I experience to prove that his theory IS cable For example there was the way he demonstrated Its validity with the tomatoes wh ch he transplanted even though he shocked some of his neighbors With what they considered his careless methods Fist First he harrowed down a crop of rye that had grown three feet tall mixing rye and sOil until hardly a trace of vegetation rema ned Then he marked the land off m in rows us ng an instrument he des himself to pack the worked soil solI of the rows firmly This was done to patch the sOil back together so nature s scap scap cap carried action on by the plant root system could keep on elevating mOisture to the surface for his tomatoes He cleaned all the dirt from the roots of his tomato plants and laid them along the rows rowson rowson on the surface He covered the roots With rich soil soll and packed It do by foot By late afternoon every plant set setIn setin In in the forenoon was pointing toward the sky and by the following morn mornIng big Ing every plant without exception was standing upright No water was used in transplant ng and that was sufficient eVidence that nature s sown sown own watering system was at work Prize Tomatoes Not only d d the tomatoes live but his ne who had been du dubious blOus bious of his careless methods had to adm t that hIs was the finest field of tomatoes In the neighbor neighborhood neighborhood hood There was further proof of the fact when hen he sold his tomatoes for he received as much as 25 cents a peck above the top price m in the Cleveland market One reason for forth forth th s was the exceptIOnal weight of my packed pecks Mr Faulkner explains F Fifteen teen pounds is the standard weight of a peck of tomatoes to tomatoes matoes It was not unusual for a apeck apeck peck of my tomatoes to weigh 16 pounds and many weighed 17 Most local tomatoes that year weighed from 10 to 14 pounds to the peck I What the author of Plo s Folly did with tomatoes he also did with sweet potatoes cucumbers cucumbers bers and beans And lest It be bethought bethought thought that his methods apply only to garden truck let It be recorded tha that t they apply also to field graIn Several years ago he began mg the United States department of agriculture to experiment With his theory of surface incorporation Finally one of the lead ng agronomists agronomists mists of the department set up a on Perhaps the intent was to dis disprove prove my theories writes Mr Faulkner On the contrary the outcome of the tests completely con confirmed confirmed firmed them The results of thiS official experiment proved that by working organic matter into the surface instead of ploy plowing mg It inthe In Inthe the resulting gram grain yield could be beas beas as much as 50 per cent greater The very first year of thiS trial showed uch uch a result And these are only a few of the il 11 facts to be found m in the pages of Plowman s Folly But they all lend emphasIs to ItS author s content on that the sooner we make ancient history of many of our pros pres present ent farm practices the earlier we will real ze that the Garden of Eden almost literally lies lles under our feet almost anywhere on the earth we care to step We have not begun to tap the actual potentialities of the sOil for producing crops |