Show HOLDING MOISTURE RE IN SOIL rainfall should be coaxed down into subsoil where roots boota will 1 4 go after it J n j of late years much has been writ ten about the conservation of moist we ure which is a very old story with a new name for thousands of years crops have been raised by hand hoeing arid and cul ti with very little precipitation y but in a country like ours where we have considerable rainfall and it often comes in chunks when it does come a farmer must catch it first and con serve it afterwards some of our agricultural writers have curious ideas on this point poin which t it Js is well to explode at the start 1 I writes prof F knorr in ranch and F farm arm one for instance states that it is a good idea to pack your ground so as to hold the water near the s surface ur mee this is very bad advice for if it stays near the surface it dries out quickly but if we can coax it down into the subsoil the roots robts of almost any crop will go down three feet or ora i 1 more after it and then we get a har bar vest worth talking about i A man may plow six or seven kevch inches and if tiie the subsoil is dry the roots will J go down only that six or seven baches P and no more but after a very wat year when the subsoil 11 ll Is IB wet anatha and tha roots riots go into it a shallow mai may raise almost as fine a crop agthe man s that plows ten or twelve inches an and this often leads to the belief that low plo plowing wing is the thing but where aher he ha gets only one good crop once in awhile the man who plows deep makes his crops every year wet 0 01 r I 1 dry packed packed land Is very much like r a haystack that is well settled the f rain does not gp go into it much but ahen the hay is loose the rain may go almost through it the same with the land |