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Show DISK HAS IMPORTANT PLACE When Land Is Broken in Spring Implement Im-plement Should Be Used Rather Than Plowed for Crop. (By PROF. THOMAS SHAW.) The disk has a more important place in dry than in other areas. It may be used betimes In preparing land for sowing in the absence of the plow. It has a place on the summer fallow. It also has a place on stubble land, sometimes in the autumn and sometimes in the spring. When land is broken in the spring In growing areas, the land Bhould be disked rather than plowed for the next crop. The reasons for this are first, that the sod buried by the first plowing will more .effectually decay when it is allowed to He two years burled than when allowed to lie but one. Second, that the sods are thus kept out of the way of the cultivable processess that follow, particularly of the harrows until they have reasonably reason-ably well decayed. Third, on blow-land blow-land disking does not completely bury the stubbles, and this is a decided advantage ad-vantage in holding soils that might otherwise blow through the action of the wind. The stubbles thus left incorporated in-corporated with the surface soil tend so far to prevent blowiDg. The seed bed is left firm below and in a very dry year such a condition 1b favorable to the retention of plant growth, and, therefore, Is so far favorable to the retention of moisture. It would probably prob-ably be more accurate to say that because be-cause the process is more favorable to the retention of moisture, it is also more favorable to successful plant growth. On the summer fallow the disk may have a place betimes as well as the harrow. First, it may have a place when weeds become so rooted that the harrow cannot dislodge them, and, second, sec-ond, in areas where the rains are torrential tor-rential In the manner In which they fall In the Bummer season. Weeds frequently fre-quently become so deeply rooted that the harrow will not dislodge them on summer fallowed land. This Is especially es-pecially true of wild oats, and of nearly near-ly all perennials. It is also true of certain cer-tain of the volunteer grains in western areas. To dislodge these, It is necessary neces-sary to use the disk, and in many instances in-stances the disk will not prove sufficiently suffi-ciently effective. It is necessary to use some kind of an Instrument that will cut off the weeds below the surface of the ground. The best implement for this purpose has yet to be invented, notwithstanding the disk on summer fallow land will destroy many weeds that cannot be destroyed with the harrow. The place for the disking of stubbles stub-bles in dry areas is an important one. As soon as the crop has been removed much good may result from the disking disk-ing of the land under many conditions. In the first place It opens up the compacted com-pacted surface soil, so that the rains may enter It when they fall later. In the second place It destroys weed growth that would otherwise produce seeds, and In the third place it makes the plowing of the land subsequently much easier than it would otherwise be. It would not be correct to say that in all Instances the disking of the land after harvest 1b helpful, but It Is helpful in many instances. It is not greatly helpful when there Is virtually vir-tually no moisture in the soil after harvest, and when none fall later, which sometimes happens. But it is greatly helpful in destroying weeds when these axe growing numerously In the soli. It prevents many of them from seeding and It destroys many of-them of-them outright. The effect which it has upon the easy plowing of the land subsequently sub-sequently is very marked. When soils blow, it is usually better bet-ter neither to plow or to disk the land in the autumn. In the spring it may be disked. The stubbles that are mixed with the surface soil will so far prevent the land from blowing. The use of the disk, however, has oftentimes often-times been abused by using it when preparing the land for sowing, when the plow should be used Instead. |