Show DRY FARM ESSENTIAL ideas of practical farmer on need of deep plowing very requisite in the conserva alon of moisture prevents forma alon of what might be called a plow pan by J S MURPHY practical north da kota dry I 1 armer it I 1 were asked what Is the one thing above all other things necessary in dry tanning I 1 would say deep plow ing for purposes of dry farming all of tho sub soil in this state lying west of red river is practically the same and is composed of drift brought here during the glacial period one of the most stu events this old earth ever ex now this subsoil or drift la chiefly decomposed or disintegrated rock and has all the crop producing properties such as nitrogen lime pot ash and phosphorus which are the elements especially needed in cereal production deep plowing is the very first essential in moisture conserva alon as the thing it does is to increase the absorbing storage capacity of tha eoll and the first step in dry farming is to get water into the soil and deep plowing Is the first aid in this particular then too deep plowing prevents the formation of what might be called for the want of a better name a plow pan I 1 have examined literally hundreds of fields and I 1 never yet examined a field in a dry year especially that this plow pan would not be ln evidence when the plowing was less than seven inches this plow pan is caused chiefly from the pressure of the subsoil producing a sort of a glazed surface and this prevents any proper contact between the furrow allce and the subsoil in dry farming the plowing should be so deep that you would find it quite impossible to find where the furrow slice ends and the subsoil begins when that condition is present there is always a proper contact between the furrow slice and without even thinking you can see that this is necessary when you are depending chiefly on the water stored in the soil which you get by capillary and not on tree water to mature your crop furthermore when this plow pan exists the average rainfall up to one inch never penetrates the subsoil at all any more than it did the sod and for the bame reason the subsoil is the farmers reservoir for the storage water that supplies the moisture during the season after you have once plowed your land to say a depth of ten inches it is not necessary of course to plow so deep each year when I 1 cummer till a piece of land I 1 plow deep for this Is the time to bring up new soil so as to give it plenty of time to become weathered now as soon as the crop is harvested on this land the next season I 1 disk it immediately and when I 1 plow it for the next crop and it should be done that fall is possible I 1 only plow it about six inches deep some tour years ago I 1 acquired a piece of land that had been tilled so call for twelve years no part of this land was ever plowed five inches deep and I 1 determined to get down into it and I 1 did now I 1 estimate and my men thought by estimate con serva tive that it took a full third more power to break up this hardpan formed by twelve years plow pressure than it would to break the original prairie sod I 1 find that the average farmer and the average farmer ia al ways attempting to do more than his power justifies doing rarely plows more than five inches deep and he will come nearer plowing tour inches turning four or five inches of the top toil over this year and flopping it back next year Is not dry farming it isn t farming at all and the man who fol lows that slipshod slip shod system whether he is handling acres or 1600 acres is going to lose out ow you might properly ask right here how deep do you advocate plowing in beginning this system I 1 answer not lees than eight inches and nine would be better you can always plow deeper in the spring and early summer than you can in the bummer proper or fall and the land should never be plowed when dry I 1 want to say right here it you have a piece of land that is full of weeds and that has been farmed indifferently like the average in the western part of the state just double disk that land the faist thing in the spring this disking will break the crust establish a mulch conserve the moisture in the soil and enable the spring rains to penetrate also it will help to germinate millions of weeds ceede then about june 1 or as soon thereafter as possible plow thit land eight inches deep follow the plow promptly with a harrow and when I 1 cay promptly I 1 mean the day lou plow and tha hour you plow would be better now sweep over that land with a harrow and it should be a fairly heavy harrow for this work after the crust caused by athe sun and rain and prevents evaporation ot moisture but it establishes reestablishes re the mulch drives the moisture down and kills more weeds keep this field good and black all the next summer |