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Show DEEP PLOWING URGED Method Has BbS Practiced From Time ImmaJiorl As Matter of Carrying Ovf Wstev-'ln Soil and to Rtcelvs Fall Rain ana Snow It Is One of Most Dominant Dom-inant Pasters. It Is wonderful how little moisture penetrates our harder soils In summer, sum-mer, no mr.tter how abundant the rainfall may be, and even long experience expe-rience with such soils hardly prepares pre-pares one for their dry condition vast one goats forth to plow. The moisture falling so lata mis season there baa not been s much evaporation, and in some soils I have observed the downward penetration baa been much greater than with a great deal more precipitation In tbe summer months, and it la likely to endure for some time, giving an opportunity op-portunity for deep plowing. It Is not necessary here to urge deep plowing is suitable to all conditions. condi-tions. Tbe point Is. Is It not necessary neces-sary to our bard land, especially those to be dry farmed? Merely as a matter of carrying over water la the soil and for the entrance of later rains and snows, Is It not the one most dominant factor In produo-lag produo-lag crops; Is not the question of making mak-ing use of our denser dry soils on of bringing them more to the porous condition of the sandier soil, which absorb ab-sorb all the rainfall and a great deal of anow before It evaporates In our warm sun and dry atmosphere? If tbe anawer is yes, then the importance im-portance of plowing deeply when conditions con-ditions are favorable as at prent must not be overlooked unless we have command 'of deep Ullage tools and power to operate them, and even with thee a less expensive result will be claimed than In a dry time. 1 have not tbe data and do not know even that It exists to shew at what point gravity overcomes the pumping power of the sun to draw moisture from the soil, but It Is at no great depth. So long as tbe soil Is kept stored and pipes are not formed through which the water can evaporate. evapo-rate. Roughly speaking, I should say that when moisture has descended eight to ten Inches It will be with any reasonable top mulch either from good plowing or cultivation continue In large measure to descend and that short of six inches It will be very apt to ascend In vapor and largely disappear, disap-pear, no matter how carefully we try to retain the dust mulch on large tracts of land. Theoretically, the dust mulch will bold It perhaps also in practice so long as no cropping Interferes with cultivation, but for practical results It Is extremely desirable to get tSH moisture down as far as possible from tbe sun's attraction, which raises It to the winds and evaporation In an atmosphere at-mosphere which with us almost always al-ways absorbs moisture. Tbls same moisture when it has descended de-scended to a depth of eight to twelve Inches, lies as a poultice on tbe sub-soli sub-soli and softens it snd descends yet deeper where In Its original state the subsoil was quite Incapable of absorbing absorb-ing It in the small quantities which lay on It for only a short time and ' thus we get penetration of moisture to five, six or more feet, and have 1 accomplished something permanent 1 quite different from merely wetting 1 live or alx Inches of top soli by light 1 plowing. It Is true that crops will use the moisture, but Its effects on tbe subsoil will remain, for It has become absorb- , ent to future ralna and snowa. |