Show DEEPER PLOWING IS NEEDED great Ad advantage of method over ovar grandfathers Is that farmer gets crop at start by E R PARSONS in dry farming congress Bul bulletin lotin the popular way is to plow sod about three inches deep pack it solid skim over it with a slanted harrow then next season back set it and play shuttlecock with the chunks for several years until they gradually wear out this may be easy work and good luu fun but it is not farming tho the average yield on land prepared in this manner is usually about one third or less of a fair crop the other way is to first disc your sod on a wet day then plow it under at least eight inches and then tear it all to pieces with disc and harrow always first sod can be made into almost as fine a seed bed as old land and should raise more to the acre not less the art in handling sod is to plow it under wet old land can be plowed dry in the fall and allowed to fill up with moisture but not sod for once the chunks become dry they are fit only to build cabins with sod when wet on the surface is full of all the bacteria of trot rot and decay and as soon as it is plowed under commences to ferment and if it is turned under eight inches and properly mulched with disc and harrow no drouth ordinary or extraordinary can stop it but if sod becomes dry the bacteria are dead your yeast is gone and it is 19 very hard to wet it up sufficiently to start the process again this is why a man will say 1 I plowed my sod deep but it stayed with mo me for years he let it dry out if this plan is followed the chunks will be found the next season to be reduced to mere ashes the great advantage of this method over grandfathers way Is that you obtain a good crop at the start perhaps the best that ever comes off the land in question and the difference in cost is hardly more than an acre A man between denver and cheyenne this year put in 50 acres of oats the old way and they grew exactly six inches high this is one example he represents hundreds at cheyenne they moved dr cooko cooke onto the top of the mesa in june last year with nothing to work on but hard dry adobe sod the worst kind of sod to work that exists anywhere from edmonton to Al mexico exico he had that sod plowed eight inches and properly fined down and when lie he went to in spec this lils crops in july they looked as good as any crops about greeley and this without any rain since may alay 1 I deeper plowing is what wo we need on the dry farms many a man who is plowing six and sev seven en inches and just managing to live could coula be putting away 1000 a year by dropping his plow down three or four inches |