OCR Text |
Show . -w SAVING THE SOIL MOISTURE Time to Begin Operations Is as Early In Spring as Land Can Be Worked ; Without Damage. It is always difficult to be saving as' long as there is an ample supply of anything. This characteristic of nu-i man beings results in the loss of; enough moisture every season to pro-j vide for the needs of much greater crops, so far as that essential is con-; cerned. ; The time to begin saving moisture is as early in the spring as the soil can be worked without doing damage' to it. The millions of acres of fall-! plowed land will be found with a crust over the surface as soon as the snow melts. The way to lose moisture is' to permit this crust to remain on the' plowed ground until the oats are sown and spring plowing done. This is the-first the-first of May in most cases, and many: times ten days or two weeks later.; The way to save moisture is to breakj the crust with a disk or harrow and-' thus produce a loose soil mulch. There is scarcely a man who would think ofi permitting his field of corn to remain': crusted over during the four or five: weeks when cultivation ordinarily oc-; curs, yet there are many who permit a crust to remain on their corn ground for almost an equal length of time before be-fore the corn is planted. The cornstalk and stubble lands which are to be plowed in the spring are other places where the disk can be used with great profit as early as the condition of the soil will permit. Not only will the disking of these lands save moisture which would otherwise oth-erwise be lost before plowing, but it will also pulverize the surface so that when turned under it will form a bet-: ter contact with the solid soil below the furrow slice. In order that the moisture in the lower soil may rise into the soil cut off by the plow, it is essential that the furrow slice fit closely upon the solid soil beneath |