| OCR Text |
Show MOISTURE IN SOILS Important Question as to Depth of Cultivation Discussed. Deep Plowing Experiments Have Been Conducted at Many Points in Semi-Arid Country and Find Many Strong Advocates. "The depth to cultivate should be governed by the depth to which the rainfall wets the soil." writes a Nebraska Ne-braska farmer in the Dry Farming Congress Bulletin. "If we cultivate deeper than the falling rain pene trates, we cannot conserve the moisture, mois-ture, because the clods lying below the layer wet by showers will dry out and the grain sprouts and dies for want of moisture before tho next shower comes." The majority of dry farmers operating opera-ting In the semi-arid west will take Issue wltii this statement, writes George Edward Swan, in Gem State Rural and Live Stock Journal. The , experience of many of the o'.dcr dry ! farmers as reported in the official re- j ports of the Dry Farming congress ' and In the agricultural papers, has i been that the depth to which the rainfall wets the ground" depends largely upon the depth to which the ground Is opened by deep plowing. Getting moisture Into the soil Is one of the most Important problems before the dry land farmer. It Is purely a physical problem and Its solution is found In the application of simple physical laws, according to the most successful dry farmers. On the hard-baked, compact soils of the high western plains the moisture does not penetrate beneath the sod except where the ground has been opened by plowing. In order to get moisture into the soil to sustain the growing crops, men are forced to open the ground so that it will absorb the rainfall. It has been the experience on these lands, that the moisture Is held in the soil to a depth proportionate to that to which the ground is opened by plowing. plow-ing. If the sod is not broken, the moisture mois-ture which falls upon It in the form of rain, runs off in tiny rivulets that become be-come creeks In the deep arroyos and swell the volume of distant rivers to flood stage. The falling water will not take the trouble to break open the surface of the ground in order to penetrate the soil; it naturally will take the easiest course toward Its level, which always Is the level of the far-off sea. On the other hand, If the farmer will break open the surface of the ground and shatter the compactness of the soil mass, leaving numberless tiny interstices to the extreme depth of the furrow, the water, naturally will sink into these interstices and, following its tendency to seek its level, will penetrate to the depth to which the ground Is broken. Soil has a remarkable capacity for absorbing moisture. "The -great Thirst country," as applied to a desert, des-ert, is not a meaningless figure of speech and is not confined in its application ap-plication to the human of brute creatures crea-tures who stray upon its desolate wastes. It applies equally to the soil of the desert, which will drink all the water nature sees fit to pour upon it in the form of rain or snow, and if the supply holds out, will not stop short of swampish dissolution. But the soil will not open Us parched lips to receive the invigorating draught. Man must take a hand directing the forces of nature, else the water will fall uselessly and run to waste by the most direct surface route. Deep plowing experiments have been conducted at many points In the semi-arid west during a number of years. Deep plowing has found a place in the established farm opera- tions of hundreds of successful farmers. farm-ers. George L. Farrell of Utah. Dr. V. T. Cooke, state director of dry farming experiments of Wyoming; E. R. Parsons of Colorado; A. M. Axel- r 3 son of Colorado; Prof. B. C. Buffin of Wyoming, and a score of others might be mentioned among the more eminent advocates of deep plowinr Deep plowing has been so commonly accepted as essential to the highest success In agriculture that farm ma chinery manufacturers are making plows and traction outfits suitable for breaking the ground to the greatest great-est possible depth. Specially constructed con-structed deep tilling machines were exhibited at the Fourth Dry Farming Farm-ing Congress and are utilized on the dry land farms In this and other countries. coun-tries. Deep plowing doe3 accomplish what the farmer wants done: It enables en-ables him to get moisture Into his depth. As a result of 10 and 12 inch plowing through a series of years, soil reservoirs have been created In the midst of the desert. In the deep plowed, properly cultivated tracts, monsture is perceptible to almost unbelievable depths, whereas, on the sod adjacent, where the ground has never been broken by plowing, moisture mois-ture is not perceptible to any appreciable appreci-able depth. The records of the experimental ex-perimental dry farm at Cheyenne. Wyoming, of Mr. Parsons' farm on the high, dry plains of Colorado, and of farms in many other parts of the west, are proof of this. The Nebraska farmer quoted abjjve appears to have gotten his premise reversed. Instead of plowing to the depth to which rainfall penetrates, the successful dry farmer makes the rain penetrate the ground to greater depth by plowing as deeply as possible. |
