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Show PLOWING FOR WATER Must Be Done Deeply and at the Right Time. Experiment Stations Find That When Work Is Done in Fall it Proves Water Conserving and Has Many Other Advantages. It is not alone sufficient to plow and to plow deeply; It is also necessary neces-sary that the plowing be done at the right time In the very great majority ma-jority of cases over the whole dry-farm dry-farm territory, plowing should be done in the fall. There are three reasons rea-sons for this; first, after the crop is harvested, the soil should be disturbed dis-turbed immediately, so that it can be exposed to the full action of the weathering agencies, whether the winter win-ter be open or closed. If for any reason rea-son plowing cannot be done early, It is often advantageous to follow the harvester with a disk, and to plow later when convenient The chemical effect on the soil resulting from the weathering made possible by fall plowing, as will be shown in chapter IX., is of itself so great as to warrant the teaching of the general practice of fall plowing. Secondly, the early stirring of the soil prevents evaporation evapora-tion of the moisture in the soil during dur-ing late summer and the fall. Thirdly, in the parts of the dry-farm territory where such precipitation occurs in the fall, winter or early spring, fall plowing permits much of this precipitation precipi-tation to enter the soil and be stored there until needed by plants. A number o f experimental stations have compared plowing done In the early fall with plowing done late in the fall or in the spring, and with almost no exception it has been found that early fall plowing Is water-conserving and in other ways advantageous. advantage-ous. It was observed on a Utah dry-farm that the fall-plowed land contained con-tained to a depth of 10 feet 7.47 acre-Inches acre-Inches more water than the adjoining spring-plowed land a saving of nearly one-half of a year's precipitation. The ground should be plowed in the early fall as soon as possible after the crop Is harvested. It should then be left in the rough throughout the winter, so that it may be mellowed and broken down by the elements. The rough land further has a tendency to catch and hold the snow that may be blown by the wind, thus insuring a more even distribution of the water from the melting snow. A common objection to fall plowing is that the ground Is so dry in the fall that It does not plow up well, and that the great dry clods of earth do much to Injured the physical condition of the soil. It Is very doubtful if such an objection is generally valid, especially if the soil is so cropped as to leave a fair margin of moisture in the soil at harvest tvune. The atmospheric agencies agen-cies will usually break down the clodj, and the physical resuii of the treatment will be beneficial. Undoubtedly, Un-doubtedly, the fall plowing of dry land is somewhat difficult, but the good results re-sults more than pay the farmer for his trouble. Late fall plowing, after the fall rains have softened the land, is preferable to spring plowing. If for any reason the farmer feels that he must practice spring plowing, he should do it as early as possible in the spring. Of course, it is inadvisable inadvis-able to plow the soil when It is so wet as to injure its tilth seriously, but as soon as that danger period is passed, the plow should be placed in the ground. The moisture in the soil will thereby be conserved, and whatever what-ever water may fall during the 6pring months will be conserved also. This Is of especial importance in the Great Plains region, and in any district where the precipitation comes In the print and winter month. |